Tamarind seeds has antiviral properties and can potentially be used to develop antiviral medication for chikungunya, according to a research by Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee. The research conducted
Private company accused of plundering natural wealth A private company has been allegedly extracting high-quality Shahbad stone slabs illegally at Wadi and villages near Chittapur in Gulbarga district for the past several years. According to Ashok Dahinde and Nariman Irani, the shareholders of Wadi Stone Marketing Company, the firm was quarrying stone even after its lease had expired in 1992.
Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Chairperson A S Sadashivaiah said on Monday that there are over 3,000 small-scale industrial units functioning without licence in the State. Sadashivaiah said 500 such illegal units are located in and around the Peenya industrial hub. Many of these units don’t even have a licence from authorities concerned and don’t comply with pollution norms.
Probe agency says AMC mined 40,000 tonnes of ore illegally The CBI, in its charge sheet in the illegal mining case pertaining to the Associated Mining Company (AMC), has quantified the loss caused to the State exchequer at Rs 480 crore. The CBI had registered an FIR in the AMC case on October 1, 2011 on the directions of the Supreme Court against Janardhana Reddy and 22 others.
The Kudgi power plant, the foundation stone for which is set to be laid on Saturday, has kicked up a controversy with environmentalists opposing the project on the grounds that it would adversely affect health of the people in the region, besides harming the ecology. M P Patil, a retired scientist from the Department of Atomic Energy, has filed a petition before the National Green Tribunal seeking that the permission granted on January 25 this year by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to the 2,400-MW power plant in the first phase should be withdrawn.
The Centre is likely to sanction Rs 294 crore as grant for drought relief to Karnataka. This means that the State gets just eight per cent of the total relief of Rs 3,605 crore it had sought from the Union government. Secretariat sources said the Centre had indicated to the State that a final decision would be taken at a high-level committee meeting in New Delhi, either on June 1 or 2.
‘Replace multiple food items with single recipe for better consumption’ A committee set up by the High Court has suggested that the menu for children in anganwadis comprise fewer but tastier and more nutritional items to check malnutrition. The committee, set up to look into deaths of children due to malnutrition in Raichur, has recommended that multiple food items provided under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) should be replaced with fewer items to ensure better consumption among pregnant women, lactating mothers and children.
The High Court on Tuesday directed Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), a defence PSU, to furnish documents pertaining to the source from which iron ore had been obtained and exported. The Court was hearing a plea by Subramanya Shastry, an Andhra Pradesh-based share holder of BEML, who has alleged that Rs 118-crore worth iron ore was illegally exported by the company during the financial year 2007-08 without bill of lading.
The first project to be taken up in the State by the National Thermal Power Corporation requires 3,500 acres of land, of which 1,923 acre has already been acquired. The NTPC officials held a meeting with the farmers on Saturday and cleared the way for acquisition of rest of the land by agreeing to pay a special compensation of Rs two lakh per acre.
Authority is building underpass to help mall builder, say Koramangala protesters In its hurry to implement the signal-free project in the City, the BDA felled 32 trees in Koramangala on Saturday. The BDA is planning an underpass at the St John’s Hospital junction as part of the project. The move is in direct contravention of the conditional permission to fell trees issued by BBMP. The permission had been given after BDA gave an undertaking that BDA would consult the Palike before awarding the contract to fell the trees and deciding on the disposal of the chopped trees.
Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.
