Describing plastic bags as highly economical and popular among residents, a government panel has said it is not possible to put a blanket ban on its use in the Capital. The panel consisting of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) officials, which recently submitted its report to the Delhi High Court, has also put a question mark on Delhi Government's decision to promote degradable plastic bags.

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.

Acknowledged as one of the biggest sources of pollution in the Capital, the coal-based Indraprastha power plant should not be allowed to operate till 2010 as has been proposed by the Delhi Government, say experts. The Indraprastha plant along with the other coal-based plants in the city -- the Badarpur thermal power station and the Raj Ghat power station -- have been criticised for not just lagging behind in power production but also for not being environment-friendly.

Hospitals in the Capital have been asked to check and prevent breeding of mosquitoes on their premises to ensure that malaria and dengue are kept under control this year.

While it had opposed tooth and nail the much talked about Bus Rapid Transit corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate that was earlier called the High Capacity Bus System, the Bharatiya Janata Party has now pledged itself to facilitating a similar "high capacity bus' system in the Delhi Cantonment area should it be voted to power in the Cantonment Board elections due this Sunday.

Residents of AN-AM Block of Shalimar Bagh here are waging a war to save their greens that include 80 full-grown trees and a local park that they claim would be destroyed if the Government goes ahead with its plans to construct a multi-storey underground parking lot to accommodate the growing number of vehicles. The residents have also appealed to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and senior officials to save their greens.

The euphoria over the prospect of Delhi getting additional power in the coming months has died down and as things stand the city could well be in for a long sweltering summer ahead. While the Centre is yet to agree to the State Government's demand for 400 MW from the un-allocated pool, the 250 MW from the Damodar Valley Corporation that the city was promised is also not being supplied. According to officials in the Union Power Ministry, the Capital will get the assured quantum from DVC, but for now the city's wait has just got longer.

A discourse analysis of court documents in slum-related cases from the past 25 years leads to the conclusion that the basic statement that "slums are illegal' is a very recent juridical discourse and the rise of court orders to demolish slums is due to reinterpretation of nuisance law. The "new nuisance discourse' that arose in the early 2000s re-problematised slums as nuisances and became the primary mechanism by which slum demolitions take place at present.

There was not even a single voluntary response to the Delhi government's ambitious scheme of persuading operators of old diesel-run light goods vehicles (LGVs) to switch over to new CNG-run vehicles by offering them a whopping Rs 80,000 (12.5 per cent) tax incentive per vehicle. Out of a total of 38,500 diesel-run LGVs registered, over 5,000 are between 14 and 15 years old The scheme which was announced in February this year to persuade owners of 14 to 15 year old diesel-run light goods vehicles to switch over to more eco-friendly CNG-run ones, closed on April 30.

Unable to reach out to their families and friends in cyclone-hit Myanmar, and unhappy with the pace of rescue work in the country, Burmese nationals living in Delhi have begun collecting money and garnering support to help the affected people. These Burmese nationals, some of whom have been living in the city for over a decade now, are collaborating with the monks and celebrities who are involved in the aid work back in Myanmar.

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