Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s “go, no-go” policy to keep some areas out of bounds for mining is back — with a different name. The environment ministry under Jayanthi Natarajan plans to demarcate some “inviolate areas” which will not be considered for green clearances. The ministry had agreed to the recommendations of the B K Chaturvedi committee that all mining projects should be considered on merit. However, it has told a...

-PTI The Government today said it is likely to table a White Paper on black money during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, but maintained that there is no authentic estimate of the quantum of illicit wealth. "The white paper is likely to be brought during the Budget Session," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. The White Paper is expected to contain information...

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday announced to hand over the probe into the killing of IPS officer Narendra Singh to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Narendra Kumar was brutally crushed to death by a tractor allegedly by the 'mining mafia' in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on March 8. The opposition Congress had stalled the proceedings of the House and forced an adjournment demanding a CBI probe into...

-The Hindu Union Minister for Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh announced a national award for sanitation and water in the name of Maharashtrian saint Sant Gadge Baba. The Minister toured several villages in Satara district in Maharashtra to inspect the work of the Nirmal Gram Yojana for sanitation on Sunday. The award, constituted in the name of the Saint who strove towards service to society through cleanliness, will be for...

Closed mines and resultant unemployment are still stoking Naxalism in Saranda, a maiden jan adalat (public hearing) held 160km from the steel city insisted today, indicating that more needed to be done to make the much-touted central action plan for the red turf a long-lasting success. More than 1,000 villagers from the Maoist dens of Noamundi, Gua, Kiriburu and Barajamda among others, which fall in the mining belt of Saranda command...