Bhubaneswar: Orissa’s steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty is faced with the most difficult task of his tenure—orchestrating smooth land acquisition for South Korean steel maker Posco, maintaining peace in the villages affected by it and responding to pressure from the Central government that wants to showcase the 12-million-tonne (mt) project as one of the successes of its foreign investment policy. With the environment ministry giving its final clearance for the...

NEW DELHI: The environment ministry made a specious argument before the Cuttack bench of Orissa High Court, defending its decision to clearPosco without verifying if the Forest Rights Act had been violated or not in diverting forest land to the Rs 54,000 crore integrated steel plant. It said that the law – also UPA's flagship pro-tribal scheme -- did not provide any mechanism to verify its implementation in a case,...

While insisting that the environment must be protected at all costs, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan Sunday said "the past is over" and she will ensure speedy decisions on major projects like Posco and Vedanta. In an interview to news channel CNN-IBN, Natarajan, who last week succeeded Jairam Ramesh as the environment minister, said there should be clarity on decisions taken on environmental projects and that once a clearance is given, it...

Paradip, July 16: Things were back on the boil today in Posco project area. Tension mounted in the zone as at least eight protesters, mostly women, were injured following an alleged use of force by police at Polang village. Officials engaged in land acquisition process for the steel plant project were forced to retreat with project-related work left grounded today amidst stiff resistance from landlosers. The land acquisition process and ancillary...

There will soon be a new set of glass doors at Krishi Bhavan. The newly elevated Cabinet Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh plans to bring the doors — a signature element of his interior décor right from his early days at the Commerce Ministry — to his new office. Over the last two tumultuous years at the Environment Ministry, those doors have symbolised the transparency and accessibility he claims...