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Stop Illegal Mining Or Face Contempt Of Court: Green Court To Meghalaya

The committee headed by Justice B.P. Katakey also took stock of the rescue operations to evacuate the 15 miners who have been trapped inside an illegal flooded coal mine since December 13 at Ksan village in State’s East Jaintia Hills district.

A three-member committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday asked the Meghalaya government to either stop illegal coal mining in the state or face contempt of court.

The committee headed by Justice B.P. Katakey also took stock of the rescue operations to evacuate the 15 miners who have been trapped inside an illegal flooded coal mine since December 13 at Ksan village in State’s East Jaintia Hills district.

“They have given us a progress report about the rescue operations. We have strictly told them that unless you stop it, you will be hauled up for contempt of court,” Mr Katakey Read more

Mining, real lobbies, tourism projects are seeking to destroy areas where tribal communities live in Goa

Civil rights organization of Goa, Gawada Kunbi Velip & Dhangar Federation, has represented to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes chairperson on the behalf tribes of Goa, highlighting tribal issues which need urgent attention. Text of the memorandum, submitted by the organization’s general secretary Rupesh Soiru Velip:

The Gakuved federation is an organization registered which was registered in 1981 under the Societies registration Act, 1860. Since then the Gakuved has been actively involved to address the tribal issues before the authorities. The effort of Gakuved federation led to inclusion of Gawada, Kunbi and Velip tribes in the list of Scheduled Tribe’s and the notification of this was issued in the year 2003.

The Gakuved urge the NCST to look into the following issues which needs urgent attention: Read more

Land reforms in India remain a stalled and forgotten agenda; no progress made on CSLR report on issue

As the agenda for upcoming general elections for Lok Sabha shapes up, one agenda that is likely to be missing is that of wealth inequality and, more precisely, land ownership. Yet, the issue remains ever relevant as about 5 percent of farmers hold about 32 percent of farmland and a large farmer (owner of around 43 acres) owns 45 times the size of land that a marginal farmer (owner of around 0.96 acres) owns.

Seeing the magnitude of the problem of land inequality, the Indian government had initiated land reforms programmes soon after Independence which were subsequently adopted in different states. While the programmes succeeded in a few states, they largely failed in most. The stagnation of the progress of land reforms programmes in various states and in the nation as a whole, especially in recent times, has been elaborated in detail by this correspondent in an earlier published article. Read more

A long road to clean energy for rural women in Chhattisgarh

  • More than two years after the government’s scheme to provide clean cooking fuel, women in Chhattisgarh are switching back to cooking on firewood.
  • With a lack of financial support for refilling cylinders, limited information and easy access to firewood, sustainability of the scheme is posing a challenge.
  • Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana was launched in 2016, with the objective to improve women’s health by providing clean cooking fuel and to reduce the drudgery involved in collection of firewood and dung cakes.

The Indian government’s scheme to improve rural women’s health by providing clean cooking fuel started off well-intended in 2016. However, over two years later, in the primarily rural state of Chhattisgarh, the scheme’s attempt to switch from firewood to clean fuel is slowly fizzling out.

About 2.5 million families in Chhattisgarh were targetted for receiving LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). But over time, the chinks in the armour have come to the fore. A lack of financial support for refilling cylinders, no easy access to information or training from gas agencies and the easy, cost-free availability of firewood has made the scheme unsustainable in the state. Read more

Odisha: Over Rs 6,000 crore in District Mineral Foundation kitty, only Rs 1,100 crore utilised

Even as the State has the highest collection of funds under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), it is seriously lagging in timely implementation of the projects.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State has the highest collection of funds under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), it is seriously lagging in timely implementation of the projects.
While major mineral bearing districts have taken up 11,434 projects estimated at Rs 6438.23 crore by end of December, 2018, fund utilisation is around Rs 1,100 crore. This is despite State Government’s instruction to districts to prepare shelf of projects in advance and timely utilisation of funds sanctioned by Board of Trustees of the DMF.

A review on the progress of implementation of sanctioned projects by Chief Secretary A P Padhi revealed a majority of the projects taken up by the districts have remained incomplete. Read more

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