Inaction renders garbage disposal by civic bodies ‘illegal'

Aluva municipality is among seven local bodies in Ernakulam district likely to face legal action for not renewing the authorisation under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 for segregation, transportation and suitable disposal of municipal waste.

KOCHI: Ernakulam District Panchayat vice-president Bindu George presented a Rs 50-crore surplus budget for 2012-13 to the 26-member council on Thursday.

The budget envisages a total income of Rs 920 crore and an expenditure of Rs 870 crore.

Finance Minister K.M. Mani has proposed a two pronged approach to address the state’s worsening waste management crisis with an allocation of Rs 100 crore each for source level waste treatment plants and centralised high tech waste management plants in the state annual budget for 2012-13.

It has been proposed to construct large scale technology oriented waste processing plants in PPP model in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kozhikode districts with an allocation of Rs 100 crores.

KOCHI: A delegation of nearly 60 land owners to be affected by the Kochi Metro Rail-related land acquisition drive along Banerjee Road and the road from Jose Junction to Ernakulam South Railway station, along with Hibi Eden MLA, met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, on Saturday.

The meeting was held regarding the fixing of land price under the project.

Two major Information Technology (IT) buildings in the State, work on which had been taken up without obtaining the mandatory environment clearance, are among the six ventures that have sought approval from the newly constituted State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC).

The first meeting of SEAC, to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, will consider the applications of Leela Lace Holdings Pvt. Ltd. (Leela Soft Pvt. Ltd.) at Infopark Special Economic Zone, Kakkanad; Infopark's project at Cherthala; Cyberpark - IT building project at Kozhikod

Eighteen ‘sarpakavus' spread over nearly 35 acres will be covered under the Kerala Forest Department's scheme to protect and conserve the sacred groves in Ernakulam district this year.

The government move to protect the natural resource comes in the wake of rampant urbanisation threatening the ecology of the sacred groves across the State. Considered as miniature forests and having attributes of large forests, sacred groves are traditionally protected by the local communities as ‘kavus or sarpakavus'.

Leopards straying into in villages nestling along the forest fringes in the State, attacking people and their cattle have become a matter of serious concern.

The killing of a healthy female leopard that had strayed into the small hamlet of Angamoozhy in the Ranni forest division by an unruly mob on Tuesday was the latest in the series of human-leopard conflict in the State.

5.5 km road runs through an environmentally fragile area

The Kerala State Coastal Zone Management Authority (KSCZMA) has recommended that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) provide clearance for the Goshree Island Development Authority's (GIDA) Rs. 97-crore Moolamppilly-Pizhala, Valiya Kadamakkudi-Chathanad Road.

Chennai-B’lore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route will also cover Mysore

The Indian Railways has given a go ahead for conducting a feasibility study on its most ambitious plan to introduce high speed train on the Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam route.

The district administration has stepped up efforts to make Ernakulam tobacco-free.

An official release issued here on Tuesday said that the administration has tightened enforcement of tobacco control laws in the district giving special focus on how to protect children and adolescents from the adverse impact of tobacco use.