Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Sonya Ghosh Vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Others dated 17/02/2025. The matter related to conservation and protection of Delhi Ridge which is an extension of Aravali Range extending from Tughlakabad and branching out in Wazirabad in the north …
Two amendments to the National Environment Tribunal Bill recommended by the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forests, are likely to be tabled during the winter session of parliament. Though these will make the proposed tribunal slightly more powerful, it will not give it the teeth …
• Investors have been flocking to timber-based businesses in Malaysia, where timber related stocks are being traded at high prices. This is a result of a combination of strong timber prices and a comparative scarcity of timber-related listings on the Kuala Lumpur stock market. • Japanese electronics firms are looking …
THE INDIAN Forest Act (IFA) of 1927 is going to get a new look and name. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has distributed to all state governments the draft of a new act that provides for adequate community participation in forests and new concepts such as biodiversity …
WITH THE passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the US House of Representatives and Senate, US President Bill Clinton has scored a major victory. However, to ensure approval of the agreement, which will gradually eliminate almost all trade and investment restrictions between the US, Canada and …
IT WAS nearly a decade ago that the government of India had tried to revise the Indian Forest Act of 1927, a British legacy that brought immense misery to forest-dwellers and has been unable to save the forests. The row that took place over the last revision forced the government …
NEW RULES for approving experiments with altered genes will slash the red tape that British scientists claim obstructs research (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1895). A report by the British parliament's science and technology committee says British and European laws governing genetically altered organisms are "excessively precautionary", "obsolescent" and "unscientific" …
ON NOVEMBER 7, residents of Vivekanandapally in Calcutta staved off yet another attempt by a group of real estate developers, which has been trying to fill up a shallow 0.134 hectare lake in the area for more than a decade. The developers, lured by the prospect of selling the filled …
THERE'S an unanticipated hurdle to the Indian government's Transplantation of Human Organs Bill (THOB), 1992, which allows collection of organs for transplant from bodies of accident victims and "brain-dead" individuals with the permission of their next-of-kin. The government seems not to have realised that, in a backward country like India, …
TOBACCO-exporting nations flayed a new US legislation on prohibiting the use of more than 25 per cent imported tobacco by US cigarette manufacturers, even as three leading aerospace companies accused the US of using the current trade negotiations to undermine the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) subsidies agreement …
THE LEGISLATION to prohibit state curbs on abortion -- the Freedom of Choice Act -- that was once the primary legislative goal of abortion rights supporters, has lost momentum. Besides being relentlessly attacked by opponents, the pro-abortion lobby is now divided on how comprehensive a bill is needed. They have …
AFTER a nearly two-year break, Karnataka's pioneering panchayati raj experiment will continue in December and January, when elections will be held to village, taluka and district bodies under a new panchayati raj act. But in the run-up to the elections, the campaign to oust Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily …
ABOUT 5,000 gram panchayats in Karnataka will go to the polls on December 16 this year. But some proponents of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) argue that the 1983 framework for the operation of PRIs was far more committed to the ethos of democratic decentralisation than the 1993 act. They argue …
The powers of local government in the UK derive from acts of Parliament -- not from the Constitution -- and can be amended to suit the wishes of the central government. The future of local government at the district (borough) and county levels is currently under review. The ruling Conservatives …
Something not commonly known even to the Dutch is that their country contains five time more pigs than people. The amount of pig and cow waste in the country's small land area is a major threat to surface-water quality, because the waste contains nitrates that cause acidification. A national standard …
The Netherlands has three levels of governance -- national, provincial (12 provinces) and municipal (650 municipalities). The national government determines environmental policy and the ministry of environment sets objectives and guidelines for provincial and municipal authorities who draw up their own environmental plans. These are reviewed every two or three …
PROMPTED by the publicity resulting from the "ghost-like stare" of a dead accident victim, the French government is taking a hard look at the country's organ transplant system. The blank stare of Christophe Tesniere was because his eyes had been surgically removed and replaced with glass eyes, so that the …
THE CENTRAL concern of this book is how in a country whose Constitution declares void all laws violative of Article 13 (Fundamental Rights), women continue to be subjected to gender-discriminatory, personal laws. Indian women have been discriminated against on several grounds beside the legal. This is cold comfort to women, …
Environmentalists and voluntary organisations from all over the country plan to get together in the near future to protest against lacunae in the National Environment Tribunal Bill, which will be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. This decision was taken at the National Workshop on Human Rights, Environment and …
The Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) has jumped onto the bandwagon of real-estate developers that are grabbing the few urban green spaces left in the city. CPT, which claims ownership of land on the banks of the Hooghly and also vast stretches of wetlands around the river, has ambitious multistoreyed building …
THE BANGLADESH government has modified procedures for nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in order to simplify procedures and establish their accountability, reports Mostafa Kamal Majumder. The step followed allegations by the NGO Affairs Bureau that leading NGOs were violating rules. Under the new rules, the ministry of home affairs will decide whether …
