The acute drinking water shortage and the failure of the door-to-door garbage collection scheme dominated the proceedings of the monthly meeting of the local Municipal Corporation (MC) today. The councillors demanded that residents should be provided adequate drinking water at least on alternate days. Expressing concern over the acute water scarcity in the capital most of the councillors demanded that concrete steps must be taken to provide relief to the people.

India may finally have an answer to China's rail link to Tibet. Inspired by the rail link to Lhasa in their backyard, the Himachal Pradesh government is now planning one right through Manali into Leh. The state's Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has written to the PMO to help develop the virtually non-existent rail infrastructure in the strategically important state and has suggested that a broad gauge rail link be created right up to Leh and Ladakh.

Hydel power exploitation in the state sector will get a major boost with the Asian Development Bank sanctioning a loan Rs 3,200 crore to the government for the execution of three major power projects.

The Himachal Pradesh government has started deliberations with the World Bank over earning carbon credits from the forest cover of the state. The credits would come as financial gains in return of effective sequestration of carbon emissions done by state forests.

After introducing a scheme to save electricity by popularising the use of energy-efficient CFL lamps, the state plans to undertake energy audit of all government buildings to help reduce power consumption by at least 10 per cent. This was announced by minister of forests and environment J.P.Nadda while launching the seven-week "seeti bajao, Shimla bachao' campaign to check littering of the "Queen of Hills' involving schoolchildren.

The Forest Department has made elaborate arrangements to prevent and control fires during the summer. Special attention will be paid to sensitive and fire-prone areas. Fire lines have been made to prevent fire from spreading and local people are being motivated to protect forests.

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) is in the dock again over the completion of 12-MW Khauli hydel project in Kangra district, completed at an estimated cost of Rs 126 crore. The per MW generation cost of the project is about Rs 10.50 crore as against Rs 10.20 crore on the 126-MW Larji project, which was until now considered the costliest hydel project in the country.

Just three days after Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal launched the Rs 80-crore energy saving scheme, designed to provide free compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) to all domestic consumers, Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board has called the country's top CFL manufacturers to work out modalities for the scheme's implementation.

AGRICULTURE, food and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday frustrated attempts by the Congress Left-combine to put the blame for the current bout of inflation on opposition-ruled states.