-DNA   The Pune district administration will issue notices to lavasa Corporation Limited and others after 10 adivasi farmers on Tuesday staked their claim to get back their land which had been transferred to the lavasa hill city project. The Maval sub divisional officer (SDO), Sanjay Patil, held a hearing attended by the 10 farmers. Spread over 100 sq km, the lavasa project is 65km from Pune in the seven hills in...

The environment ministry’s decision to give priority to construction projects with green building ratings may help lavasa, among others. lavasa, the ambitious hill city project of HCC Chairman and Managing Director Ajit Gulabchand, has been stuck for long over green hurdles. Though the ministry’s initiative is meant to incentivise companies for integrating green norms into their building plans, experts said the move may give some advantage to projects like lavasa. According to...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...

Pune district administration inspects hill city site Report to be submitted to Environment Ministry We have the required permissions: lavasa A site inspection of the lavasa hill city conducted by the Pune district administration has revealed that 7,78,86, 600 cubic feet of mining has been conducted in two villages by lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL). The comprehensive data regarding the remaining 17 villages is still being consolidated by the authorities, according to Pune Additional...

Activist Simpreet Singh received the national RTI council award instituted by Arvind Kejriwal's Public Cause Research Foundation on behalf of the National Alliance for Peoples Movement (NAPM) which uses the RTI Act to expose fraud and misappropriation of public assets. NAPM used the RTI Act to investigate Adarsh, the tower meant for Kargil war widows, but usurped by state bureaucrats, politicians and defence personnel who had no role to play...