In order to use tenanted land for setting up of projects for community or public purpose, the Goa government has introduced the Goa Land Use (Regulation) Bill, 2024 seeking amendment to Section 3 of Goa Land Use (Regulation) Act, 1991 so as to specify in the Right to Fair Compensation …
THREE-and-a-half centuries after the rest of the world, the Catholic church has finally discovered the sun does not revolve around it, or even around the earth. The result is the rehabilitation of Pisan astronomer and pioneer of modern physical science Galileo Galilei by Pope John Paul on November 1, in …
THE SUPREME Court recently ordered that one lakh people be paid interim relief of Rs 200 per month. The total amount these victims will get as interim relief of Rs 7,200 for which they need a pass book issued by the State Gas Relief Department. Touts operating in collusion with …
ON OCTOBER 16, 1992, the Supreme Court directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make Rs 1,482 crore available to Madhya Pradesh gas relief commissioner K Shankaranarayan for doling out to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak. But for the victims, who have waited three years since …
"WE WILL stop all traffic on the Dehra Dun highway if our demands are not met by December 5," roared a crowd of more than 1,000 Gujjars and ban (rope) workers on November 5 at Mohand, 20 km from Dehra Dun, outside the Rajaji National Park (RNP). When the migrant …
Despite hectic campaigning by the groups opposed to the Narmada dam plus a hefty boost from the anti-dam salvo fired by Bradford Morse and Thomas Berger, who formed a two-member independent review commission, the World Bank has taken a decision to continue funding the Sardar Sarovar project. However, in April …
THOUGH efforts to rehabilitate Indian crocodiles have been successful and they are reportedly "multiplying in leaps and bounds", the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests insists they must continue to be accorded the status of an endangered species. MEF officials turn a deaf ear to pleas from wildlife conservationists like …
THE RESETTLEMENT and rehabilitation (R&R;) policy for project-affected persons, proposed by a sub-committee of the national water board, under the ministry of water resources, appears to be far from satisfactory. Commentators say its scope is restricted to large reservoir projects and it does not provide for any legislative backing. The …
• National policy should only indicate guidelines. • Involuntary displacement should be minimised. • A widely-representative body should take decisions. • Fair standard of living, not lower than that before displacement, should be guaranteed. • Full compensation of losses should be paid both individually and collectively. • All rights and …
NUCLEAR energy can be good business. And for the ailing West European nuclear industry, the unsafe nuclear reactors of its eastern neighbours has come as a boon. Siemens AG of Germany has announced that its power-plant division would form a consortium that will undertake rehabilitation of nuclear reactors in Ukraine, …
YET ANOTHER World Bank-funded dam project is under fire. The Visthapiti Mukti Vahini (VMV) has challenged the rehabilitation of people displaced by the Chandil dam on the Suvarnarekha river in Bihar, in the Supreme Court. The VMV holds that a decade after the initiation of the land acquisition proceedings, rehabilitation …
NOTHING seems to move them, the planners of misery and destruction in the Narmada Valley. Not entreaties, not scientific arguments, not reason, not 23-day hunger fasts, not 40,000-strong demonstrations, not even the possibility of entire communities drowning in their refusal to move out of their ancestral lands when the reservoir …
THE MORSE committee has asked the World Bank to step back from the Sardar Sarovar project. Whether the bank complies or not, the committee has undoubtedly delivered a resounding indictment of all those involved in the project -- from the governments of Gujarat and India to the mighty World Bank. …
THE ENGLISH say that the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The same may be said about the much awaited Morse Report. The findings are strong and declare that all is definitely NOT well with the SSP. The recommendations are, to put …
THE REPORT of the Independent Review (RIR) of the Sardar Sarovar was expected to look at Sardar Sarovar and other projects on the Narmada not only from the viewpoint of displacement and rehabilitation, but more holistically to see whether submergence itself could be reduced to manageable proportions. Instead, the committee …
I HAVE not seen the Morse report. So I cannot comment on its specifics. But I have some general observations to make on the Narmada project and other issues of this kind. I believe that rehabilitation and resettlement must precede the launching of a project and not follow it. Secondly, …
THE RIR had raised considerable expectations in western India. The report, however, came as a damp squib. The only substantive comment made by the report relates to basic hydrology, which states, "We found that there is good reason to believe that the project will not perform as planned." The reference …
THE latest Economic Survey (1991-92) presents a very interesting set of statistics. It shows that, out of all types of commercial undertakings of state departments, only those based on forests and mining have maintained a steady profit margin between 1985 and 1992, while all the others -- industrial firms, dairies, …
IN October 1991, when the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a fresh budget for the Koel Karo hydro-electric project near Ranchi, it began a fresh chapter in the protests and agitations that have chequered the 20-year history of the project, the longest fight against any dam in the …
In the suit filed by the Union of India against Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) filed before the Southern District Court at New York, the presiding judge directed the utilisation of 5 Million Dollars deposited by UCC towards Interim Relief Fund, for affording relief to the victims of the Bhopal Gas …
The theme is to address issues applicable to “user centered design and occupational wellbeing”. Focus areas of HWWE 2014 would cover appropriate ergonomics application in every sphere of our lives.
