Samiti has written to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh POSCO protesters say the area was a forest from 1930 and not from 1961 They refute Orissa government's stand of “other traditional forest dwellers' South Korean giant POSCO's integrated steel plant in Orissa could face another hurdle as the palli sabhas (local bodies set up to determine forest rights under the Forest Rights Act) of Dhinkia, Gobindpur and nearby villages plan to approve several hundred...

Despite poor participation of local villagers in the anti-POSCO rally organized by POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) at Balitutha, the entry point to the POSCO project site near Paradip, the PPSS leaders today reiterated their resolve not to hand over 2900 acres forest land to the South Korean company for its steel project. The PPSS rally particularly turned into a damp squib as four MPs of West Bengal, who had earlier...

Tension prevailed in the area selected for the proposed mega steel plant of POSCO in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday as villagers opposing the project came out to vent their anger against the State government for trying to mislead the Union Ministry of Environment Forests about the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in their locality. Participating in a public rally at Balitutha, the entry point to the Site, demarcated for...

The government is looking at allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retailing as part of a slew of measures to make India more attractive to overseas investors. Senior government officials told TOI that the thinking was that a gradual opening up would be a better strategy with global chains first allowed to open stores in metros, while wholesale cash-and-carry being limited to smaller towns and cities, at least for the...

The Orissa government seems to have landed in an embarrassing spot in connection with the submission of report to the Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) on the issue of compliance with Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the POSCO site. Though the state government had exuded confidence to send the report to the ministry before the end of February, claimants of FRA at the project site appeared to have played...