Project opponents handing over land; Odisha offers to withdraw cases against activists

The Supreme Court’s decision to let gram sabhas decide the fate of Vedanta’s Niyamgiri mining project will make it difficult for the government to divert forestland for industry without the con

After remaining suspended for about two-and-a-half months, land acquisition today resumed for Posco Steel’s Rs 52,000-crore mega project in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.

TURA: The Garo Students Union and several organizations have formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to halt the government from going ahead with its water supply project at Daribokgre village after a spot visit to the dam site on Saturday where they met the parliamentary secretary for PHE and department officials.

The North Tura MLA and parliamentary secretary Noverfield R Marak along with other NGOs and officers had on Saturday carried out an inspection of the dam site which will tap the water from the Daribokgre stream for Tura.

Ray of hope for farmers as CM does a rethink

MARGAO: There’s finally a ray of hope that farmers cultivating the fields in and around the once picturesque Salpem lake on the Margao-Navelim border will get their land back – more than three years after former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao proposed acquisition of the fields for expansion of the Margao sewerage project.

510 Hectare Acquired By State Govt For Township

Lucknow: Just when the Centre gears up to clear the way for the long-pending land acquisition bill, a group of farmers from five villages near Agra havestarted a protest march to Lucknow seeking return of their land acquired by the state government for a township tobedevelopedby theJaypee Group. The agitation comes close on the heels of resentment brewing amongst farmers in Bhatta Parsaul which saw a raging protest by farmers who have not only been demanding return of their land but also release of their leaders who were put behind the bars by the then BSP government.

New Delhi: Rejection of big-ticket mining proposals such as Vedanta has been a rare exception in the UPA’s nine-year reign. The UPA has given clearance to cut a whopping six lakh hectares of forests — of these more than 2.5 lakh hectares were for mining — since it came to power in mid-2004.

The data, accessed by TOI from the environment ministry, shows that the inprinciple and final clearances add up to the combined area of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, or roughly the equivalent of three large tiger reserves.

The Supreme Court’s decision to let gram sabhas decide the fate of Vedanta’s Niyamgiri mining project will make it difficult for the government to divert forestland for industry without the consent of tribals and local population.

The apex court’s ruling on Thursday puts gram sabhas or village assemblies virtually at par with statutory and regulatory bodies, and gives a broader prism of rights to indigenous communities by defining the Forest Rights Act as more than just heritable property rights.

2,100 acres already acquired, project needs 2,700 acres in Phase-I

The Odisha government said it has already acquired 2,100 acres of land for the Posco steel project. The government, through its nodal land acquisition agency - Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), is hopeful of acquiring additional 600 acres for the project in the next four months.

The government on Thursday claimed it had reached a broad consensus over the Land Acquisition Bill after it agreed to two major demands of the opposition parties, clearing the way for its passage i