A delegation of slum dwellers of Kusumpur Pahari village here led by Vasant Kunj Municipal Councillor Rakesh Rajora called on Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday urging her to allow the residents to continue living in the village after construction of rehabilitation flats for them. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rajora observed: "The villagers have been living here for the past 35 years with their families. The Government has a policy of providing a two-room flat to each family on payment of Rs.2 lakh. While Rs.1 lakh will be paid by the residents, the remaining Rs.1 lakh will be granted as a loan that will be recovered in instalments spread over 25 years.' According to Mr. Rajora, besides rehabilitating the residents, the Chief Minister should also ensure provision of basic civic amenities like electricity, drinking water, dispensary and a community centre in the area. Addressing the gathering, Ms. Dikshit encouraged the residents to make sure of educating their girl children and said the Government would deposit Rs.10,000 in the name of the girl children born in the families residing in Kusum Pahari village. "When the girl reaches 18 years of age, this amount would increase to Rs.1 lakh which could be utilised in furthering the education of the child.' The Chief Minister advised the gathering to not only educate their girl child but also train them in vocational skills such as computers, embroidery and tailoring so that they would have no problem in seeking employment when they grow up.

Power Minister A.K. Walia on Tuesday reviewed the progress of the new power plants coming up in Delhi and those entirely dedicated to supply power for Delhi. Addressing the high-level meeting, the Minister said efforts were being made to make available adequate power supply during Commonwealth Games-2010. He said the foundation stone laying ceremony of the 1,500 MW gas-based Pragati Power Project at Bawana would be held soon and this would pave the way for implementation of the power plant. The first 250 MW turbine of this plant would be commissioned on February 25, 2010, whereas the entire project would be operationalised in October 2010. Dr. Walia also exhorted the concerned agencies to initiate actual work on the 750 MW gas-based Bamnauli Power Plant for which possession of land has been finalised. This plant is scheduled to be commissioned in October 2011 and its first turbine would become functional in May 2011. More power Delhi would also gain from the dedicated coal-based plant at Dadri in U.P. which is expected to provide 760 MW power to the Capital city from October 2010. Also, the Aravali 1,500 MW coal-based power plant at Jhajjar in Haryana is expected to become functional in October 2010. This, Dr. Walia said, would supply 750 MW power to Delhi.

While the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government may boast of having successfully implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme across the country, the real story in the national Capital is that graduates and post-graduates have taken to begging due to lack of employment opportunities. They may be indulging in an opprobrium-filled career, but there are the rich and middle-class among them that can put to shame many well-educated people in the country. This news about beggars in Delhi may make the salaried class feel small. A survey conducted by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) of the Delhi University shows that six graduates and four post-graduates are beggars and they earn anything between Rs 200 and Rs 500 daily, depending on where they pick conduct their business. The best areas are religious sites, major red light intersections and markets. That adds up to Rs 15,000 per month, a salary level that is attained by a post-graduate after slogging for a few years in the normal course of events. According to the survey, eight beggars earn between Rs 200 and Rs 500 per day in the Capital. The DSW interviewed 5,003 beggars to take stock of the begging menace in the city following the direction of the Delhi High Court last year. As per the survey, out of the 506 beggar respondents who were literate, 321 (9-10 per cent) were educated up to the primary level followed by 175 (4.56 per cent) beggars who were educated up to the secondary level. The survey reports that beggars earn anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 500 per day. There are approximately 58,570 beggars in the State, and the majority are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Delhi also making a fair contribution. Interestingly, most of the beggars who were interviewed were aware of the fact that beggary had been made illegal by the Government. Around 54.13 per cent beggars responded that they were aware that begging was illegal while the rest of the others said they did not know It also shows that either the beggars are unafraid of the law or that it is not being implemented properly. For many, asking for alms was a family profession,only a few said they were forced into it by someone else or were part of a gang. A large majority live on pavements (1,082), near temples (644) and under bridges (406). Although the department is still in the process of finding out about those who have a physical deformity, whether someone actually caused it or if it was genetic or due to a disease. That they were opting for begging as the best career option can also be gauged from the fact that their age category was between 13 and 19 years. Surely, they could have done some other work, but chose this particular mode of earning a living as it generated greater cash on a regular basis plus and did not entail much physical exercise.

