Villagers protesting Mittal plant release officials

October 5th, 2009 RANCHI - A day after a noted British paper said steel giant ArcelorMittal was close to pulling out of its proposed steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa, the Jharkhand government Monday said it had not received any communication from the steel maker in this regard. "We have no information that ArcelorMittal is planning to wind up its greenfield steel project in the state," Jharkhand Industries Secretary N.N.

October 5th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR/RANCHI - A day after a noted British paper said steel giant ArcelorMittal was close to pulling out its proposed steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa, the states Monday said they had not received any communication in this regard. "I have no information on that.

September 30th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Two coaches of the Mahananda Express were torched at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh Wednesday by a mob protesting against the closure of the town's 100-year-old railway station. Over 100 villagers stopped the train, which plies between New Delhi and Kolkata, at the station and set fire to the bogies, police said.

September 9th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - A road blockade in Orissa launched by hundreds of people, demanding the immediate release of some villagers, has paralysed traffic along national highway number 23 in mineral rich Sundergarh district, police said Wednesday. The protesters, mostly tribals, have blocked the road near Chandiposh village, some 60 km from the steel city of Rourkela and about 575 km from Bhubaneswar, since Tuesday.

September 6th, 2009 LUCKNOW - An irate mob in an Uttar Pradesh village Sunday chased and beat up two police constables for allegedly not registering a complaint after a Dalit youth was electrocuted, officials said. Relatives and neighbours of the Dalit youth, Raj Kumar, say that certain influential people forced him to climb a tree Saturday and cut a branch that was entangled in a high voltage power line passing above it in Pratapgarh district.

September 1st, 2009 Violent protests in China over sewage plant smellBEIJING — Protests drawing up to 10,000 people flared in eastern China over a powerful stench from a sewage treatment plant with 10 people hurt in clashes, residents and a human rights monitor said Tuesday. The demonstration occurred Monday when angry villagers from Fujian province's Fengwei town confronted 2,000 riot police over a wastewater treatment plant that had fouled local air and water, Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

August 19th, 2009 ROHTAK - A teacher in a government-run school in Haryana's Rohtak district was roughed up by locals before he was arrested for allegedly showing pornographic pictures to the students, police said. According to police, some students told their parents about their teacher's action, following which many villagers came to the school Wednesday and checked the computer of the teacher.

August 19th, 2009 China factory under guard after lead poisoningCHANGQING, China — Dozens of police and plainclothes officers guarded a Chinese smelting plant in central Shaanxi province on Wednesday, days after hundreds of villagers stormed the factory because more than 600 children from two nearby villages had been sickened by lead poisoning. The roads leading to the plant were lined with a heavy security presence.

August 3rd, 2009 Metal leak at China chemical plant leaves 500 sickBEIJING — More than 500 villagers in central China have been found to have high concentrations of a dangerous metal in their bodies after a series of leaks from a chemical plant, state media reported Monday. Of the nearly 3,000 villagers living near the Changsha Xianghe Chemical Plant in Hunan province's Zhentou township, 509 people were found to have high concentrations of cadmium and 33 were hospitalized over the weekend, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

July 30th, 2009 Indo-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE LONDON - It hasn’t been a brilliant week for Lakshmi Niwas Mittal. First the chairman and main owner of steelmaker ArcelorMittal was reported to have put his ‘Summer Palace’, an 11-bedroom mansion set over an acre of land in north London, for rent.

July 5th, 2009 BRUSSELS - Steelmaker Arcelor-Mittal would re-open the second blast furnace at its plant in Ghent, Belgium, in August, EuAsiaNews reported Sunday. The furnace was closed down in April as a result of falling demand of steel worldwide due to the current economic crisis.

June 9th, 2009 Wood pellet producer opens Mississippi plantWIGGINS, Miss. — A $10 million wood pellet plant opened Monday in Stone County and company officials say the 12,000 square-foot facility will produce feedstock for alternative energy.

May 29th, 2009 SHIMLA - Himachal Pradesh Friday entered into an agreement with Kolkata-based Eastern Mineral and Trading Agency (EMTA) for setting up a 500-MW thermal power plant in West Bengal, from where the electricity generated will be transmitted back home. The plant will be established at Raniganj.

April 19th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The Punjab-based International Tractors (ITL), which sells tractors under the Sonalika brand, Sunday claimed it has achieved the highest export sales among all manufacturers in the country during 2008-09. The company posted export sales of Rs.105 crore, an increase of over 262 percent over the previous year, its managing director Deepak Mittal said in a statement.

April 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Global meltdown and falling demand have forced Arcelor-Mittal to delay by two years their proposed steel projects in Orissa and Jharkhand, estimated at $20-25 billion, its India head said here Wednesday. 'The top reason is economic downturn,' Vijay Bhatnagar, the chief of India operations, told reporters on the margins of a steel industry seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).