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Ranchi, Sept. 8: Chief executive officer (CEO) of Abhijeet Group Arun Gupta today assured Governor K. Sankaranarayanan that the power plant being set up by the company in Latehar would begin production by 2011.

The much-talked-about 8th draft coal policy was not approved at the Advisory Council meeting due to strong differences over the issues of payment of royalty, acquisition of land, and quite a large number of ambiguities in it.

Sources at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources told The New Nation yesterday that the draft coal policy was sent back to the ministry concerned for further scrutiny.

Besides, the meeting of the Council of Advisers held on Wednesday in Chittagong suggested to make the draft coal policy smaller in size removing all the ambiguities.

Indigenous rights groups praised Peru's petroleum agency on Thursday for excluding areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oil and gas concessions. Rights groups say the decision is a turnaround for Perupetro, which previously had indicated it might open up the protected areas for bidding. "This decision acknowledges a certain standard ... that there will be no exploration or extraction of natural resources on lands inhabited by un-contacted tribes," said David Hill, a researcher with Survival International, an advocacy group.

The Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission ordered the municipal government of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday to pay some 4.88 billion yen to Tokyu Corp for land contamination. Tokyu purchased the land in Kawasaki in 1992 and sold it as a construction site for condominiums. But part of about 25,000 square meters of land was contaminated with trichloroethylene and lead as the local authority reclaimed the land with incinerated ash from the late 1960s to early 1970s, according to the decision by the state body.

The Asom Government claims from time to time that from 2001 onwards the fiscal reforms carried out in the State benefited the people to a large extent leading to rise in per capita income of the peopl

Social activists Medha Patkar and Bhai Vaidya have submitted a letter to Divisional Commissioner Nitin Kareer demanding a CBI inquiry into the land acquired for the Lavasa resort township, 60 kms from

Power generation projects will become unviable if the cost of land acquisition goes beyond Rs.5 lakh an acre, according to Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami.

Builders and residents affected by the Bombay High Court ruling on

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