AFTER creating a record of sorts in setting up Mahindra World City, the first SEZ at Chengalpet near Chennai, Mahindra group has embarked on yet another dream project. This time, the $6 billion-group plans to build a mega integrated township costing over $1.1 billion within the SEZ in the next five years.

THE air almost crackles with heat. The faces of the children are wilting. A gaping hole in the back wall leads to the 'kitchen', a sooty mess, which lacks not only a gas connection but also vessels to cook.

CAN a peacock, considered to be the National Bird, die of starvation? That too in a Lord Muruga Temple? ( Mythologically, Lord Muruga travels on Peacocks). Death of a peacock in Parry's Kandasami Temple, also known as Muthukumara Devastanam on April 3 ruffled many a feather as some persons in the know attribute the death to starvation. Veterinary doctors say it died of some poultry disease.

Water connection charges for houses of less than 500 sq.ft have been reduced to Rs. 100, according to M.K. Stalin, Local Administration and Rural Development Minister. This was being done to enable people belonging to economically weaker sections of society to get the water connection easily, he said, wrapping up the debate in the Assembly on the demand for grants to his departments.

The work on the 100-million-litre-a-day (MLD) seawater desalination plant at Minjur, on the northern outskirts of Chennai, is progressing expeditiously, Local Administration Minister M. K. Stalin informed the Assembly on Tuesday. Initiating the debate on the demand for grants to his department, he said the work would be completed this year. ILF-Mantech, an independent consultant, was appointed to monitor the work. As per its bulk water purchase agreement with Chennai Metrowater, Chennai Water Desalination Limited should deliver 15 MLD next month and 100 MLD in August.

Certification for semi-processed leather questioned Quarantine issues The annual imports of skin and hide through the Chennai port are estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore. Quarantine issues do not arise in the case of semi processed leather, which is chemically treated, says trade body. The manufacturers have also taken up the issue with the Department of Animal Husbandry at the Centre, and a notification clarifying the issue is expected. R. Balaji Chennai, April 2

It's just not the consumption of tobacco, which is dangerous. Its marketing techniques, including advertisements, also have negative consequences. A recent survey of school children in Chennai and

>> Journalists were killed in unusually high numbers in 2007, making it the deadliest year for the press in more than a decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' end-of-year