Forest Bench issues guidelines for future clearances The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the French cement company Lafarge to mine limestone in the forests of the East Khasi hills in Meghalaya. The Forest Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan, accepted the contentions of the Lafarge to mine in the forests of Meghalaya and that it had obtained necessary clearances. Writing the judgment, the CJI said: “In...
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Where no sunlight goes by Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy
If actions speak louder than words, then the government has just spoken loud and clear. There could be no stronger indication of the government’s lack of serious intent in building an effective anti-corruption regime than the decision to remove the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) law. Without any discussion in the public domain, the government has decided to use Section 24 of...
More »Digivijaya seeks Central action into NREGA ‘scam’ in Sonbhadra
-Express News Service On the eve of the meeting of a high-level Congress panel on UPA flagship monitoring, party general secretary Digivijaya Singh has written a letter to Union Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh seeking action into the alleged NREGA scam in Sonbhadra district. In his letter, a copy of which has been marked to Chief Minister Mayawati, Singh has asked for strict actions against officials involved in the “NREGA scam...
More »Nexus ails Assam healthcare by Daulat Rahman
An unholy nexus between various healthcare providers, including doctors and private hospitals, has become a stumbling block in delivering benefits to the people at a time when Dispur is pumping in huge funds to bring improvement in the health sector. This was revealed in a multiple-stage survey conducted by Consumer Unity & Trust Society International, a reputed NGO. The survey has found that the government’s various welfare schemes like providing free medicines...
More »India's Rural Poor Give up on Power Grid, Go Solar by Katy Daigle
Boommi Gowda used to fear the night. Her vision fogged by glaucoma, she could not see by just the dim glow of a kerosene lamp, so she avoided going outside where king cobras slithered freely and tigers carried off neighborhood dogs. But things have changed at Gowda's home in the remote southern village of Nada. A solar-powered lamp pours white light across the front of the mud-walled hut she shares with...
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