Social activist Md Nayeemuddin may not be far-fetched when he says the tribal pathalgadi movement – erecting stone slabs to apparently establish self-rule by gram sabha and overthrow the government and its agencies – has the potential to turn Khunti into a mini-Afghanistan.
Nayeemuddin was reacting to Sunday’s pathalgadi ritual in six Khunti villages on Sunday, the biggest of them all in rebel-hit Kochang, where opium farms flourish. Read more
Courtesy: The Telegraph
In what may be interpreted as a controversial move, at least two prominent civil rights organisations, Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P) and Goa Foundation, even as talking of mining rights of the local people, especially tribals, have said that they are ready to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India thrust, provided that locals are “involved” in a reasonable way. Read more
Courtesy: Counterview
Energy cannot be the driving concern for Indian waste. With the proposal to set up waste-to-energy plants, Niti Aayog appears all set to distort waste management beyond repair. Read more
UNDERLINING waste problem as a “serious public health threat”, Niti Aayog’s Draft Three-Year Action Agenda of April 2017, plans to set up 100 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants to deal with 1,70,000 tons per day of municipal solid waste for some 7,935 urban centres. It draws on the May 2014 report of the Planning Commission’s Task Force on WTE and recommendations in the October 2015 report of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Clean India Mission, which recommended WTE plants for bigger municipalities and clusters of municipalities. The Action Agenda states “Incineration or ‘waste to energy’ is the best option” even as Annexure A of the Kyoto Protocol marks out waste incineration as a source of greenhouse gases. This Protocol remains relevant because the Paris Agreement on climate crisis will come into operation only from 2021. Read more
Courtesy: The Tribune
Raising a major policy issue, a top advocacy group, Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P) has regretted that the plight of the “mining children” is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, which looks after all the mines in India, and the result is a strange “mess”: the lives of children as a result of mining has to be addressed by other departments like child welfare, education, tribal welfare, labour, environment and others. Read more
Courtesy: Counterview
