The Supreme Court is to be commended for its order banning the Salwa Judum. But the Salwa Judum was already a thing of the past; its worst phase was in 2005-06. The violence now in the amoral war in Chhattisgarh is being conducted as part of Operation Greenhunt. When will …
Andhra’s Khammam Alone Accounts For Almost 50% Loss: FSI Report. India recorded a net loss of 367 sq km of forests between 2009 and 2011, with Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh alone losing 182 sq km of green cover in the period, the latest ‘state of forest’ report has found. …
India’s overall forest cover has declined by 367 sq-kms in the past two years despite a few states actually expanding their forest areas. The net loss is mainly on account of Naxalites destroying close to 200 sq-km of forests in Andhra Pradesh, a government report said in Tuesday. The country’s …
India's forest cover shrank by 367sq km with the maximum 80 per cent loss recorded in Andhra Pradesh mainly due to Naxals felling trees in Warangal and Khammam districts, according to a new survey released on Tuesday. Forest and tree cover of the country as per the biennial assessment report …
Calling Dhanbad district a “hotbed” of gangs indulging in illicit coal trade, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued notice to Jharkhand Government over economic hardships faced by tribals and “illegal mining” in the Naxal-affected area. The Commission said that “abject poverty” was the reason behind spread of …
The Government has announced the creation of six projects in public-private partnership mode in non-timber forest produce (NTFP), covering around 60 Naxal-affected districts in the country. The projects, to be executed within six months, will cover Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, according to a Rural Development …
The sixth anniversary of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) saw the government promising reforms in the scheme, which has been criticised for delays in wage payments and depleting farm labour. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the scheme could usher in a second green revolution through land development and …
ROURKELA: Armed with the Saranda Action Plan, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday detailed his much-hyped ‘peace offensive’ to curb insurgency along the Odisha-Jharkhand border. On his second visit to the Maoist-infested Saranda forest region in the neighbouring Jharkhand, Ramesh laid the foundation stone for the Integrated Development …
The political endeavour under the Saranda Action Plan (SAP) — not just to bring the government closer to the local tribal population but also to give them a stake in the democratic set-up and unfetter the control of the Naxalites who infest the dense forests — seems to have made …
Ranchi, Jan. 29: The water resources department has sanctioned Rs 40.20 crore for the repair of a main canal and a branch of the Kanchi weir, which had collapsed in 2007 leaving 40,000 acres in Naxalite hotbeds of the district without irrigation facilities. The department has proposed to begin repair …
As long as the present generation of the powerful, whether the rulers in Washington or in New Delhi, persists with the practice of depending on its armed infrastructure to lord over the political space and establish hegemony over civil society, and fails to learn that such a policy invariably escalates …
The Union government has cleared an external loan to finance part of the programme launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in left wing extremism-affected villages. The clearance is for a loan of $500 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to speed up construction of rural roads. Union Minister …
The Centre has decided to roll out a revised anti-Naxal action plan for states battling Left-wing extremism, marking a shift from the bullet approach towards building a holistic plan to protect the rights of tribals and forest-dwellers and improve grassroots policing. The action plan drawn up by the Union home …
Urges Montek to consider changes for effective implementation of projects in LWE-affected areas With an eye to ensure that the government’s development efforts are effective in the Left Wing extremistaffected areas, the rural development ministry is pushing to make block the basic unit and involve elected representatives in the rolling …
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has pointed to “operational” shortcomings in the government’s efforts to tackle the decades-old Maoist insurgency through developmental work and urged greater political involvement to deal with it more effectively. The minister made the suggestion in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after touring Left-wing …
State has been directed to set up a separate development authority The Centre has asked the Jharkhand government to show urgency on both security and development matters in the Left-Wing-Extremism-affected Saranda forest. The State has been directed to set up a separate development authority to carry forward its initiative to …
The growth of militant left radicalism, known as the Naxalite movement in official documents and civil society discussions, has acquired considerable prominence in the public policy discourse, media coverage and interaction with social scientists. The subject has also been deliberated upon in seminars across the country. The Government policy to …
Bhubaneswar: Receiving flak from the home ministry on the tardy utilisation of funds, the Odisha government has decided to constitute a state-level committee for regular monitoring of the implementation of the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), a hundred-per cent Centrally-assisted scheme for the Maoist-affected districts. According to planning and coordination minister …
Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed in Naxal-affected areas are facing a threat as grave as bullets — mosquitoes. In the past 10 months — January to October — at least 17 CRPF personnel have died due to malaria and dengue in the left-wing ex-tremism (LWE)-affected states. …
Integrated Watershed Management Programme, a Rural Development Ministry Scheme under which the Government facilitates water harvesting, potable water and water sanitation and other ecological activities in the rural hinterlands, will be incorporated in guidelines of Integrated Action Plan. The IAP, started in 2010, is aimed to improve governance, provide better …
PANJIM: Claiming that the upcoming Mines and Minerals Regulation and Development (MMRD) Bill 2011 will be deterrent to the mining industry in Goa, industry players will be placing their views before Central Government, including proposal for amendment in the bill. The mining firms have decided to participate in the convention …