Rejecting the ruling BJD's allegation of discrimination against Orissa, union environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said the matter relating to Posco steel project was in the "state government's court."
Rubbishing the BJD's charge projecting him and the UPA government as "anti-Orissa", union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that neither he nor the Centre was against the state.
Over 500 distressed migrant labourers from Orissa were rescued from a brick kiln in Bonthawakkam village under Tiruvallur district. Tamil Nadu ahead of the International Labour Day on Sunday.
Armed with the final forest clearance order for the mega Posco steel project near Paradip, the Orissa government today decided to resume land acquisition activities from May 18, even as opponents of the South Korean steel major were preparing to foil the bid.
Amidst protest from anti-Posco activists, Orissa government on Wednesday resumed land acquisition work for Korean steel major’s proposed $12,000 (Rs 54,000 crore) steel plant near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district, following union ministry for environment and forest’s final forest clearance to the project on May 2. Priya Ranjan Sahu reports.
A fast track court in Orissa convicted 13 persons on Wednesday for their involvement in anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district in 2008, while another court acquitted 12 others.
At least 10 persons died and 50 were injured due to lightning and wall collapse as incessant rain and heavy wind across northern and coastal Orissa on Thursday evening threw normal life out of gear.
A fast track court in Orissa's Kandhamal today sentenced three persons to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for three years for their involvement in rioting and arson in the December 2007 riots in the communally sensitive district.
Separate CBI teams from New Delhi arrived in Orissa on Tuesday and began probing into the alleged large-scale corruption in implementation of the rural job scheme under MGNREGA, official sources said on Tuesday.
Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said cases against tribals and some others, who had been lodged in jails on charges of Maoist activities, would be withdrawn soon.
Eight police personnel were detained by anti-Posco activists for three hours on Saturday, after a jeep carrying them entered Patana village under Dhinkia panchayat. Priya Ranjan Sahu reports.
Top Maoist leader Duna Keshav Rao alias Azad, wanted in several cases including the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, was taken into three-day custody by the Crime Branch of Orissa Police on Thursday.
After having begun smoothly, land acquisition for South Korean steel company Posco’s plant faced resistance on Friday when a villager refused compensation and tried to prevent the demolition of his betel vine.
Accusing the Orissa government of resorting to forcible land acquisition for Posco steel project in Jagatsinghpur district, five political parties have decided to stage civil disobedience agitation in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
Nearly 500 people, comprising activists and leaders of five political parties, held a demonstration in Bhubaneswar on Monday and courted arrest to protest forcible land acquisition for a steel project by South Korean major Posco, a protest leader said.