SmartCity Kochi has failed to secure environment clearance within 45 days as declared by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on January 31. The company has not even filed a fresh application for environment clearance.

The Hindu had reported on January 30 that the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) had deferred its recommendation for environmental clearance for the first phase of the project.

Initially, 15,000 litres will be treated a day for which a cost effective technology has been developed.

The State government has on Wednesday given in-principle approval to the district administration’s proposal to treat the water accumulated in abandoned stone quarries and distribute it as drinking water using the reverse osmosis technology. A meeting to discuss the proposal in detail will be held towards the end of this month, District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareed told The Hindu after meeting Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash. Fund for the project has been sought from the drought relief fund.

There is only one such facility, named IMAGE, at Palakkad to handle the biomedical waste generated in hospitals and medical institutions across the State

The Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Limited, which runs a Common Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (CHWTSDF) at Ambalamedu, has submitted a detailed project report to the State government and the State Pollution Control Board seeking approval to set up an incinerator for the treatment and disposal of biomedical waste.

Collector can order closure of buildings not conforming with safety parameters

The district administration is gearing up to crack down on high rise buildings in the city functioning with scant regard for fire safety measures. District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareed told The Hindu that suo motu inspections will be carried out randomly in high rise buildings to verify whether they conformed to the mandatory fire safety parameters. The District Collector can order the closure of buildings not confirming with safety parameters invoking his authority as Executive Magistrate.

316 families were displaced from seven villages for the prestigious ICTT at Vallarpadam

“It is a matter of shame for a civilised society to still condemn these families who had sacrificed all their hard-earned belongings for a prestigious project, to a sub-human existence.” This was how the fact investigation committee headed by K. Sukumaran, former Kerala High Court judge, started its report on the rehabilitation process of families displaced for the prestigious International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam.

Mullaperiyar Special Cell chairman M.K.