The Orissa state government is upset that it has not been invited to participate in the crucial Forest Advisory Committee meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Friday in order to explain its position on Vedanta Aluminium

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 18: London-based Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) on Wednesday denied any mining activity at Niyamgiri Hill. The company is setting up a one-million-tonne refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday unanimously passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2008 with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal assuring the Elders that the public sector will continue to get top priority.

He said the Government had no intention to privatise coal mining and PSUs and state governments would be allotted coal blocks for mining through a separate channel

If there is a single conclusion the Ministry of Environment and Forests can arrive at based on the report of the four-member committee led by Planning Commission member N.C. Saxena on the proposed open cast mining in Orissa's forested Niyamgiri hills, it is this: drop it.

Getting the government

Nistula Hebbar, Rishi Raj

New Delhi: The country

After one stop-work order on the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project, a four-member panel appointed by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has dealt a blow to yet another big-ticket investor in Orissa, the London-based Vedanta Resources Ltd.

NEW DELHI: The N.C. Saxena panel, which has asked the Centre not to clear Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Orissa, is scathing about the

NEW DELHI: The Union Steel Minister, Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday said his Ministry could step in to seek a speedy clearance for the controversial Rs. 54,000-crore Posco steel project in Orissa from the Environment and Forest Ministry.