On January 10, the day Ratan Tata launched his much-awaited cheapest car in the world, one of the TV channels aired a panel discussion, mostly featuring auto industry experts. With the exception of Sunita Narain, head of the Centre for Science and Environment, nobody even remotely acknowledged the enormity of the daily travel crisis. If Nano sales take off in a big way, the roads may even get completely clogged. The Nano is a cost and engineering marvel, and a well meaning entrepreneurial endeavour. But the promise of individual mobility will end in collective gridlock. The pro-Nano panelists uttered the usual platitudes about the crying need for more infrastructure. Undoubtedly, a lot more roads are needed. But building more roads by itself will never solve the problem. Cars will expand to fill up the available space, the automobile version of Parkinson's Law. In Los Angeles, despite frequently building ten-lane highways, officials predict that travel times will double by 2020. Besides, the legal and other costs to building roads in cities in India are huge

Over two lakh residents of five villages in Outer Delhi have a stinking problem: living with a sewage treatment plant (STP) as their neighbour. The plant is part of the Capital's initiative to sanitise 189 villages with an "appropriate sewage disposal mechanism' by the end of 2009. The villagers moved the Delhi High Court recently, through a registered society called Gramin Uthan Avam Jankalyan, to halt the plant's construction. A Bench led by Justice T S Thakur, though, dismissed the petitioners' contention. The court observed that it was high time that sewage treatment in Delhi began on a "war-footing', and that there was no "real and compelling reason for interference in public interest'. The petitioners claim at 200 metres, the plant is too close for comfort, and would add to diseases and pollution in their area. "The STP will adversely affect the environment by breeding mosquitoes and spreading viral diseases and foul smell,' the petition says. The plant was meant for treating sewage of five villages

With 1.67 million cases of malaria and around 1,000 deaths last year, the government has changed the drug policy and directed states from January this year to introduce the ACT (artesunate and sulpha pyrimethamine) combination as the first line of anti-malarial drug treatment in chloroquine-resistant areas. Dr G S Sonal, Joint Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP), told The Indian Express that there has been concern over the increasing number of plasmodium falciparum (PF) cases of malaria. India contributes to 77 per cent cases of malaria in South East Asia. PF in the 70s amounted to less than 15 per cent of the malaria cases, but this has now gone up to 50 per cent of the total malaria cases. Moreover the dangerous PF has developed resistance to chloroquine in various parts of the country. Sixty-five per cent of cases of malaria in various pockets of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal are due to PF and drug resistance to chloroquine is high here. Chloroquine however is useful in states like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At least one million ACT course drugs will be supplied to the high endemic states. So far the government had supplied 20 crore tablets of chloroquine in the country. This quantum of drugs will be slightly reduced, Sonal said. According to Dr A P Dash, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), the PF species of malaria is spreading wider due to migration of population from endemic to non-endemic areas and drug sensitivity studies from various states have observed that there is resistance to the drug chloroquine - which is being used as the first line of treatment for malaria cases. The last time the policy was revised was in 2003. Vaccine for malaria Two sites have been selected for trial of a vaccine against malaria. Epidemiological and immunological data will be collected from the sites selected in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to test the vaccine. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi, has developed the vaccine and will be tested at these two sites, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research Dr A P Dash said.

A two-day workshop for "Prevention and Control of Vector and Water-Borne Diseases' organised by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi opened at India Habitat Centre here on Monday. Inaugurating the workshop, Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra emphasised the need to sensitise children to take preventive measures for control of vector and water-borne diseases. "A separate action plan formulated for children will be implemented in municipal schools, public schools and aided schools. This plan will create awareness and will also target residents' welfare associations, slum dwellers and municipal employees,' she added. Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri congratulated the civic body for taking the initiative of organising the workshop and said, "It is only through vigorous efforts of the MCD that dengue cases in the Capital are on the decline. Local bodies such as the Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Railway Board should come together in a joint endeavour to control diseases.' Addressing the gathering, MCD Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta said the action plan proposed during the workshop would be implemented from April 1. Health Committee Chairman V. K. Monga and Municipal Commissioner K. S. Mehra were among those present on the occasion.

Ever wondered how many different kinds of winged friends share the city with us? Better still, how many species can one spot in a single day

India will host the first four-day global conference on agro-industries, to be held in Delhi from April 8, 2008. The Global Agro-Industries Forum (GAIF) will promote the importance of agro-industries for economic development and poverty reduction, a press release of GAIF said. Around 500 senior representatives from the agro-industry, governments, technical and financing institutions, civil society and UN agencies will discuss the potential of agro-industries and the challenges they are facing. The conference will be jointly organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in close collaboration with the Indian government. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh will officially inaugurate the Forum on April 9, in the presence of The FAO director-general Jacques Diouf, UNIDO director-general Kandeh K Yumkella, IFAD president Lennart Bage. Rapid globalisation, market liberalisation, and urbanisation have created new opportunities for countries to trade agricultural and food products. However, they have also created challenges and increased risks. Countries with inefficient agro-industries are likely to be left behind those with modern and efficient agro-industries. While high-income countries add, on average, US$180 of value by processing one tonne of agricultural products, developing countries generate only $40 of value per tonne, the press release said. Increasing the market opportunities particularly for small-scale producers in rural areas, by improving their production, processing and marketing capabilities, will be one of the main issues of the conference. Delivering better products at lower prices could be beneficial for poor consumers and could also create employment opportunities. The GAIF will also encourage dialogue between the private and public sector in order to foster partnerships for developing competitive agro-industries.

PWD officials are hopeful that this work would be completed in a couple of months