Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
McDonald saheb, Qureshi saheb, Jivan Singh, Aadal Singh, Udham Singh …. Eighty-yearold Lakshmi Nishad rattles off all the names she remembers of the forest officers who have served in the Gorakhpur range. The display of memory is a desperate attempt to prove that she has lived all her life in …
THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, or MoEF, has given final clearance to the POSCO steel project in Odisha. While doing so, it ignored the forest rights claims of people living in the project site in Jagatsinghpur district. The gram sabhas of two of the seven affected villages—Dhinkia and …
This paper addresses the question of how farmers displaced by acquisition of agricultural land for the purpose of industrialization ought to be compensated. This paper addresses the question of how farmers displaced by acquisition of agricultural land for the purpose of industrialization ought to be compensated. Prior to acquisition, the …
With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee resigning from the Union Cabinet to take over as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) today completely sidelined her objections against government role in land acquisition
Two important and related Bills are under consideration of the Government of India. These are the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2009 & Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009. The first proposes amendments to the Land Acquisition Act 1894, and the latter a statutory framework for Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) of persons …
Down To Earth senior editor Richard Mahapatra reports >> Government officials have started acquiring land in two villages in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district. The work started in villages Nugaon and Polang around 7:30 a.m. Situation is very tense as, 2,000 people from five other villages are marching towards Nugaon and Polang. …
The Andhra Pradesh government lied to obtain forest clearance for the Polavaram dam on the Godavari; it said there were no forest rights claimants in the dam’s submergence zone. Down To Earth visited the villages denied forest rights and found the state had indeed lied. To know more click on …
Fear of submergence haunts Kurturu, a village nestled in the Papi hills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh. In 2005, a band of officials, an unusual sight in this remote village in West Godavari district, visited the place and marked a rock. Then they broke the news about the …
400,000 MAY BE DISPLACED The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project says 276 villages will be affected; an estimated 177,275 people live in these villages. The Polavaram Project Environmental Impact Appraisal Report of 1985 expected 150,697 people to be displaced in 226 villages. But the population of these villages …
Govt plans to bring it in monsoon session, says RLD chief Ajit Singh after meeting Prime Minister The UPA Government plans to bring a Bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in the coming monsoon session of Parliament, said a confident RLD chief Ajit Singh after meeting Prime Minister …
Worried that land acquisition for mining could head the way of ongoing farmers' unrest, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today directed Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries to review Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R;) policy, while acquiring land for coal mining. Coal firms generally acquire large chunks of land for projects. …
The All India Power Engineers' Federation (AIPEF) and the National Confederation of Officers' Associations of Central Public Sector Undertakings (NCOA) have come out strongly against the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant. Terming it a
Having got the green nod from the Union environment ministry for its mega plant in Odisha, South Korean steel major Posco will now be bracing for the next big challenge for its $12-billion project -land acquisition. This has been a sensitive and thorny issue in the mineral-rich state, where domestic …
A new compensation package totalling over Rs450 crore for people affected by the Jaitapur nuclear power project is expected to be announced soon. The package, put together by the Maharashtra government and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, betters the initial Rs 15 crore compensation offered by the state …
The Environment Ministry on Friday lifted its stop-work order at Maheshwar hydel power project in Madhya Pradesh and allowed the construction of five remaining gates of the dam amidst concerns that existing structure could be severely damaged during the monsoon if not completed. But it said the gates cannot be …
Minister of environment and forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh has ordered the lifting of the stop work order on the controversial Maheshwar Hydel Project being constructed on the river Narmada in Madhya Pradesh by the S. Kumars Group of Companies. The order will permit the construction of the last five spillway …
JAMMU, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Raman Bhalla today distributed cheques among the drought hit families of Samba district which has received Rs. 4 crore as the first installment to provide relief to the affected families of 2009 drought under CRF. So far Rs. 32 lakh have been distributed …
