316 families were displaced from seven villages for the prestigious ICTT at Vallarpadam

“It is a matter of shame for a civilised society to still condemn these families who had sacrificed all their hard-earned belongings for a prestigious project, to a sub-human existence.” This was how the fact investigation committee headed by K. Sukumaran, former Kerala High Court judge, started its report on the rehabilitation process of families displaced for the prestigious International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam.

Green cadets in schools across Ernakulam district will soon be part of a campaign to promote rainwater harvesting.

Designed as part of the National Green Corps project, the aim of the initiative is to involve the youngsters in conservation programmes in the society. As part of the first phase of the programme, school students will distribute leaflets highlighting the need to set up rainwater harvesting units in homes.

Despite the Kochi Corporation putting a ban on dumping of market waste in the Champakkara canal, residents here allege that the orders are not being followed.

As the merchants in the city came out against the decision to restrict parking along main roads in the city, the Corporation authorities and the police are trying to put the blame back on commercial establishments for the present status of traffic obstructions being caused due to parking.

Ensuring that parking spaces available in multi-storey commercial establishments are properly utilised would solve half the problem, said K.J. Sohan, Town Planning Committee chairman of the Corporation. Following complaints that parking spaces are being used for its designated purposes, the City Police Commissioner M.R. Ajith Kumar, as instructed by then Transport Commissioner Sen Kumar, had initiated a special drive sometime back.

After the Supreme Court directive to remove sun control films from car windows, the city is threatened with a new pollutant.

Hundreds of these tinted films being removed on a day-to-day basis, have found a place in the streets after the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) intensified the drive against sun control films. It is estimated that films from around 500 vehicles are removed on a daily basis in the city.

“Students, gather plastic waste and get rewarded,” says the Corporation. And the reward would include grace marks, notebooks and other study materials.

The Corporation’s novel programme is the latest addition to the “Say No to Plastic Waste” campaign which is being carried out as part of the year-long ‘Suchitwa Varsham’ project. “The student who collects maximum quantity of plastic waste will be awarded with grace marks.

District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareed has said that sale of no kind of tobacco products will be allowed near educational institutions.

The district administration has taken a strong stand against tobacco in its recommendations for educational institutions ahead of the new academic year. The committees against tobacco in schools should be formed and start their operations in the first week of June. The committees should file their reports before the district committee in July.

KOCHI: In a major initiative to find a solution to the drinking water woes of West Kochiites, a Rs 1,000-crore project is being prepared by the state government in association with various agencies

KOCHI: Ending a long delay in setting up the bridge cum regulator project across the Periyar River at Pathalam and Purappillikkavu, the irrigation department has finally fixed the dates for opening tenders.

The prequalification tenders for setting up the Pathalam bridge will be opened on Monday. At a time when fish deaths is becoming a frequent phenomenon in Periyar, the ambitious project which could have been a permanent solution in containing the issue of fish deaths, has been facing an inordinate delay.

KOCHI: The ambitious ‘Matsya Samrudhi’ project, mooted in a bid to shore up fish production levels in the rural belts of the state, will be launched in June this year. The state government-sponsored project will jointly be implemented by the Fish Farmers Development Agency, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the Agency for the Development of Aquaculture Kerala (ADAK).

The `195-crore project targets to increase the production by one lakh tonnes within a period of three years. The project is expected to make the state coffer richer by `481.5 crore.