-The Hindustan Times If there is one defining collage of the ongoing monsoon mayhem in Uttarakhand, it's this: multi-storied concrete houses collapsing like a pack of cards into an angry, wild river and cars and lorries being tossed around in the swirling muddy waters, as if they were plastic toys. As I watched the unfolding drama on TV, I remembered what a green campaigner told me some years ago in Uttarkashi:...

-Outlook As part of the ongoing probe into the multi-crore illegal granite quarrying scam in Madurai, police today raided the film production company of Union Minister M K Alagiri's son, Durai Dayanidhi, an accused in the case. The police team from Madurai searched the premises of Dayanidhi's cinema company here for nearly an hour, sources said without elaborating. Dayanidhi, for whom a special police team was on the lookout, and nine others are...

-PTI The CBI has registered five cases in connection with illegal iron ore export scam worth Rs. 2500 crore and carried out searches at 17 locations, including in the premises of associates of jailed mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, on Saturday. Acting on the orders of Supreme Court which asked the agency to probe the scam, the agency registered five cases and a preliminary enquiry against firms and exporters allegedly related...

The proposed liberalisation of the mining and minerals sector is an assault on the rightful owners of the land and its resources. Tribal and indigenous communities across the world have been asserting their rights to the mineral wealth often found under the land they own or possess or have traditional rights to. They have been historically denied even a share of that huge wealth, leave alone legal rights of ownership. Under...

-PTI In an incident reminiscent of the murder of IPS officer Narendra Kumar, two members of a mining mafia on Wednesday allegedly tried to kill a police officer who tried to stop tractor-trolley carrying illegally mined sand. The incident occurred about 40 km from here under the jurisdiction of Chinnoni police station, the police said. Station in-charge Hitendra Rathore found during the checking of vehicles that a tractor-trolley was carrying illegally mined...