-The Hindu   Orissa High Court today issued notices to the State and Central governments and Posco India on a PIL alleging illegal forest clearance granted in favour of the company for a steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district. A division bench of Chief Justice V Gopal Gowda and Justice B N Mohapatra of the HC issued the notices after preliminary hearing on a PIL and adjourned the matter to be heard again...

-The Business Standard   HC issues notices to Centre, state govt and Posco India on PILs filed by affected villagers Land acquisition work for the Posco project suffered a setback on the third day today due to non-cooperation of the villagers who backed out of the process as a mark of protest over the arrest of 32 activists of United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit on Thursday. Faced with the resistance of...

-The Business Standard   After a smooth beginning to the Posco land acquisition work on Wednesday, the Jagatsinghpur district administration today faced a roadblock in the process as many villagers did not turn up for identification of betel vines following the arrest of 32 activists of United Action Committee, a pro-Posco outfit. UAC had boycotted the land acquisition work as it was aggrieved over the non-fulfillment of its demands. On the wee hours...

Environmentalist Ashish Kothari was a member of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (constituted by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs) to review the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The committee, headed by Dr N C Saxena submitted its report recently to the Central government. During the course of its work the committee visited Odisha to assess the performance of the FRA there, particularly in the...

-PTI   In her first major policy decision, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that her government would return 400 acres from the abandoned Tata Motors plant at Singur to farmers who unwillingly parted with their land. "The first decision taken in the cabinet is return of 400 acres from the abandoned Tata Motors plant in Singur. If the Tatas are willing, they can set up the factory on...