Tihar jail today has the largest collection of charged or convicted top officials, a powerful ex-minister, sundry politicians and officials. Maharashtra had a teflon-coated chief minister who was ‘sacked’ to a cabinet post in Delhi after being long untouched by many scandals. Another just exited. A former Jharkhand chief minister is in jail on charges of looting his state treasury and accumulating funds abroad. The powerful founder of the Nationalist...

A Supreme Court-appointed committee finds large-scale illegal mining in Karnataka with the connivance of officials. THE issue of illegal mining in Karnataka and the large-scale corruption in political and public life resulting from it refuses to stay away from the headlines. The sordid tale of mining-linked corruption (Cover Story; Frontline, July 16, 2010) has had a few recurring characters – a beleaguered but defiant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister B.S....

The Orissa government today decided to resume land acquisition for Posco’s 12-million-tonne steel plant project from May 18, having got the final nod from the environment ministry. “The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and Jagatsinghpur district administration will jointly take up land acquisition work from May 18,” Priyabrata Patnaik, the nodal officer for the Posco project, said today. The Union environment ministry on May 2 granted final approval for the diversion of 1,253...

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday defended his decision to intervene in the issue of the Maheshwar dam project in Madhya Pradesh, on whose work the Environment Ministry, headed by Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, revoked the ban on Friday. The ban on work at the site was ordered by the Ministry in April 2010, with the resettlement and rehabilitation of affected villages largely pending. “Yes. I...

The state government has started deploying security personnel in the Posco project area, anticipating a showdown with activists against land acquisition for the South Korean steel company. The state government would restart land acquisition for the proposed project in Jagatsinghpur district from May 18, chairman and managing director of Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, Priyabrata Patnaik, said on Saturday. The Centre has already given its approval for the diversion of Forest land...