Environmentalists protesting the entry of the toxics-laden ship, Oriental Nicety, into Indian territorial waters got a shot in the arm on May 7 when the Supreme Court ordered that the vessel should not be allowed to dock in India. The ship was to reach Alang on May 9 for ship-breaking. The vessel has a dubious history—it was responsible for the infamous Alaska oil spill of 1989, which reportedly damaged over 1,700 sq km of coastline.

Even as candidates contesting municipal seats in the national capital make their rounds of residential colonies to seek votes, citizens and waste-pickers' associations are angered by the election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

IN his Budget speech this year, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee forecast a bright future for the Indian economy, announcing fiscal 2012-13 to be a year for revival. At the same time, he ensured that the “pro-market” Budget took one more step towards limiting Parliament’s role in crucial economic decision-making.

Justifying the controversial waste-to-energy plant set up at Okhla, Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, has said the emissions from the Jindal plant are well within the limits set under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.
 

A day after reports emerged that India may partially boycott the 2012 Olympics, the Indian Olympics Authority and sports ministry has said they are yet to reach a decision. The ministry says due to public outcry the Centre wrote to the International Olympic Committee registering their protest to Dow Chemicals' sponsorship of the event. Activists campaigning for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims, however, say the government is not serious about taking a firm stand.

In order to provide a more transparent process for converting agricultural land to other uses like residential and commercial, the Rajasthan housing and urban development department is all set to amend the state's land revenue Act in the forthcoming budget session. Government officials say the new amended Act will ensure systematic development and leave little scope for corruption.
 

Anyone who has tried to return used compact fluorescent bulbs or lamps (CFLs) so that they are disposed safely, knows the task is next to impossible. Disposal of CFLs is a major environmental concern because these bulbs contain mercury, a neurotoxin, which can damage the brain and cause behavioural disorders. But there is no law yet in India to ensure the safe disposal of CFLs, though it was supposed to be in place beginning 2012.

THIS is one series of court cases the nation is following keenly. Within one week, in December last year, a criminal and a civil complaint were filed against 20-odd online giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo for hosting anti-religious and anti-social content on their websites. While the judge hearing the civil case ordered immediate removal and blockade of all controversial content from the web forums named in the plaint, the trial court summoned their top executives for violating the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The companies then approached the Delhi High Court for relief, citing that the matter of hosting objectionable content has been oversimplified and does not address the nuances of the way the Internet works.

The way paan is associated with India, a Chaurasia is associated with paan. But both the equations are changing, said Lalta Prasad Chaurasia, spitting blood red betel juice into an elegantly designed brass spittoon. The 58-year-old is among the last generation of Chaurasia farmers in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh who have witnessed betel leaves yield a fortune. Both betel leaves and the Chaurasias are an integral part of Mahoba’s history. The district is known for its betel gardens and the Chaurasias are India’s exclusive community devoted to betel farming. But they are now finding it difficult to sustain the family occupation.

MAHABUBNAGAR

A  Shekhar, 25, committed suicide a year ago. A resident of Burgupalle village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahabub - nagar district, he had bought half a hectare (ha) for growing paddy.

With the fear of losing their means of living looming over them, waste pickers from across the country have opposed Delhi government’s plan to install three waste to energy plants in the city.

“How can the proposed energy generation of 40 MW justify the loss of 350,000 jobs,” asks Dharmendra Yadav, general secretary of All India Kachra Sharamail Mahasang (AIKSM) which organised a state-level meet of waste pickers on December 22.

In an attempt to reduce corruption, bureaucratic delays and long paper trails, the Punjab State Pollution Control board (SPCB), has decided to give clearances online. At present, this facility is available only for big industries with an investment of Rs 15 crore and above, but will soon be extended to other industries.

The Central Pollution Control Board is in talks with pollution control departments of eight states to begin remediation work at 12 sites which have been contaminated by highly toxic waste waste. The recently launched National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) has approved Rs 60 crore for preparing detailed project reports for the sites. Activists say the exercise might turn out to be a theoretical one.

TO TACKLE the waste generated by the booming health industry, the Union environment ministry plans to amend the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules of 1998. The ministry had posted the draft rules on its website in August for public comment and is evaluating the recommendations.

