Every time Sampada Desai, deputy sarpanch of southern Maharashtra's Kalne village in Dodamarg taluka sees the solitary hill in her village, her eyes moisten.
Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is a man in a green hurry. On November 27, he dispatched a special official messenger from Delhi to serve a showcause notice to Lavasa City's promoters to stop construction for violating the Environment Act.
The 25,000-acre Lavasa in the Sahayadri mountains near Pune is independent India's first planned hill town.
The controversial Adarsh Housing Society at Colaba in Mumbai has lost its water and electricity supply after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority revoked its No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the society. Whether it will lose 25 illegal floors out of its 31 is giving sleepless nights to the owners of the 107 flats.
