Scheme coming for free distribution of medicines through public hospitals and health centres

The government will expand the scope of the NRHM to all towns and cities, by converting it into a National Health Mission (NHM), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Wednesday. In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort here, he said the government was also formulating a new scheme for distribution of free medicines through public hospitals and health centres.

The much-awaited solid waste management project in Jamshedpur was set rolling on Wednesday with the signing of a concession agreement between Jamshedpur Urban Agglomeration (JUA) and Gurgaon-based

The failure of the city’s two important dumping grounds to handle garbage efficiently has forced the civic administration to approach the steel conglomerate Jindal Group to set up a waste-to-energy plant.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has approached Jindal Ecopolis — a subsidiary of steel major Jindal SAW Ltd — to set up a waste incineration plant at one of its three dumping grounds. The civic administration is planning to approach the Asian Development Bank to fund the project.

GANDHINAGAR: The state government has told Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar that out of a total urban population of 2.57 crore in Gujarat, "nearly 2 crore people, 80% of the urban population , are likely to face drinking water crisis".

Of this, 1.60 crore population belong to the eight municipal corporations, while the rest, around 40 lakh, to 69 municipalities, the state officials stated while making a presentation before Pawar and his team. The issue which needs to be urgently addressed is about drilling new tube wells, installation of additional hand pumps, laying connecting pipelines, and supply of water through tankers, the presentation said.

‘45 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2086 crore approved under JnNURM in country’

Union Minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy said an integrated solid waste management project at an estimated cost of Rs 29.85 crore has been approved by his ministry under the UIG component of JnNURM. He was speaking at the inauguration of third international conference on solid waste management ICONSWM-2012 at the N R Narayana Murthy Centre of Excellence here on Monday.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Reconstruction Mission (JNNURM), 45 solid waste management (SWM) projects at a cost of Rs 2,086 crore and 70 projects of Rs 409 crore have been approved so far in different states by the Urban Development Ministry, Government of India. JUNNURM has listed 65 mission cities for financial assistance for urban development in the country.

“These projects are in the different stages of implementation,” Union Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy said in Mysore on Monday, highlighting the efforts of the government to tackle the SWM problem in urban India.

Play a dry Holi, save water — reads a newspaper advertisement put up by the state drinking water and sanitation department. But the department for one doesn’t seem to practise what it preaches.

We Indians have got so used to seeing garbage spilling over from municipal dustbins at street corners and often even strewn around in open public spaces, that we accept this phenomenon as inevitabl

In its effort to decongest the city and prohibit parking on footpath and encroachments especially by street vendors, the Corporation will formulate a parking policy by November.

The civic body had already entrusted an agency Civitas Urban Solutions with the preparation of a detailed study report focusing on the parking patterns suitable for the city.

We Indians have got so used to seeing garbage spilling over from municipal dustbins at street corners and often even strewn around in open public spaces, that we accept this phenomenon as inevitable. We look the other way with what seems like futile hope that some day, someone will find a solution to our problem and rid us of this major health hazard of urban living in India.

The integrated solid waste management project in Kanpur offers hope. Located on the western bank of the Ganga, Kanpur is an important industrial city of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. With a population of 36 lakh (3.6 million) and a total area of 260 sq kilometres,