Hindustan Zinc has decided to plant one lakh saplings at its sites in Rajasthan to mark World Environment Day. Its zinc-producing mine at Rampura Agucha in Bhilwara district has started plantation of 70,000 saplings as part of the ambitious drive.

Inaugurating the drive on Tuesday, Bhilwara Collector Onkar Singh said the district administration would make available wasteland to Hindustan Zinc to include it in its plantation drive. “This unique initiative will surely become a benchmark for other corporate groups to follow.”

The country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp (HMCL) on Monday announced that the company will invest Rs 800 crore in Rajasthan for projects spanning across verticals like manufacturing, research and development (R&D) and a global sourcing hub.

“We will be setting up our fourth plant at Neemrana in Rajasthan. The company will invest Rs 400 crore for the plant, which will have an installed capacity of 7.5 lakh units per annum.

JAIPUR: The medical, health and family welfare department managed to achieve only 85.09% of target set for full immunization of infants against various diseases in the financial year 2011-12.

The latest figures released by the health department shows that nine districts have failed to touch even 80% of the set target.It shows that there are nearly 15% of children left out from fully being vaccinated against various diseases. The vaccination targets were fixed on the basis of birth rate of the district.

JAIPUR: The state government will send a proposal to the Centre to formulate a policy on "possible" health hazards due to mobile towers without affecting mobile coverage, principal secretary, urban development and housing (UDH) GS Sandhu said on Saturday.

Sandhu was addressing a gathering of telecom experts, telecommunication officials, doctors and NGO activists during a seminar on 'Ensuring Public health & Safety in the Mobile Industry' organized by ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry) at Officers Training School.

JAIPUR: Just five days after a labourer was killed and several others had a narrow escape in Harmara area, villagers alleged that unsafe mining practices have resumed in over 50 licensed stone mine

Mandatory To Get Permission For Land Use Before Conversion

Jaipur: The urban development and housing department has framed rules for Section 90A of the Land Revenue Act, 1956, paving way for conversion of agriculture land to non-agriculture. Shifting from the earlier practice of seeking permission separately for land conversion and land use, the rules under Section 90A binds applicant to obtain a prior permission for land use before applying for the land conversion.

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has proposed to constitute a committee to ascertain the veracity of allegations that the radiation emission from mobile phone towers are beyond the permissible limits and as to whether they are harmful or not.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati asked counsel for petitioner as also the state government and advocates appearing for respective telecom companies to assist the court by suggesting names of eminent scientists, experts and other persons who could be part of the committee.

It seems the state government and the police have met a dead end when it comes to curbing illegal mining. At one level, labourers are getting killed due to poor safety standards or mine collapses. At another level, when the police are asked to pull up socks against the mafia, they themselves are attacked.

On Monday, in Asojai village on the outskirts of Jaipur, one mine worker was killed and three others injured when a portion of a mine collapsed. On the same day, a braveheart policeman was mowed down by mining mafia in Dholpur when he attempted to stop trucks carrying stones.

JAIPUR: Giving its final verdict in the Ramgarh dam case, the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday ordered that encroachments from water bodies across the state be removed and the illegal land allotments made close to them since 1955 be cancelled.

The state government has been told to plan for a drive to remove encroachments in the water bodies' catchment areas after getting a survey done using remote sensing techniques or other mechanisms. The government has been directed to issue instructions to all municipalities and panchayat bodies to not let residential colonies come up in the water bodies' catchment areas.

JAIPUR: A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday directed for a spot checking of radiation emission from any two mobile towers conducted with the assistance of instruments provided by BSNL and sought an independent report on Wednesday.

The court directive came after it rejected the radiation emission report prepared by telecom enforcement resources and monitoring (TERM ) cell of the department of telecom, New Delhi.