District Panchayat Convenes Emergency Meet Today

Kochi: The district panchayat has convened an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the growing complaints of sewage and septic waste being dumped in the outskirts of the city. Most of these complaints are from Perumbavoor, Kunnathunadu and Muvattupuzha, which have turned a dumpyard for waste suspected to be from residences in Kochi.

Thrissur: Palakkad, one of the major rice producing areas in the state, is staring at the worst drought in recent times. As per a study conducted by the agricultural department, out of the 43,000 hectares of paddy fields in the district, 6,050 hectare have been affected by drought this season.

Palakkad principal agricultural officer G Sudarsanan said, “The report shows, Alathur, Kuzhalmannam, Malampuzha, Nenmara, Chittur and Kollangode blocks have severely been affected. The estimated loss in paddy cultivation due to drought is Rs 24.13 crore this season.”

Thrissur: A panel constituted to work on demarcating ecologically-sensitive zones around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the state on Monday visited the Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad and held deliberations with the public.

The panel members, comprising MLAs T N Prathapan, N Shamsudeen and state wildlife board officials, decided to recommend to the Union ministry of environment and forests to declare the entire 148-sq km buffer zone around the park as an ecologically-sensitive zone.