Odisha plans to restore coastal green cover
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
The state water resource department has filed a FIR against the Hirakud smelter unit of Hindalco for its failure to check leakage of ash slurry from the captive power plant of the company into the nearby farm fields and canal. The canal division junior engineer P K Patel of Sambalpur distributary has filed a case against the management of the company on the basis of section 430 of Indian Penal Code, which says wrongful diversion of industrial waste which disturbs irrigation projects is a punishable offense and attracts a jail term upto five years with financial penalty.
The expert committee’s visit to Odisha on Tuesday to reassess the ecological impact of the Posco steel project lasted only for one hour and covered only selective sites, green activists have alleged.
A four-member expert team constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is scheduled to visit the proposed Posco steel plant site near Paradip on Tuesday. The team was formed by MoEF in line with the order of the National Green Tribunal which had suspended the environmental clearance of the project in March this year and wanted an expert team to visit the site to assess the impact of the project on the environment afresh.
The stock underperformed the market by falling over 8% in past four trading session as compared to 1% rise in benchmark Sensex Hindalco is trading lower by 3% at Rs 111 on reports that the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OPSCB) has asked the company to shut down the captive power plant (CCP) of smelter plant near Hirakud in western Odisha in the wake of a breach in the company's ash pond that damaged standing crops in the locality.
The Odisha government has decided to resume the land acquisition process for South African steelmaker Posco’s project, which was stalled indefinitely in June last year following protests by villagers and Left leaders. The decision was taken in a meeting convened by Chief Secretary B K Patnaik on 16 August, where officials of the Central Revenue Division Commissioner, Posco-India, Jagatsinghpur district administration and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco) were present.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has accorded the much-awaited environment clearance to a group of mid-scale projects of Tata Steel at its upcoming industrial park at Gopalpur in south Odisha. The projects include a 55,000-tonne per annum (TPA) high carbon ferrochrome plant, a 400,000-TPA rebar mill and a desalination plant to meet the water requirement of the industrial park.
The illegal mining investigator Justice MB Shah Commission has asked the state government to provide the survey and demarcation maps of 29 more iron ore and manganese mines in the state. “Out of 195 mines, the Commission has received the survey and demarcation of 148 mines. As mentioned in the group plan of existing mining leases of Keonjhar and Sundrgarh districts map this Commission has not received survey and demarcation of 29 leases,” Sudhir S Shah, registrar of the commission, said in a letter to the state steel and mines department.
The Orissa government has decided to ask all the thermal power plants operating in the state to set up cement plants for utilisation of fly ash. The state will have more than 21 million tonnes of fly ash generated by thermal power plants in the coming years. Worried over its adverse impact on the environment, the state government has decided to prepare a roadmap for shifting from earthen brick to fly ash brick for building purpose.
The bauxite mining operation in Mali Hill in south Odisha’s Koraput district by Hindalco Industries has been stopped due to the agitation by the local tribal people. Taking up cudgels under the banner of Mali Parvata Surakhya Samiti (MPSS), the tribal people of the area have launched an agitation demanding cancellation of mining lease issued to the aluminium major. The agitators pointed out that tribals of around 40 villages under the Sorishapodar, Hundi, Dalaiguda and Pakhajhola panchayats in Similiguda block would be affected by the mining operation.
Union Minister for Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation Jairam Rameshs’s ‘India Dream’ to free the country – the rural populace in particular - from open defecation, seems to have faced a setback