Aimed at making Kannur water-rich district in four years

The Kannur Water Conservation Society (KWCS) will launch long-term groundwater recharge activities in view of the depletion in groundwater level and contamination of water resources in the district that raise concerns about a severe drought situation. The society, which was established in 1995 and is now chaired by District Collector Rathan Kelkar, has chalked out a comprehensive water conservation scheme to be implemented in the district to make Kannur a water resources-rich district over the next four years.

Since quarrying resumed after a ban, prices go up by 40%

Public protest is mounting against the sky-rocketing price of granite products and the increase in granite quarrying activities in Wayanad district. Though the district administration had banned the functioning of quarries on revenue land for nearly seven months following a Supreme Court directive, quarrying was resumed nearly a fortnight ago with the State government intervening in the issue on the ground that the ban had adversely affected the construction sector in the district.

Montek lauds proposal to set up separate capital development fund

Kerala’s annual Plan for 2013-14 has been fixed at Rs.17,000 crore, which is 21 per cent higher than that for the year 2012-13.
This was decided at a meeting held by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his team with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his officials here on Monday.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is contemplating a detailed study into the feasibility of using compressed natural gas (CNG) as a cheap alternative fuel to run its buses in view of hike in price of high speed diesel.

The exhaustive study is being planned as the KSRTC management is still sceptical about the Rs.100 crore CNG plant proposed by the Union Petroleum ministry for Kochi to overcome the crisis of having to pay market rates for HSD.

The Kerala River Protection Council has called upon K. Kasturirangan, chairman of the high-level working group on Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), not to dilute the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil committee.

It claims the report marks the beginning of a totally different planning process involving the local people as envisaged in the Panchayati Raj system.
In a letter to Dr. Kasturirangan, council vice-president V.N. Gopinatha Pillai and environmentalist Thomas P. Thomas alleged that no government had given the required attention to the deteriorating environmental conditions of the Western Ghats.

IPPAI Conference,April 10 - Ancillary Services, New Technology and Alternate options

Moves afoot to form task force under the Revenue Department. The Industries Department is understood to have mooted a proposal for constituting a task force under the Mining and Geology Department to check the exploitation and transportation of metals and minerals.

27 e-toilets have been installed in Pathanamthitta district

The Additional District Magistrate H. Salimraj has directed the Keltron as well as the Eram Scientific Solutions Limited that had installed e-toilets in different parts of the district to ensure trouble-free functioning of all the 27 e-toilets in the district in the next one week itself.
The ADM, leading a team comprising Babu George, former District Panchayat president; P. N. Madhusoodhanan, Sanitation Mission district co-ordinator; Prasanth R. Nair of the private company, and Chinchu Prasad, Keltron representative, had inspected all the 27 e-toilets installed in the district on Saturday following complaints of certain technical snags at various toilets.

State told not to treat eco protection as a soft subject

The State government has failed to implement various Centrally sponsored projects aimed at rejuvenating the Pampa, the Vembanad Lake, and the Kuttanad water system, N.K. Sukumaran Nair, Pampa Parirakshana Samiti (PPS) general secretary, has said. Mr. Nair told The Hindu that the government should stop treating environment protection and nature conservation as soft subjects.

Survey in March records steady depletion

While skyscrapers increase in height and density at the cost of natural water resources like paddy fields, the groundwater level in the district has touched a new low this year. A March-2013 survey by the Groundwater Department of their 54 sample wells across the district show a steady depletion, ranging from 1 m to 20 cm, in groundwater level.

The work of the Rs.200 crore worth projects funded by the National Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) aimed at infrastructure development in the endosuflan-affected localities in the district will be inaugurated at Bovikkanam near here on April 5.

The function would be inaugurated by Social Welfare Minister M.K. Muneer and Agriculture Minister K. P. Mohanan, P. Karunakaran, MP, said at a prèss conference here on Tuesday.