In letters to Prime Minister, he pitches for the project to continue and vouches for rehabilitation Digvijay urged Manmohan to get Environment Ministry to withdraw order suspending work He also said the State had made substantial progress in rehabilitation While he seldom misses an opportunity to attack the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh, documents recently accessed through the Right to Information Act show that the former Chief Minister and AICC...

On a day the Bokaro district administration went on an overdrive to tighten the noose around unscrupulous MGNREGS contractors, the state government claimed in the Assembly that the death of worker Subal Mahto wasn’t remotely connected to rampant corruption in the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme. Reprimanded by Union rural development secretary B.K. Sinha over the recent killings of the Bokaro labourer and MGNREGS crusader Niyamat Ansari, the government today made...

India’s Supreme Court has questioned clearances to industries on the basis of environment impact assessments (EIAs) carried out by private consultants in the pay of project proponents. A special bench of the court led by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, that is hearing a petition challenging approvals granted to the French company Lafarge to mine limestone, likened the practice to "paying the piper to call the tune." Kapadia’s bench noted that every report...

The ITO crossing was full of protest chants against the government’s move to provide cash instead of subsidised food and fuel through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Women from slums and Resettlement colonies across Delhi-NCR and representatives of 30-odd organisations that participated in the protest — organised by ‘Rozi-Roti Aadhikar Abhiyan’ — expressed discontentment over the decision. The government should strengthen the PDS system instead of replacing it with a new system,...

Recommends guidelines to be issued by Tribal Affairs Ministry The National Advisory Council (NAC) has drawn up detailed operational guidelines, which it has recommended that the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry issue to the States for strengthening the Forest Rights Act (FRA). These guidelines can be issued under Section 12 of the FRA. One, the gram sabhas that are called for enquiry and verification of claims should be convened at the level of...