Villagers inside Sariska refuse to be relocated
Rajasthan, which had prided itself on leading the way in relocation of villagers from its tiger reserves, is now facing a backlash. Villagers living inside Sariska reserve are in agitation mode and are refusing to be relocated.
Their complaint is that the `10 lakhs being offered to them by the government is completely inadequate. Gujjar leader Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla is also supporting their agitation which is also being fuelled by mine owners who operate on the boundaries of Sariska and who want to restart their mining operations.
The villagers complain that if these “influential people are being allowed to acquire land around these reserves, why should they be asked to move out?”
The situation in Sariska is made more complex by the large number of pilgrims that visit the Hanuman temple located inside the reserve every Tuesday and the presence of a national highway cutting through the park which has seen an increase in vehicular traffic. With noise levels having risen dramatically, it is no surprise that the tigers in Sariska are not breeding.
This agitation has now spread to the Pench Tiger Reserve where the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has come up with what it claims is a new solution to ensure NH-7 is allowed to cut through this reserve.
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Cabinet defers decision on telecom policy
MUKESH RANJAN
New Delhi, May 24
The Union Cabinet on Thursday deferred a decision on the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 and unified licensing regime, as the information and broadcasting ministry raised objection over denial of its right of issuing airwaves to radio and television broadcasters.
The agenda note for the meeting of the Union Cabinet, which was circulated on Wednesday, had NTP and unified licensing regime as listed items, but with a dissenting and clarificatory note issued by the I&B ministry, it was decided to drop the item from the list for consideration, sources informed.
As per the policy draft note, department of telecommunication (DoT) has been entrusted to control the entire spectrum and only it could have auctioned the airwaves both to media broadcasters and mobile telephony and data transfer companies.
“If the proposal had been approved, the role of I&B ministry would have been limited only to information and controlling all the broadcasting services would have gone to the DoT. The I&B ministry, through its note, wanted the government to clarify its position on the issue,” sources said.
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