The state cabinet approved a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage and distribution of all types of gutkha and paan masala which have tobacco and nicotine content due to increased number of oral cancer patients.

Cabinet co-ordination department’s principal secretary N N Pandey said the order would become effective in the entire state soon after publication of a notification.

Production of kharif crops, mainly paddy has been adversely affected in all 24 districts of the state due to scanty rainfall. The state government has constituted district-level task forces comprising officials of agriculture, water resources and disaster management departments to visit districts to estimate the losses because of poor monsoon and suggest ways to mitigate it through alternate crops.

During April to June this year, against a normal rainfall of 263 mm, the entire state received only about 127 mm, a deficit of 52 per cent. Till July 15, the state had received 104 mm rainfall against a normal average of 325 for the entire month.

The multinational iron ore producer and exporter – Sesa Goa Limited has recently approached the state industry department for renewal of its MoU that was signed in 2003-04 and cancelled recently. Industry department source said the company has submitted a representation to this effect to state’s director of industries.

Jharkhand government had signed 75 MoUs for steel sector during last eight years, among them Sesa Goa was the 27th companies whose agreements were cancelled as the companies were delaying in implementing the terms and conditions of the MoUs.

Power major NTPC has expressed hope of getting back three out of its five de-allocated mines from the government this month.

“We may get these mines (Chatti Bariatu, Chatti Bariatu (S), Kerandari) this month,” Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury told PTI. The Coal Ministry last year had deallocated five NTPC mines — Chatti Bariatu, Chatti Bariatu (S), Kerandari, Brahmani and Chichiro Patsimal — in Jharkhand following the power firm's failure to develop these within the stipulated time-frame.

The possession of 218 acres of agricultural land in Nagri, 15km from capital Ranchi for establishment of IIM, IIIT and NUSRL campuses by the district administration of Ranch has taken a violent tur

Tata Power’s Jojobera thermal power station at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand has bagged the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for 2012.

Almost a year after Saranda was wrested out of Maoist control by security forces, large numbers of tribal families living in the dense forests of the Jharkhand district have found themselves left out in the cold when it comes to government assistance.

“We discovered that just about 3,000 of the 7,000-odd forest dwelling tribal families in Saranda are on the BPL [below poverty line] list,” says Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh. Those not on the list are not eligible for the Central government’s welfare schemes.

Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) has decidedto undertake a detailed survey on cultivation of medicinal plants inJharkhand. ICFRE director general V K Bahuguna said there has beenconsiderable scope for production of medicinal plants in Jharkhand inview of their use by tribals in their daily lives.

He said ICFRE scientists will identify 7-8 species of medicinal herbsand plants used by the tribals of Jharkhand to develop them further.

The fisheries sector in Jharkhand has been witnessing a phenomenal growth after Jharkhand became a separate state bifurcating Bihar in 2000. When in 2001-02, the production of fish in the state had been only 14,000 metric tones. In 2010-11, eighty government fish firms produced 71,886 metric tones.

The fish seed production was increased from 32 crore to 67 crore, along with construction of 116 new fish seed hatcheries in private and government sector. The department of fisheries aims to produce fish of 1,40,000 tones during 12th plan.

A day after Maoists killed six CISF personnel and a driver inside the biggest iron ore mining facility in the country, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) complex here remained ungu