Residents of Bantlapalli in Atmakur mandal of Nellore district have been facing severe drinking water problem for the last few years. The village has 500 people and residents suffer from kidney and skin diseases, many becoming disabled as the water available in the village has high quantity of fluoride content. People who are in their 40s have aged and doctors have been advising them to leave the village instead of going for treatment. People have to walk nearly 1.5 kms to the adjacent Khansahebpet village of Marripadu mandal to fetch drinking water.

The Centre has accorded mega project status to the state-owned 1,600 MW Krishnapatnam Thermal Power Project. This means there would be Rs 600-crore savings in the project cost. Delighted over the upgrade, the AP Generation Corporation has decided to expedite opening of price bid by June 3 to built the project. The first super-critical thermal project taken up in the public sector is expected to be ready by June 2012.

The anomaly in the latest tiger census in the state including at the Kawal wildlife sanctuary in Adilabad has raised doubts over the methods of tabulation followed by the officials. The variation in the figures were revealed when Kawal sanctuary officials increased the tiger count from nine to 19 on being questioned by senior officials in Hyderabad on the low number of the animals.

The national rural employment guarantee scheme completes two years and moves to cover all the districts in the country. Has it been worth it?

The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) has come out with guidelines on environmentally sound management of e-waste. The guiding principles come at a time when there is a pressing need for intervention as the e-waste inventory in India is expected to shoot up in the coming years.

From getting chilled in a spa to receiving super-speciality treatment under one roof might become a reality in the near future with a mega health project proposed on the city outskirts. Dubbed

A veterinary Special Economic Zone will be set up at the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy's native Pulivendula Assembly constituency in Kadapa district. This is the first of its kind in the country. The SEZ, which will be developed under the public-private partnership mode, will also have Icrisat and South Africa-based International Livestock Research Institute as promoters along with the state government.

As a war of words rages over biofuels and their impact on world food supplies, researchers in India are promoting sweet sorghum as a crop that combines the best of both worlds. The plants, which grow three metres high in dry conditions, yield grain that can be eaten by people or animals; their stalks provide sweet juice for bioethanol production and a crushed residue that can be burnt or fed to cattle.

CEMENT companies agreed on Wednesday to reduce prices by Rs 3-7.5 per 50 kg bag with immediate effect in most states. The reduction will be on the price prevailing on April 1, 2008. The move comes close on the heels of price cuts announced by the steel industry. The government, on its part, has promised to look at the issue of abatement of excise duty on cement.

The right of way for the pedestrians envisaged as per the original concept of the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) comes under threat at the proposed BRTS corridor in the city. In the BRTS corridor report, as being presently proposed, the pedestrians are likely to face the threat of getting sandwiched between buses and the railings of bus stops.