The Andhra Pradesh Government has issued comprehensive norms for buildings, restricting construction in some areas and offering incentives for those making adequate provision for parking and space.

Many areas in Secunderabad Cantonment are reeling under a severe water scarcity. The cantonment civilian population requires over 75 lakh gallons of water every day against the present supply of less than 40 lakh gallons. Citizens and elected ward members said a major water supply pipeline laid between Mahindra Hills and Karkhana for the supply of additional 10 lakh gallons water per day had been awaiting the release of water for two years.

Once phase-I of Godavari project is commissioned, the water will first reach Hitec City, Sainikpuri, Cantonment, Kapra, Alwal, Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpally, Rajendernagar and Serilingampally areas. In other words, the residential colonies of surrounding municipalities, which are reeling under severe water scarcity, will be the first among the beneficiaries to receive Godavari water. To put the internal distribution system in place for the supply of Godavari water in the city alone will cost nearly Rs 500 crore.

These firms were allotted hundreds of acres of land at a pittance. Many have been promised jobs but few have actually got them,” he said. Since the factories did not honour their commitments, the government should take over the lands and return them to farmers,” he warned.

The cement factories were also causing environmental havoc, making life miserable for locals, he added. Farmers who are suffering from the negative effects of cement factories within a radius of 10 kms should be paid compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre annually.

The CAG in its latest report on land allotments in Andhra Pradesh, related to the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government tenure, found fault with the allotment of land for his school “in violation of Andhra Pradesh Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules 1960,” which prohibits alienation of lands forming part of historical sites.

The ministry of forest and environment has refused to lift the moratorium on environmental clearance to set up new projects in the Visakhapatnam industrial cluster. In January 2010, the Centre ruled that projects meant for critically polluted areas and industrial clusters, as identified by the Central Pollution Control Board, would not be considered for environmental clearance. The Pollution Control Board prepares time-bound action plans during the period of moratorium to improve the quality of environment in these industrial clusters.

Cairn Energy India Pty Ltd. (CEIL), on Tuesday, said it had discovered oil in Nagayalanka-SE-1 well in the onshore block of Krishna-Godavari Basin.

CEIL, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd. (CIL), has notified the management committee — comprising Director-General of Hydrocarbons, ONGC and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas — of the discovery in the onshore block KG-ONN-2003/1.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has launched an awareness campaign to drive home the point that there is no risk of explosion associated with a nuclear power plant.

This comes in the wake of Nuclear Power Corpo-ration of India Limited’s plans to set up 20 mega-nuclear power plants in the country, including a “nuclear park” at Kovvada in Srikakulam district.

With the AP High Court’s ban on sand quarrying coming into force across the state on Sunday, the real estate sector has sent an SOS to the government, asking it intervene and tackle the “crisis”.

According to buil-ders, the construction costs will go up by about 15 per cent in the short term, as sand constitutes between 8 and 11 per cent of the total building cost.

Alarm bells rang out at the launch of the month-long DC campaign on e-waste management in the city on Sunday.

Before anybody pushes the panic button on the issue, speakers at the inaugural,—US consul general Jennifer McIntyre, TCS(Head), Accreditation, South India, A.K. Pattabiraman, Madras University VC G. Thiruvasagam, MARG CMD G.R.K. Reddy came up with possible solutions.