The National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) will cover 100 cities, including the four metros and Bangalore, in the first phase. Of the 429 cities identified for the five-year-mission, which aims at improving the health of the urban poor and other disadvantaged sections, facilitating access to the health system, the remaining 329 will be covered in the second phase. This will benefit 22 crore people, with the focus on a five-crore slum population. All cities with a population above one lakh, State capitals and even district headquarters will be brought under NUHM purview. "This is the second largest health programme that will fill the lacunae created after the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and take care of the unmet needs in the fast urbanisation process,' Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told The Hindu here on Wednesday. The Rs. 9,159-crore mission, to be launched in a few months, would focus on private participation and insurance. "The scheme is likely to take off much faster due to awareness, presence of non-governmental organisations and better accessibility in the cities.' The Ministry proposed to implement the programme by strengthening the existing systems, rationalising manpower and resources, and filling the gaps in service delivery through private-public partnerships. "The guidelines for administration and operationalisation of the mission will flow from the NRHM which will then be implemented by urban civic bodies,' Dr. Ramadoss said. As far as possible, the NUHM would converge with institutional structures such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission and the Integrated Child Development Services. The mission would need 4,500 Urban Health Centres acting as focal points; of these 2,500 existing structures would be strengthened, followed by priority to private-public partnership and creation of infrastructure. Each centre would be a referral point with the facilities of out-patient department and maternal healthcare. Accredited Social Health Activists of the NRHM in the cities would be known as Urban Social Health Activists, each catering for a population of 2,000.

The 10th Venu Menon National Animal Award's Ceremony was recently held here. Kapila Vatsyayan, Member of Parliament; Sathya Saran, renowned journalist and editor, DNA; MK Ranjitsinh, chairman Wildlife Trust of India; KB Menon, chairman, Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation graced the occasion and conferred awards on six individuals, two organisations and one community for making a difference to the lives of animals by acts of kindness and extraordinary courage. Fred O'Regan, president of International Fund for Animal Welfare, delivered the 8th Venu Menon Memorial Lecture on the occasion. Vivek Menon, managing trustee of Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation and executive director of Wildlife Trust of India while addressing the event said, "In ten years, the awards ceremony has grown to a national event of great importance among the animal welfare and wildlife fraternity. This is the best tribute to Venu's memory that the foundation can hope for.' The Venu Menon Animal Awards are India's premier private awards that commemorate excellence in animal welfare. Started in 1998 in the memory of Venu Menon, an animal lover and a highly respected and successful Communications Consultant.

The 2005 report of the Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India reveals that the forest and tree cover in Delhi now stands at 19.09% of the total geographical area which is an increase of 15 sq km over the 2003 assessment. The survey report attributes this increase in open forest cover of the total forest cover to plantations carried out in the capital. Like all other states, Delhi has to reach the target of expanding the green cover to 33 per cent of the capital's geographical area by 2021 to meet the requirements of the National Forest Policy. Environment secretary JK Dadoo said the assessment of 2005 is information in retropect and a lot of greening action has happened between 2005 and 2007.

With three more cases of meningococcaemia reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases this year up to 64, the spread of the potentially deadly disease is still far from being checked. The toll so far this year is 10. However, the number of cases reported till date this year is still much lower than the last two years.

Dhalaos will soon be a thing of the past. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) hopes to begin door-to-door garbage collection in Shahdara (south) in next 45 days. They also plan to float tenders to invite private parties to carry out the collection in Najafgarh and South zone within the next three weeks.

The new MCD commissioner K S Mehra took over charge on Wednesday from A K Nigam. Mehra had served as the principal secretary (Urban development) before this and is a 1978 batch IAS officer.

New Delhi: In what could be a fresh headache for government, a petition challenging the constitutional validity of a pet UPA project, the Forest Rights Act aimed at giving land rights to traditional forest dwellers, has been filed by prominent wildlife groups in Supreme Court.

Gram panchayat members of 19 villages have demanded that the compensation for land acquisition be increased from Rs.75 lakh per acre to Rs.2 crore. At a meeting organised by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Goel at Alipur here, it was pointed out that the Delhi Government had increased the compensation from Rs.25 lakh per acre to only Rs.75 lakh per acre in the last ten years, "even though the market price in these areas had gone up to Rs.3 crore per acre'.

The weeklong Auto Expo, which concluded in Delhi on January 17, showed contrasting trends

The Delhi Government has taken possession of land given by the DDA for construction of a gas-based power plant at Bamnauli. The 50 acres that will be owned by the Delhi Government and leased to the Power Department has fetched the DDA Rs.109 crore. The land will be used for setting up a 750 MW gas-based power plant. Power Department officials said the environment impact assessment would now be carried out by NTPC and the plant would be completed by 2010. A MoU has already been signed with Petronet for supply and purchase of gas.