JAIPUR: The districts in Udaipur division have reported a significant decline in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has notified the Mukundra hills sanctuary as the third tiger reserve in the state.

Jaipur: The famed hill forts of Rajasthan are inching closer to get the World Heritage Site status.

At the moment, seven forts-- Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Gagron, Ranthambore, Amber, Jalore and Bala Kila are on the UNESCO tentative list.
“The UNESCO team was in Jaipur on Monday to discuss the nomination of ‘Hill forts of Rajasthan’ for the world heritage site status. The ‘Hill Forts of Rajasthan’ are strategically built in a series and located on the oldest mountain range of the Aravallis or the Vindhyan range in the region. We made a presentation on all the forts and answered all their queries. Later, we took them to the Amber Fort,” said Rakesh Srivastava, principal secretary and commissioner, tourism.

The cold wave tightened its grip over most parts of North India on Monday claiming six more lives in the region, which wore a blanket of fog in the morning.

Five more persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh, taking the toll during the past two days to 10 in the State, while a beggar died in Samba district of Jammu. The fog reduced visibility in the national Capital. The minimum temperature was 7.7 degrees Celsius, said the weatherman, forecasting a foggy Tuesday morning. The maximum was 19.1 degrees, three notches below normal.

Jaipur: A division bench of Rajasthan high court on Monday issued notices to the state and Central governments seeking their response to a PIL seeking to nullify the first-come-first-serve rule adopted for allotment of mining leases for precious minor minerals in the state.

The order came on a PIL filed by one Battulal Meena who challenged the rules framed under Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1986. The PIL claims that the lease for extracting minor minerals like limestone, marble, granite etc, are being allotted under firstcome-first-serve basis while low quality and less priced mineral stones like chezza stone is being awarded through public auction which is highly arbitrary and whimsical.

Even as protests continue at Kudankulam, sources here said the Government had for the first time agreed to allow an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team to conduct safety review of two atomic power plants located in Rajasthan.

“Public confidence has to be built by transparency. We are getting legislation to strengthen regulatory bodies and as a related measure the IAEA’s Operational Safety Review Team [OSART] will visit Rajasthan in November. India will study its report and take on board suggestions. The Government’s position is that more needs to be done on safety aspects,’’ added the sources.

With the monsoon below normal this year and particularly patchy across a few regions, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra are exploring cloud-seeding options to bring rains.

Two workers at the Rawatbhata Atomic Power Station in Rajasthan have suffered exposure to high doses of radioactive tritium and are under observation.

The incident took place on June 23 at Unit 5 of the plant during routine maintenance work."There was no abnormal release of radioactivity to the environment," Nalinish Nagaich, Executive Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited said from Mumbai.