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 …
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 …
THE 73RD Constitution Amendment, yet to be ratified by the requisite number of state governments, holds within it the potential for a passive revolution in the Indian countryside. For not only does it constitutionalise a third level of governance in the country, namely the panchayats, it also reserves one-third of …
An Act to provide for the prohibition of employment of manual scavengers as well as construction or continuance of dry latrines and for the regulation of construction and maintenance of water-seal latrines and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
THE NEW legislation comes into effect too late to save Udhagamangalam's famed Boat Lake, which has become a dead water body because of the sewage and silt accumulated in it. Unaffected by laws and legislation, the town's ancient sewerage system, built over a century ago for 10,000 residents and now …
RESIDENTS of hill stations in Tamil Nadu are sceptical that much-publicised legislation by chief minister J Jayalalitha can protective the states hill stations from ecological devastation. The law enforced as an amendment to the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act of 1920, seeks to protect the Nilgiri and Palni hills from …
The West Bengal Assembly has adopted legislation barring the filling up of wetlands that exceed 0.035 ha in the state's notified urban areas. The ecological importance of these wetlands artificialIy embanked areas and naturally or artificially depressed lands holding water -has long been recognised. Large Klranmoy Nondo: Befriending tracts of …
BY THE end of the 1980s, 37 per cent of the paper and board consumed by the world was being collected and recycled to make more paper and board. While in the North it was environmental consciousness that brought about this recycling, in the South, poverty was the determining factor. …
A SRI LANKAN research team has dismissed as "biased" and "rushed" a UN study that claims the country is among the world's top five dolphin- catchers. The release of the team's report this month is keenly awaited by Colombo, which fears that if Sri Lanka continu6s to be identified with …
URBAN air pollution in India has become a cause of concern and alarm and the subject of much writing and debate on measures to control it. Calcutta is reputed to be one of the world's most polluted cities, but its citizens contend the pervasive acrid odours and hazy horizons are …
