Korean Steelmaker Posco’s bid to build a 12 million tone integrated Steel complex in Jagatsinghpur, Orissa received a major jolt today after a two-judge bench of the National Green Tribunal suspended the environment clearance granted to the project in January 2011.   "The environment clearance granted on January 31, 2011 to the project shall remain suspended till such review and appraisal is done by the ministry," a bench of tribunal comprising Justice...

-The Economic Times With its draft report alleging a coal scam, duly leaked to the media, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is making a habit of choosing sensation over sense. Its allegation of loss to the exchequer in allocation of 2G spectrum colours the public discourse on the subject, but was discarded by the CBI court in the telecom case as the basis for a formal charge.  Its assumption that the...

-The Times of India   KENDRAPADA: An England-based NRI will make a documentary on the protests by seaside villagers of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang against the proposed Posco Steel plant. The film-maker, Prafulla Mohanty (74), is from Nanpur village, 20 km from here. Mohanty, also a writer and painter, visited several villages in the area to make the film recently. "I will also write a book on the anti-land acquisition movement," Mohanty said. "Through...

The Chhattisgarh government has filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court against the Central government over Jayaswal Neco Ltd’s applications for mining leases in a case that throws light on the murky world of mining in India. The state alleges that the mid-sized Steel-maker forged documents in its application to get iron ore mining leases in Rowghat in Bastar district and that the Union government directed it to consider...

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...