As an alternative to the ministry design, group outlines proposal for a more powerful authority

Even as the ministry of environment met its March 31 deadline to submit a plan to the Supreme Court for a new environment regulator, a set of academics, activists and environmental lawyers have weighed in with their own design. Concerned that the ministry version “would not meet the minimum standards of an independent regulatory authority”, this set, called Watchdog and Action Group for the Environment, have proposed an authority that has greater powers and independence than the design outlined by the ministry.

The three-member Supreme Court-appointed central empowerment committee (CEC) headed by Justice P V Jayakrishnan visited Keonjhar district on Wednesday.

The panel members met the collector before heading for Thakurani iron ore block, belonging to Sarada Mines, at Barbil, about 70 km from here. Senior forest, mining and revenue officers accompanied them. The committee chairman declined to comment on the issue.

At a time when Goa and some other states are locked in legal battles in the Supreme Court to reduce the buffer zone around reserved forests and eco-sensitive areas from 10 to one kilometres, Enviro

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stop mining activities in Odisha as sought by NGO Common Cause.

A special forest bench headed by justice AK Patnaik posted the matter for further hearing on March 24 after industry bodies, including Assocham, objected to passing of any interim order in this regard. Referring to the Justice Shah Commission's report on alleged large-scale illegal mining in the state, counsel Prashant Bhushan argued that illegal mining activities should be stopped immediately.

SAIL has not paid NPV for forest land coming within its Harmath iron and manganese mines under Keonjhar division

The Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has sought lease wise details of the net present value (NPV) realised from the miners for diversion of forest land in Odisha.

The Supreme Court has rejected Sesa Sterlite's plea seeking removal of ceiling of 25 million metric tonne (MT) and 5 MT imposed on annual production of iron ore from Tumkur and Chitradurga district

With Goa Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing around nine cases of illegal mining against various high profile persons including local politicians is likely to begin issuing summons to them from this week onwards.

This is despite the SIT still awaiting a response from the government on its proposal for a legal assistant and chartered accountants to assist them all through the investigations.

The judges asked the counsel for the industries to work out the mining quota within themselves and the government within the ceiling

The iron and steel industry in Karnataka did not get the existing cap on mining output raised at Monday's hearing in the Supreme Court. The Bench, chaired by A K Patnaik, declined to change its earlier order of limiting the production to 30 million tonnes a year.

The MoEF allowed the companies to continue operations despite their licences expiring

The Supreme Court today stayed the Ministry of Environment and Forest letter, which virtually allowed mining companies whose licences in Odisha have expired to continue operations for two more years.