-The Telegraph Ranchi: The state will slash the proposed number of security camps at Saranda, indicating a welcome wane in Maoist presence and influence in Asia's largest sal reserve, but the health of the showpiece action plan for 55 forest villages is open to question two years after its launch. Around the start of the Rs 249-crore Saranda Action Plan in December 2011, soon renamed to Saranda Development Plan, 24 security camps...

-Outlook The real story of a ‘decisive' UPA blowing away the eight-year cloud around Posco's project Bend It Like Moily Seven reasons why UPA's pre-poll green clearance for Posco is more about spiel than steel Posco got green clearance after the sudden removal of MoEF Jayanthi Natarajan, who was reluctant to sign on the file. The nod came days before South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit;...

-The Times of India GREATER NOIDA: Projects will not be given green clearance if these are opposed by local panchayats (village councils), petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily, who holds additional charge of the environment and forests ministry, said on Tuesday. "I have rejected Niyamgiri (project of Vedanta group) because all the panchayats have rejected the proposal... When the panchayats reject, we cannot go ahead with it. We have made a rule that...

-The Financial Express Veerappa Moily says environment will be protected but won't be biased against industry. After Posco and Tawang, environment minister M Veerappa Moily has cleared the state-owned NHPC's 520 MW Teesta-IV hydro-electric project in Sikkim, thus having approved three big projects in three days, which were stuck despite having clearances from all other statutory and related bodies. Veerappa Moily, who approved the Teesta project on January 9, said at the Express...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The state government today reacted sharply to the Centre's decision to reject Vedanta's plan to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district. Mining of bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills was to be carried out by the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Sterlite Industries Limited, a Vedanta group subsidiary. Steel and mines minister Rajanikant Singh said: "It is really unfortunate. The UPA government is not serious about the...