-The Indian Express Tribal affairs minister’s letter to states on the Forest Rights Act highlights the problems of implementation For most observers, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is just another “welfare” law. It is often trotted out as one of those “development measures” that ought to be implemented, but isn’t. Recently, Minister for Tribal Affairs V. Kishore Chandra Deo wrote to state governments, taking them to task for tardy implementation of the...
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India's first river-lake link project launched in Bundelkhand-Mahim Pratap Singh
Perennial Jamni river will be linked to nearby lakes to assist in irrigation The Madhya Pradesh government claims to have launched the country's first ever river-lake linking project in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region. The Harpura irrigation and river-lake link project, launched in the Tikamgarh district, will be implemented under the Centre's Rs.7266 crore Bundelkhand package. It will link the perennial Jamni river to the nearby lakes and water bodies built during the...
More »To know, is to protect-Madhav Gadgil and Ligia Noronha
A scientific and public scrutiny of the methodology used by the expert panel will only add to the efforts to save the Western Ghats. On May 23, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) posted the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) on its website honouring a landmark judgment of the Central Information Commission triggered by an activist seeking access to the material. In this judgment, the CIC...
More »Rural job scheme gets hi-tech makeover in Tamil Nadu-R Vasundara
CHENNAI: Government officials in Tamil Nadu can now sit in their air-conditioned offices and keep tabs on clogged up water bodies and channels in remote villages using satellite technology. Criticized by many for corruption and inefficiency, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been given a scientific make-over in the state with GIS (geographic information system) mapping being used to organize the works as well as to...
More »Many treaties to save the earth, but where's the will to implement them?-John Vidal
-The Guardian Governments spend years negotiating environmental agreements, but then willfully ignore them – it's a dismal record It's global agreement time again. In two weeks, 120 world leaders and 190-odd countries will go to the Rio+20 Earth summit and – unless the talks collapse – sign up to new international goals, pledges, targets, protocols and treaties, and promise to commit to sustainable development, protect the earth and use resources more wisely....
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