Kunakadu : Rainclouds hung over Niyamgiri hills, but the cloud of uncertainty over Vedanta Alumina’s 1 million tonne per annum alumina refinery plant at Lanjigarh, Kalahandi, deepened further after

Even as the Orissa government acquired 2,700 acres of land for phase I of Posco’s proposed steel plant near Paradip on July 4, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) has raised a few questions.

In a letter, routed through the Ministry of Home Affairs, to the Orissa chief secretary last week, it has asked India if a human rights impact assessment was carried out on the potential effects of the project on the local people.

Bhubaneswar : Seventeen years after Parliament passed the PESA Act that empowers tribal society to take control of their own resources, the Orissa government has finally decided to make necessary c

Following the Supreme Court judgment over bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills in Orissa last month, Union tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has written to Governor SC Jamir to invoke his

A committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to probe the death of five elephants in Orissa's Ganjam district due to a speeding train has recommended that the Railways should restrict the speed of trains passing through identified vulnerable tracks in forests to a maximum 40 km per hour to prevent elephant deaths.

On the intervening night of December 29 and 30 last year, five elephants were mowed down by Coromondel Express, speeding at 110 km/hr near Subalaya in Ganjam district, when the herd was crossing the track. Incidentally, the accident occurred at the spot where the Railways had put up a warning signage of elephants crossing.

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the Assembly on Friday has found that the state government has, between 2000 and 2012, allotted 464.479 acres of government land in Bhubanes

Refroms in the state power sector seem to have hit a major roadblock with people in Dhenkanal and Angul districts demanding the cancellation of an MoU for smart energy management signed by the state-owned power utility and Enzen Global, which has its headquarters in Bangalore.

Aiming to cut down the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, the Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) last year signed an MoU with Enzen Global entrusting the latter with tasks like checking power pilferage, maintenance of low transmission line, meter-reading and bill collection in the Dhenkanal electric circle

Undeterred by refusals from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to grant sanction for using the Compensatory Afforestation and Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds for straight

With the MB Shah Commission probing the alleged Rs 76,000 crore mining scam in Orissa, the state forest department has now asked the steel and mines department to ensure that mining leases operate

Bhubaneswar When Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena described Orissa’s mining scam as bigger than those of Goa and Karnataka put together, it might have been only a figure of speech. But indication of how big it could be has come now, with a penalty demand note of Rs 68,000-odd crore sent by the Orissa steel and mines department to the holders of 103 mining leases for excess mining between 2000 and 2010.

The showcause and demand notices to companies such as Tata Steel, Essel Mining, Rungtas and Indrani Patnaik for extracting iron ore and manganese beyond the permissible limit set by the authorities came almost three years after the mining scam had broken out in the state. Incidentally, the order came when members of the Justice M B Shah Commission, now probing the scam, were touring the state for the third time in less than a year.

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