Govt asks AP guv to use powers in Scheduled Areas to cancel bauxite lease in Maoist area
For the first time, the Centre has urged the governor to use his special powers in Scheduled Areas to cancel bauxite mining leases given in Andhra Pradesh’s Vishakhapatnam district.

Govt will not be able to acquire land for PPP infrastructure projects and private businesses, if House panel recommendations are accepted in proposed bill
Aparliamentary panel on Tuesday proposed tougher norms for acquiring land for industrial use, as it finalised the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill.

The Supreme Court has refused to re-examine its judgement and expunge the adverse remarks made in it against Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on the issue of land acquisition for Omkareshwar Dam project in Madhya Pradesh. The apex court dismissed the review petitions filed by the NBA saying that the May 11, 2011 judgement “does not suffer from any mistake” and “no ground is made out” for review of the September 29, 2011 order by which it had declined to expunge the adverse remarks against the NBA in the verdict.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna announced that 50 per cent seats of Van Panchayat Sarpanch will be reserved for women in addition to which, all Van Panchayat members will be insured by the State Government. The Chief Minister made these announcements while speaking at a State level workshop on strengthening and developing Van Panchayats organised by the Forest Department on Monday.

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on May 3 dismissed petitions filed by Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan to review an apex court judgment and expunge adverse remarks made against the organisation in connection with the issue of land acquisition for Omkareshwar dam project in Madhya Pradesh.

A Bench of Justices R M Lodha, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan observed in its order that they had decided to dismiss the review petition filed by the NBA against its May 11, 2011 judgment after careful consideration of the available material.

PANJIM: The minor mineral extractors in the state will now have to seek permission from union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) before applying for the licence with the state Mines and Geology department, according to an order issued the Mines department on Thursday following Supreme Court directives.

The directives stated that the leases of minor mineral including their renewal for an area of less than five hectares be granted by the States/Union Territories only after getting environmental clearance from the MoEF. The order was passed on February 27, in a petition filed by one Deepak Kumar and other v/s state of Haryana.

Minimum size of mine lease should be 5 ha. Minimum period of mine lease should be 5 years.Mine plans should be made mandatory

Separate corpus for reclamation and rehabilitation of mined out areas. For river bed mining, leases should be granted stretch wise, depth may be restricted to 3m/water level, whichever is less, and safety zones should be worked out.

Two major residential projects being planned under the slum rehabilitation scheme, with a combined value of over Rs330crore, were recently granted clearance by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) on environment. Located in the western suburbs, both projects have been cleared with several conditions attached. The costlier of the two, Goregaon-based Trimurti SRA Co-Op Housing Society Limited, estimated at Rs200crore, has been directed to restrict the height of the building to 45 metres, along with the provision of a setback of six metres without a wall to ensure enough road space.