New Delhi Refusing to scrap the government’s decision under which 194 coal blocks were allocated to various companies, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the CBI on a PIL seeking probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged irregularities.

The PIL, filed by various members of civil society, including former CEC N Gopalaswami, ex-Navy chief L Ramdas and former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, has leveled allegations of unfairness and arbitrariness in the allocation of 194 blocks and sought cancellation of the licenses granted by the government.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has initiated probe into the contentious joint venture pact between the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Delhi-based Sainik Mining & Allied Services Ltd (SMASL) for coal mining in the state.

Both companies had formed a JV named Kalinga Coal Mining (Private) Ltd for raising coal from Utkal D block in Angul district, allotted to OMC, with an estimated coal reserve of 138 million.

Broadening the scope of judicial scrutiny over allocation of coal blocks, the Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s stand on a fresh PIL, which has demanded a court-monitored investigation to

Fresh PIL seeks cancellation of blocks allotted to all pvt cos since 1993, SIT probe

The bench, however, refused to stay the licenses, which were allegedly granted in violation of law

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and the CBI on a plea for a probe by a special investigation team into the alleged irregularities in the coal block allocations. A bench of justices R M Lodha and A R Dave also sought response from them on a public interest litigation petition seeking cancellation of the licenses granted by the government for coal blocks to various private companies.

Another PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of all the coal blocks allotted to private companies since 1993 and a court-monitored CBI probe into the alleged scam involving

Faced with the startling data that only 224 out of the estimated 788 packaged drinking water manufacturing units in the State operate with ISI certification, the High Court on Friday directed companies without that seal of quality to apply for licences before the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) within 15 days.

The court also directed the BIS to finish the formalities of application processing and follow-up procedures within four months and after that, take action against those agencies and companies that sell water without ISI certification.

The BMC will set up a special cell to look into cell tower radiation violations in the city, said Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta at the civic general body meeting on Friday.

Municipal councillors also demanded that a survey of all mobile towers in the city be undertaken to see if they are complying with the Central government norms.

JAIPUR: A division bench of the high court while disposing of a PIL concerning heavy vehicular traffic at B-2 bypass on Friday directed the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) to complete the BRTS corridor and open it to public in the next six months.

The bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice N K Jain-senior further directed JDA to complete the outer ring road project in the next two years to ease heavy vehicular traffic movement from B-2 bypass. The bench directed that the disputes regarding taking over of the possession of land acquired for ring road project should be expedited and completed within three months.