<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) regarding illegal sand mining being done at the Balod Pod sand mine located in Balod district, Chhattisgarh.</p> <p>A report was called
Indian households purchased much more food items through the public distribution system (PDS) in 2009-10 than they did five years ago, the 66th National Sample Survey has indicated, raising doubts over the effectiveness of the government’s new direct cash transfer system over a large base. Greater penetration and higher use of the PDS will make it difficult for the government to eventually deliver the Rs 75,000-crore food subsidy to its eligible beneficiaries.
Chhattisgarh may not be yet on the radar of international travellers, but it does get flocks if not hordes of winged visitors from all parts of Asiatic Region, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan
NEW DELHI: With learning levels in the country dipping to an all-time low it is states like Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where the least number of children can read, while those in Chhattisgarh
An Act to provide for food and nutritional security by ensuring access to adequate quantity of food and other requirements of good nutrition for people of the State, at affordable prices, at all times
In the absence of transport network and faster envt clearances, benefits will be limited After nearly 40 years of state ownership, the chorus of support for privatisation of coal mines is growing louder. With the economy ravenously short of coal to fire its power plants, and the state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL), which has a near monopoly in the sector, failing to meet the ever increasing demand from industry, the cause of privatisation is gathering strength.
Notwithstanding ‘serious differences’ among its members, a parliamentary panel reviewing the National Food Security Bill, 2011, will submit its report to the Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday. The government aims to introduce the Bill in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament. FE had reported last month that the panel would submit its report by mid-January. The 31-member panel, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Vilas Muttemwar, had been examining the Bill since October last year. Flooded with around 1.5 lakh petitions as well as comments from state governments, experts and civil society groups, the panel had to hold daily meetings to finalise its report.
“Mining has only resulted in displacement of lakhs of tribal families instead of creating jobs for them” Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday urged the governments in the mineral-rich Naxal-affected States to focus on development of agriculture and implementation of rural development programmes instead of focusing on mining to create employment. Addressing a gathering of Dongaria and Kutia Kandha tribal groups on the foothills of Niyamgiri hills in this tribal-dominated block of Kalahandi district, Mr. Ramesh underlined the need for prioritising agriculture and rural development saying that mining in the country’s mineral-rich States such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand had only added to the people’s miseries. Mining had only resulted in displacement of lakhs of tribal families instead of proving to be beneficial for them, he added.
The Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment disputed the claims of the National Highway Authority of India that has moved the Supreme Court for fast-track clearance of delayed highway projects. Elaborating upon the Forest Advisory Committee meeting held in December 2012, Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer and member of LIFE said, “From the 29 projects put up for clearance, the FAC cleared as many as 17. Three of these proposals were from the NHAI and while two were cleared, one was sent back on the ground that they wanted more information.”
India will soon revise its malaria mortality figures, with the new estimates expected to be at least 20 times more than what the health ministry portrays at present. A 16-member committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research, headed by its former director general Dr Padam Singh Pradhan, has found that the actual number of malaria deaths in India on an average would be around 40,297 — around 40 times higher than present estimates. In a first such admission, India's National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) chief Dr AC Dhariwal told TOI that India's malaria mortality figure was definitely much higher than what is officially quoted.
In a move that could speed up the ambitious direct cash transfer programme, rural development minister Jaiarm Ramesh has suggested other entities such as state governments and banks should be roped in to enroll residents in the Aadhaar system. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ramesh said the direct benefits transfers (DBT) scheme would be successful if multiple registrars are allowed to enroll beneficiaries in the Aadhaar system.
