In yet another blow to the survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster, a US district court has dismissed a plea seeking to make Union Carbide liable for contamination caused by its pesticide plant in Bhopal. Seventeen survivors of the 1984 gas leak tragedy had filed a case against the corporation in 1999 in the US district court in Manhattan.

Delhi municipality constructs yet another waste-to-energy plant at Ghazipur. Waste-to-energy projects figured in the election manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party during the recent civic polls in Delhi. BJP hoardings across the city declared that “the citizens will not be charged to generate power”. It seems the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is obsessed with the idea of generating energy from garbage. Despite ample evidence that the technology is a failure and people’s oppositions to the projects, three waste-to-energy projects are under way in the capital city.

Okhla residents accuse BJP and Congress of trying to poison people by promoting waste incineration to generate electricity. The plant is being put through trial runs. Even as candidates contesting municipal seats in the national capital make their rounds of residential colonies to seek votes, citizens and waste-pickers' associations are angered by the election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). One of the promises it makes is electricity from waste by setting up incineration plants in various parts of the city.

The Supreme Court has reiterated the Karnataka High Court order, directing the Centre to pay the minimum daily wage rate applicable in Karnataka to labourers employed in the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The Centre had fixed the wage rate for agricultural workers in Karnataka at Rs 82, as per a January 2009 notification; the high court held that the appropriate wage rate of Rs 119.42 should be paid. (Karnataka's minimum wage rate has since been revised to Rs 145 and MGNREGS wage to Rs 125).

Activists say similar plants elsewhere in the country are lying defunct. The small municipality of Bhagalpur in Bihar is considering setting up a waste-to-energy plant in the city. On February 19, the city municipal corporation selected one of the proposals submitted to it to manage the city's waste. The proposals were submitted in response to a request sent out by the municipality in December last year. The proposal under consideration is based on private-public partnership model that promises to generate three megawatts (MW) electricity.

The ruling alliance’s flagship rural employment programme took unprecedented strides in creating water conservation structures across the country, but only to harvest disillusionment. What went wrong? Down to Earth team traveled to Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in search of answers.

State to give 80 per cent of sand mine auction profit to panchayats

THE Jharkhand government has announced it will give 80 per cent of the amount collected from auction of sand mines in the state to block panchayats. This is the first time a state has decided to share business profits with local bodies.

Hemant Soren, deputy chief minister and minister in-charge of the department of mines and geology, made the announcement on August 11. “The decision has been approved by the state Cabinet,” he added.

Uttar Pradesh's land acquisition has set farmers on the warpath. Projects like Yamuna Expressway will engulf thousands of villages. Down to Earth probes discontent among farmers & examines amendments to Land Acquisition Act & resettlement bill awaiting Centre’s nod.