Residents of Jamsher village in Punjab's Jalandhar district are up in arms against a proposed waste-to-energy plant in their village. At the public hearing on the proposed municipal solid waste management project held on Friday, the residents appeared well-informed and raised pertinent questions. But the district authorities as well as the company consultants were unable to answer the queries. When contacted, the company spokesperson refused to comment.
 

The Madras High Court has revoked the ban on the drug formulation phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and all its combination drugs available in the market. PPA is commonly used in cough and cold medications and is also used as a nasal decongestant; it was approved by the drug controller's office about 20 years ago. The ban was imposed by the Centre in February this year following a recommendation of an expert committee. The court revoked the ban on September 9 following a petition filed by pharmaceutical giant Cipla.

On September 7, a draft of the Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill of 2011was tabled in Parliament which was different from the one published in July for public comments. The changes in the draft now seem to favour agencies acquiring land rather than the land owners. Certain features offering safeguards and better compensation to farmers have been diluted, say activists.

TO BRING in transparency at the panchayat level, Punjab is planning to reintroduce direct election, in which village residents choose their sarpanch. The state had switched to indirect election in 2008. Under the system elected panchayat members chose a sarpanch among themselves.

RIGHT to property is a Constitutional right. The Supreme Court said this on April 18 dismissing acquisition of land by the Uttar Pradesh government near Greater Noida. The judgement has stirred a long-standing debate over property—whether the State has the supreme rights or the individual owner.

WITHIN six months of its implementation, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), intended to boost development in Naxalite-affected regions, is heading for a change. At present, the plan is being directed by district-level committees with no public participation. The Planning Commission wants to alter this arrangement by imposing conditions on release of funds.

INDIA’S tiger habitats may be shrinking but its tiger population has increased, claims the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). On March 28, the ministry announced 295 tigers have been added to the previous estimate—the 2006 count had estimated 1,411 tigers in the wild, spurring corporate-sponsored save-the-tiger campaigns revolving around the number.

It took the Jharkhand government a murder, an abduction and angry protests to stop construction of a dam that began in a tribal heartland without informing people whose land was acquired.

Villages in Jharkhand could go dry by March. The state is facing acute water crisis because of two consecutive drought years.

The rapidly changing demography of Jharkhand, a state carved out of Bihar in 2000, has given a disturbing twist to the panchayat elections held in the region after more than three decades. Perhaps for the first time in the country, there were no candidates even to file nominations in a large number of panchayat seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Tribes (ST). No nomination was filed for almost 2,000 posts in the first three rounds of the five-phased panchayat elections.

While covering the recently concluded panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, the photographer and I happened to stop at a crowded polling booth in Keliya village of Kaunch district, about 150 km from the town of Jhansi. We were looking for “election pictures”, and a group of five or more women wearing bright blue, pink, green and yellow sarees coming towards the booth seemed ideal. These were the first panchayat elections post the central government’s ordinance that 50 per cent seats be reserved for women.

Panchayats and municipal bodies will now have three times more money to spend—at their own will. The 13th Finance Commission has pushed for greater autonomy for local governments by vesting spending power in their hands instead of the state, while increasing their non-plan expenditure from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 63,000 crore. The money is to be distributed among local bodies in the next five years, which amounts to Rs 12,000 crore per year or Rs 4 lakh per panchayat.

THE Gujarat government is again pushing for legislation that makes it mandatory for all adult citizens to vote during panchayat and municipal elections. Those who fail to cast their votes would have to report to the authorities within a month. They would have to give valid reasons for not voting, else they would be labelled defaulters.

FOUR months after the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) cleared a thermal power project in Vizianagaram district in north coastal Andhra Pradesh, two civil society group moved the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) challenging the decision.

A high court order has not deterred a distillery in Sitamarhi district of Bihar from discharging effluents into the Bagmati. On January 27, the Patna High Court had ordered the Bihar State Pollution Control Board (spcb) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to check pollution from Righa Sugar Company distillery and take appropriate action.

Surprise was in store for Sushil Kaushik when in 1989 he first joined duty as a constable in Serkot in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district. He had no idea how corrupt police officials can be.

What do US soldiers deployed in Iraq face?

Severe mental problems. The dominant one is ptsd. It leads to depression, manic depression, paranoia and other mental health imbalances.