Eco-activism has Punjab’s polluters in a tizzy Operation Clean-Up     * Industrial and organic pollution from the Sutlej and the Beas is affecting southern districts of Punjab and parts of Rajasthan     * A popular movement straddling both states and helmed by eco-activist Baba Balbir Singh     * Seechewal has the election-bound state government worried     * Seechewal organised a massive exercise to prevent the Kala Sanghian, a highly polluted Sutlej tributary, from draining...

The Orissa government on Saturday deferred land acquisition for the proposed mega steel project of Posco till Monday, as pressure mounted on it for withdrawal of armed policemen from three gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur district. The authorities announced the postponement owing to bad weather, hours before social activist Swami Agnivesh visited Govindpur to express solidarity with the agitating villagers who have formed a human barricade at the entry point to their village, with...

-PTI   It is force versus children in the battle for land to set up South Korean giant POSCO's proposed mega steel project in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district where the anti-displacement stir has entered the decisive phase. While a determined state government has accused the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), a body spearheading agitation, of using the children as a "shield", the villagers sought to differ. "We involve children in the agitation to counter...

The state of Environment report released by UP Environment directorate says more and more of prime agricultural land is getting diverted to non-agricultural uses in the state. "Land is under severe pressure and has been subjected to many kinds of degradation", says the report Strangely, the number of very small land holdings has gone up considerably. The report highlights need for integrated land and water management including drainage for preventing further...

Putting water on the Concurrent List is not necessarily an act of centralisation, though it could lead to such a development. That danger is real and needs to be avoided. The Union Ministry of Water Resources has for long been arguing for a shift of water to the Concurrent List without any serious expectation of its happening, but has now begun to pursue the idea more actively. The Ashok Chawla committee,...