Right to Information (RTI) activist, Santosh Daundkar, has filed a police complaint saying he was assaulted, allegedly by a builder’s men, at Mumbai Central on Saturday. Daundkar, 38, filed a first information report (FIR) with the Nagpada police on Saturday night claiming that he had been assaulted for trying to expose the builder’s illegal activities. The police have arrested 51-year-old Daniel Abraham in the case and are investigating Daundkar’s allegations. “At around 10.30pm,...

Right to Information (RTI) activist, Santosh Daundkar, has filed a police complaint saying he was assaulted, allegedly by a builder’s men, at Mumbai Central on Saturday. Daundkar, 38, filed a first information report (FIR) with the Nagpada police on Saturday night claiming that he had been assaulted for trying to expose the builder’s illegal activities. The police have arrested 51-year-old Daniel Abraham in the case and are investigating Daundkar’s allegations. “At around 10.30pm,...

India’s rulers have found a new vocation – maligning environmentalists and questioning the very idea of regulating industry for pollution. Thus, faced with criticism of Lavasa, an artificial gated city of the super-rich near Pune, in which his family has invested crores, Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, lashed out at well-known activist Medha Patkar and other “vested interests” for obstructing this “pioneering” project. Lavasa’s promoters built the project without seeking environmental clearance...

The Environment Ministry's clearance of projects such as Posco, Jaitapur and Lavasa will cause havoc in our gravely endangered environment. EVEN the worst pessimist could not have imagined that the January 31 order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) approving the South Korean-origin company Posco's steel project in Orissa would be as bad as it actually is. Construction of the Rs.54,000-crore steel plant, its captive power unit and private...

A recent newspaper report noted that the Union Government had gazetted the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011 and received strong criticism from organisations that work for protecting coastal ecosystems and fight for the rights and welfare of fisherfolk. About 20 organisations working in the field of protecting fishermen's rights and lawyers backing them have taken strong exception to the notification. This is on the ground that the new notification,...