Order of the High Court of Uttarakhand (WPPIL No. 202 OF 2024 with WPPIL NO.174 OF 2024) in the matter of mining operations in Bageshwar district, Uttarakhand. The order was passed by the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court Guhanathan Narendar and Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari. In compliance with the …
function table() { var popurl="image/20051231/42_table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=510,height=400,scrollbars=yes") } On October 12, 2005, the Right to Information (rti) Act came into force. rti activists seemed to have won their battle to provide citizens with rights to information about the government's working. But little had they reckoned for what was in store. Barely …
A Rojgar Adhikar Yatra (a journey for employment rights), through some of the 150 districts where the National Food for Work Programme (nfwp) is underway, has found that rampant corruption afflicts the programme. The findings are significant because the nfwp is touted as the forerunner to a comprehensive employment guarantee …
Leading tobacco firm Philip Morris sought to downplay the well-established link between passive smoke and sudden infant death syndrome (sids) by influencing a scientist's research paper, according to researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (ucsf), usa. The ucsf scientists' review of once-secret industry documents has revealed that …
Agrochemical giant Monsanto is embroiled in a major corruption scandal in Indonesia. The company has admitted to paying bribes to Indonesian officials to evade conducting an environmental impact study, needed as a prerequisite for cultivating genetically modified crops in the country. On January 6, 2005, Monsanto agreed to pay us …
July 29 was a black day for those residents of the old Tehri town who had decided to remain back. At around 2 pm, the water in the lake surrounding the almost empty town rose and entered their homes. The 20 or so families left had to run for their …
The Tehri dam project has always been embroiled in controversies. The initial protests against the dam started in the late 1960s when surveys were conducted at the dam site. An organised movement took shape after the Planning Commission gave its nod to the dam in 1972. In the 1980s and …
function illus() { var popurl="image/20040831/26-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=440,height=320,scrollbars=yes") } Disaster struck the Tehri dam site in Uttaranchal at 10:15 pm on August 2. A huge landslide inside the vertical shaft of a tunnel claimed the lives of 29 workers and left about 12 injured. According to Puneet Kansal, district magistrate, Tehri, one …
a major scam has been exposed in a venture aimed at accelerating the economic growth of farmers of the Ladakh region. The case involves two former top officials of the Ladakh Food Limited (lfl), which manufactures the popular Leh Berry brand of seabuckthorn nectar. The father-son duo of D K …
Keshubhai Patel, a former member of parliament (mp) from Gujarat and a veteran leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp), is known to champion farmers’ causes. Yet he didn’t spend a single rupee out of the Rs 10 crore he got during the past five years under the mp Local …
Multilateral donors have warned Bangladesh that they might slash aid or withdraw it altogether from the impoverished country, if it fails to fulfil commitments to control corruption. The adoption of such remedial measures can prop up Bangladesh's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2-3 per cent from its present 5.5 per …
A us scientist, who triggered a bioterrorism scare by illegally shipping back bubonic plague samples he collected from Tanzania last year, has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment by a Texas court. The scientist, Thomas Butler, would also have to shell out us $50,000 in fine and restitution. Butler was …
On the evening of January 24, social activists Sarita and Maheshkant attended a meeting at Shabdo village in Bihar's Gaya district. Soon after the villagers saw them off, they heard gunshots. They ran down to the main road in the neighbouring Rajabigha village and found Sarita lying in a pool …
the Deputy Conservator of Forest (dcf) of Mysore's Hunsur Wildlife Division, A M Annaiah, has been held responsible "for causing loss to the public exchequer to the tune of Rs 6.14 crore'. The Karnataka Lokayukta, Justice N Venkatachala, has recommended disciplinary action against him. Even as environmentalists point out they …
The Kerala government has taken another decentralising step. It has handed over exclusive rights of mining and sale of sand from riverbeds to local bodies. The state's minister for revenue, K M Mani, admitted that the previous practice of mining and transportation of sand by private parties after securing permits …
Our world did change in 2003. The US war on Iraq made sure that the rules of 'engagement' were changed, perhaps for a long time to come. The change I see most visible is that the world has become overtly aggressive and rude. And it is not just the US. …
from April to August this year, almost 300 children fell prey to malnutrition in just two blocks (Akkalkua and Taloda) of Maharashtra's Nandurbar district. The nightmare has been recurring in the entire region since 1995, with the death toll crossing 12,000. Although even studies commissioned by the authorities identify malnourishment …
