NMDC, India`s largest iron-ore producer, on Wednesday denied media reports which quoted that the company has plans to set up conventional and non conventional power projects and fertilizer plant. The company does operate in non conventional power through 7 wind mill towers with an aggregate capacity of 10.5 MW, it clarified.

The company`s focus is on acquiring overseas properties especially in the field of iron ore, coal, manganese and fertilizer minerals through international investment division called NMDC Global, it said whiling explaining its operations related to fertilizer segment.

Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO) has encroached about 650 acres of government land at Korba town in Chhattisgarh, the state assembly was informed Wednesday.

'BALCO has illegally encroached about 650 acres of government land but Chhattisgarh High Court had recently given its rulings in favour of the BALCO. The state government is yet to take a view whether it should move the Supreme Court or not,' Revenue Minister Amar Agrawal told the assembly in reply to a question by Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey.

Raipur, March 9 (IANS) As many as 20 girl students suffered a sun stroke and fell unconscious Tuesday at a government school near Chhattisgarh’s capital city, officials said. They have been hospitalised.
The incident took place at a school in Urkura village on the outskirts of state capital Raipur.

Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Tuesday announced that he along with his Cabinet ministers and the legislators of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will declare their assets in the state Assembly.

Not wanting to be left behind, Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey also said he and the members of Congress party in the legislative assembly would disclose details of their properties.

The announcement made by the Chhattisgarh chief minister is in line with the decision taken by his Madhya Pradesh counter-part Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

RAIPUR: As many as 22 coal blocks have been allotted to private companies in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh in the last 10 years.

"Twenty-eight coal blocks have been identified for private firms. Till date 22 have been allotted," a mining department official told IANS here. Of the 22 blocks, mining has begun in just six.

The state government has signed 71 agreements with power companies in the last 10 years to set up thermal plants. Tw companies - Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Lanco Amarkantak Power Pvt Ltd - have commissioned their plants, the official said.

Over 600 poor people from Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district alone have been kept as bonded labourers in others states, a minister told the state assembly Tuesday.

'Hundreds of people from Chhattisgarh have been kept as bonded labourers in various states and the government is doing its best to free them and bring them back to their home state,' Labour and Agriculture Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu informed the assembly in reply to a question from Congress member Mahant Ramsundar Das.

In the week ending 3.3.2010, sugar and pulses prices have declined in most of the centers where prices are monitored by the Department of Consumer Affairs. Prices of othercommodities have generally remained steady at most of the reporting centers.

Sugar prices have declined at Delhi, Jammu, Dehradun, Mumbai, Ahmedabad,Raipur, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar and Chrnnai. An increase has been reported atBangalore.

Gram dal prices have remained steady at most of the reporting centers and declined at Delhi, Mumbai, Raipur, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai and Hyderabad.

President Pratibha Patil on Monday said the Bill for the reservation of women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies has been taken up by Rajya Sabha for its “logical conclusion“.

“The women of our nation did get a head-start in free India, as universal adult franchise was adopted.This was not the case in many other countries, where women had to strive to get their voting rights,” the President said at the launch of National mission: Socio-economic empowerment of women, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Citing the patriarchal society, the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj blamed the male mindset which according to her acts as a hurdle to secure political empowerment of women.

Talking to journalists in Raipur on Sunday, Swaraj asserted that the political empowerment for women is most important since it will lead her to assume a position of authority that gradually would pave way for the overall upliftment of women.

Raipur, Mar 8 (PTI) Some unidentified persons abducted an Army jawan from a Naxal-infested village in restive Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh this morning.

The jawan had been identified as Vivek Singh, a native of Kukanaar in Dantewada district. He was posted in the security wing of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Bastar.