A public interest litigation was filed in the High Court recently against the state government, seeking directions to the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) to rectify its faulty norms in according permission for setting up industries without studying the impact on bio-diversity and greenery. The PIL disputed the norms of the APPCB for setting up an industrial unit.

The minister for women and child welfare, Mrs N. Rajyalakshmi, said that irrigation officials had not yet taken up the proposals she gave for some minor irrigation schemes in her Venkatagiri constituency in 2006. She brought this to the notice of the district in-charge minister, Mr Pinnamaneni Venkateswar Rao, during the district review committee meeting held on Tuesday.

A fresh petition was filed at the Andhra Pradesh High Court against the land acquisition for the proposed SEZ in Krishnapatnam in Nellore district. Mr T. Gopal Reddy of Nellore town filed the petition seeking a direction to suspend the notice issued by the mining department for termination of mining lease.

The need for a reduction in carbon emissions was debated at the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (The Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, resulting in the adoption of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty on environment. The Kyoto Protocol, 1998, was adopted by the parties to the UNFCCC with the objective of achieving quantified emission limitations through specific policies and measures to minimising the adverse effects of climate change.

AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Monday urged Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to take steps to prevent the Andhra Pradesh government from going ahead with its plans to construct 10 checkdams across the Ponnaiyaru. In a statement here Ms Jayalalithaa said the Ponnaiyaru was the source of drinking water for Vellore, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur and Thiruvannamalai districts and construction of check dams would deprive these districts of their drinking water supply. The Ponnaiyaru originates in Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and confluences with the Palar in Thiruvalam near Vellore.

The government plans to spent Rs 20,000 crore to develop

Various welfare schemes introduced by forest authorities for the benefit of tribals in the Rampachodavaram Agency region in East Godavari have helped improve their standard of living. A section of tribal youth have even purchased two-wheelers with their earnings. Forest authorities have trained a number of tribal people, mainly youth, in various trades like stitching adda leaves, making bamboo furniture and incense sticks, preparing vermicompost and in the ecotourism project.

With a parliamentary panel finding misutilisation and diversion of tsunami relief funds, an empowered group of ministers (e-GOM) headed by union home minister Shivraj Patil has undertaken a review of the Rs 10,000 crore rehabilitation scheme. Since 2008-09 is the deadline for implementation of the rehabilitation scheme, the e-GoM issued a directive to the affected states and union territories that the work should be expedited to complete the task within the stipulated time.

The East Godavari district planning committee meet, conducted for the second time, witnessed heated arguments between minister Gollapalli Surya Rao and East Godavari Telugu Desam president and local bodies MLC Nimmakayala Chinarajappa on Sunday. The trouble started when the issue of supply of protected water in rural areas was being discussed at the East Godavari zilla parishad meeting hall.

Farmers are suffering huge losses as elephants continue to create havoc in Chittoor district. Elephants once again atta-cked a mango grove and paddy fields and destroyed trees and crops near Nagapatla under Rangampeta pa-nchayat limits in the mandal, late on Saturday night.