There is more trouble in store for South Korean steel maker Posco’s Orissa project. Shoreline surveys have found the state’s coastline to be highly erosive. Worse still, 50%, that is 4.8 km of the 9.3 km coastline along the proposed captive port site at Jatadhari is eroding. This is likely to put a spanner in the works for the South Korean company, which has been insistent on a separate captive...

It also wants exemplary cost recovered from them AMC's licence should also be cancelled Reddy brothers, others get two weeks to file response The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee has declared “illegal” the mining done by the Reddy brothers through three leases in Obulapuram mines in the Bellary reserved forest area, and recommended that the licences be cancelled and exemplary cost recovered from them. In November last, the Forest Bench asked the Committee to...

Hidden behind all the administrative scandals that rocked India in 2010, illegal mining is an unnoticed beast that has been eating into the country's soul.   While corruption in spectrum allocation and the conduct of the Commonwealth Games are primarily about monetary loot, illegal mining is about invaluable non-renewable natural resources.   In at least five major states, there were more than 20,000 complaints of illegal mining filed, but the perpetrators carried on with...

The case of Pushp Steel and Mines reverberated in Chhattisgarh assembly, as the congress party attacked Chief Minister Raman Singh, asking him to divulge the name of the owner of the dubious firm that had been granted coveted mining rights in the state in violation of rules. The congress alleged the firm is covertly owned by a senior BJP leader. The persistent uproar finally led the speaker to adjourn the...

The Supreme Court has refused to stay for now an Orissa High Court judgment cancelling the state government’s clearance to Posco for a licence to scout for and mine Iron Ore. The high court order had come on a petition by a Bhubaneswar firm that claimed the state’s decision was “illegal” and “irrational” as the South Korean giant had been cleared out of turn. The licence would have allowed Posco to explore...