PANJIM: Tearing into the State government’s affidavit (reply), Goa Foundation in its rejoinder, has argued that if the original lessee cannot mine the ore from the mine, then it should be returned to the state instead of being allowed to be mined by a raising contractor.

Iron ore resource is a public asset. In the act of mining, the said resource is depleted for profits which accrue to the private party to whom the asset is leased,” says the rejoinder, pointing out that the government is only the custodian of that asset, and therefore duty bound to ensure that the public asset is leased to private parties at the highest possible price.

Faced with environmental hurdles in pushing vertical growth in the state, the Kerala government last month amended its municipal building rules to change the very definition of 'high-rise' buildings to get around the stringent new requirements for a green nod.

Kerala and some other states have strongly opposed the union environment ministry's 'Guideline for High Rise Buildings' brought in through a February 7 notification on the recommendation of its Expert Appraisal Committee on Building/Construction, Infrastructure and CRZ Projects.

New Delhi: The environment ministry is likely to ease green norms for the real estate sector, giving a boost to developers wanting to construct high-rise buildings. The relaxation is expected to allow builders to put up higher buildings on smaller roads and lanes in cities.

In February 2012, the environment ministry had laid down rules linking the height of a building with the width of the road it was to be built on as well as the distance from the nearest fire station. The rules had the realty sector up in arms.

The 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project from which the developer GMR Infrastructure pulled out in early January citing huge delays in clearances, has now got all requisite approvals from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). According to sources, with Gujarat, one of the two states through which the highway passes, also giving forest clearance, the MoEF has given the green signal for the project.

The Rajasthan portion of the six-laning project was cleared earlier and in a meeting today, the Gujarat portion was also approved, paving the way for the project to be cleared from the angles of both environment and forest regulations, a ministry official said.

PANJIM: The Central Government, acting through the Union Environment and Forests Ministry, has blamed the Goa government for the current mining imbroglio, in a 107-page affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pointing out to repeated directives issued by it, in a bid to ensure compliance of various mining related regulations.

The ministry also pointed out that it acted swiftly after receiving the Shah Commission report on the irregularities in iron ore mining in Goa and directed the state government not to renew any mining lease until all issues were examined.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has decided not to grant environmental clearance to any proposals coming under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone-1 of the Western Ghats.

The decision comes in the wake of a direction issued by the National Green Tribunal that the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report should be considered while granting environmental clearance to projects in the ESZ-1 in the Western Ghats. ESZ-I areas are those which fall outside the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests but have been given the status of a protected area in the WGEEP report.

The High Court yesterday directed the authorities to immediately stop the operations of 22 brickfields and 20 sawmills in the reserved forest area of Lohagara upazila in Chittagong in order to save

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared six coal mining projects of the 40 that were on the table for discussion. Projects that were not cleared have been slotted for urgent review and the CCI will consider them once the process is complete.

The key issue before the CCI was pending environment and forest clearances for the coal projects mainly in Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, with proposals stacked in three categories relating to the clearances needed.