According to the revised plans of these colonies, trees will be translocated/ transplanted instead of being cut, which the environmentalists feel will be a "failure". NEW DELHI: A government-appointed
The steel ministry has asked the environment ministry to expressly revalidate the green clearance to Posco’s stranded steel project in Orissa “to avoid unnecessary noises raised by NGOs and anti-project entities.” The ministry would also begin fresh talks with the Naveen Patnaik government to stress the need to hand over the land required for the proposed plant. The South Korean steel company had inked a MoU with Orissa in June 2005 to set up a 12 million tonne integrated steel project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district at an estimated expenditure of Rs 53,000 crore, but the project has been dogged with land acquisition issues.
A high-level Environment Ministry panel has recommended granting green clearance to the proposed international airport at north Kerala’s Kannur district. The decision to recommend the environmental
Faced with environmental hurdles in pushing vertical growth in the state, the Kerala government last month amended its municipal building rules to change the very definition of 'high-rise' buildings to get around the stringent new requirements for a green nod. Kerala and some other states have strongly opposed the union environment ministry's 'Guideline for High Rise Buildings' brought in through a February 7 notification on the recommendation of its Expert Appraisal Committee on Building/Construction, Infrastructure and CRZ Projects.
PANJIM: The Central Government, acting through the Union Environment and Forests Ministry, has blamed the Goa government for the current mining imbroglio, in a 107-page affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pointing out to repeated directives issued by it, in a bid to ensure compliance of various mining related regulations. The ministry also pointed out that it acted swiftly after receiving the Shah Commission report on the irregularities in iron ore mining in Goa and directed the state government not to renew any mining lease until all issues were examined.
In the wake of the CBI raid implicating an officer of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in arranging green clearances for certain mining projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the ministry has for now put on hold all projects associated with the implicated consultant. Sources said a limestone mining project of Chariot Steel & Power located at village Raiboga in Sundergarh district has already been put on hold. The CBI had on January 16 recovered Rs 1.04 crore from a MoEF deputy director. He was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh to arrange environmental clearance for an Orissa-based power and steel company.
The company has said that gas supplies from Reliance D-6 block was dwindling The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has allowed GVK Group's gas-based power plant in East Godavari to use diesel as an alternate fuel after the company said gas supplies from Reliance D-6 block was dwindling. The Expert Appraisal Committee under the Ministry had earlier rejected the Group's proposal to use diesel as an alternate fuel at the plant, and advised it to approach the Ministry of Petroleum for its views on the matter.
Infra ministers, govt bodies join the chorus as murmurs about corruption resurface When Jairam Ramesh was replaced as environment minister some 18 months ago, loud sighs of relief from industry greeted the news. Ramesh, in the short period at the helm of the ministry, had acquired a reputation for inflexibility, and many started blaming him for stalled projects and declining investments, some even holding his ‘activist’ zeal responsible for the ensuing economic slowdown.
The environment ministry is hardly a “green roadblock ministry” as is being made out by the PMO. The MoEF’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects considered a total of 262 hydropower and irrigation projects in the last six years and green signalled every single one of them. Contrary to the PMO’s claims, not a single project has been rejected. This means that between 2007 and December 30 2012, stage 1 clearance was given for hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 48,456 MW which is 25 per cent more than what India has installed in 66 years of independence.
After claiming to have conducted an analysis of the minutes of over 60 meetings of Expert Appraisal committee (EAC) of the union ministry of environment and Forests (MoEF), the South Asia Network on Dams,
South Asia Network on Dams Rivers and People (SANDRP), an advocacy group, has claimed that the Expert Approval Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on River Valley and Hydroelectric
