British High Commission-supported project to promote use of renewable energy

The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an international organisation offering technical consultation, training, and information services for capacity building and support to local governments in the implementation of sustainable development will soon come out with an action plan to reduce carbon emissions in the city.

JAIPUR: Jaipur is among the five cities in the state where malaria control activities would be monitored on a regular basis. The move came after the Centre directed the state to intensify monitoring in the five districts as deaths were reported due to malaria in 2011. Four malarial deaths were reported in the city in 2011.

Besides, three districts, including Bikaner, Barmer and Jaisalmer, have attracted the attention of the Centre as malaria cases have increased in western parts of the state.

JAIPUR: In a bid to facilitate hassle-free movement for pedestrians, the Jaipur Development Authority is planning to develop footpaths on major city roads.

In this regard, the Jaipur Development Authority's engineering wing has been directed to prepare a status report on city roads on the basis of which the design for the footpaths will be drafted. JDA chief engineer Lalit Sharma said, "The footpaths will be designed according to the road width and the vehicular movement. The plan for footpath on every city road will be different."

The Rajasthan Government will shortly launch a pilot project under the Rajiv Awas Yojana at a cost of Rs.400 crore for providing housing facility to about 12,000 people living in Sanjay Nagar slum colony here. The project forms part of the drive for providing better infrastructure and amenities to the urban poor.

State Principal Urban Development Secretary G. S. Sandhu said at a consultation on urban poverty here that the pilot project would pave the way for full-fledged implementation of the Union Government's ambitious housing scheme. The State Government intends to give land title to slum dwellers and would bring an Act for this purpose, said Mr. Sandhu.

JAIPUR: Rajasthan will be the first state in the country where global positioning system (GPS) would be installed in around 1,000 buses of the state-owned Rajasthan State Roadways Corporation (RSRTC). The installation process would begin from Tuesday onwards. This system will not only enable the authorities to keep a track on the long-distance buses but will also facilitate them to put a check on things like theft of diesel which has been a big concern since it was rampant with the RSRTC buses.

JAIPUR: The Jal Mahal land lease agreement dispute reached the Supreme Court on Thursday, as was widely anticipated.

The private company, the Jal Mahal Resorts Pvt Ltd that was to lose the lease after the Rajasthan High Court declared the agreement illegal, filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court, challenging the verdict passed on May 17. The SLP was mentioned before a division bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya that directed that the case to be listed again on Friday.

JAIPUR: The department of telecommunication (DoT), government of India, in its letter to the state government has made it clear that the emission level from the cellphone towers in Jaipur is well within the limit and indicates that it poses no threat to human life.

Addressed to the chief secretary, the letter says, "Radiations in the city are within safe limits and absolutely follow the international standards". It added that no excessive radiations emitting from the towers were found by the DoT. GS Sandhu, principal secretary, urban development and housing confirmed the development. "We have received the communication from the DoT and it stated that radiations under the safe limit".

JAIPUR: When the state government is gearing up to promote the technology to produce fuel out of wastes, a similar arrangement in the city is failing due to alleged sapathy of Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) in providing solid waste to one of the private companies which has set up its plant here.

A private player has established an industry to process municipal solid waste on the outskirts of Jaipur to generate 130-140 tons of refuse derived fuel (RDF) out of 400-500 tons of waste per day.

JAIPUR: Following the empowered committee's directions that was constituted to develop Pink City as a world-class city, the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) on Monday will start its anti-encroachment drive in the Walled City area.

During the 10-day drive JMC is targeting to remove temporary encroachments from the roads and verandas in the Walled city area. The authority, however, is not planning to remove any permanent encroachments during this drive.