Report an infant's death and get Rs 50 as reward! The Health department has come out with a novel plan to collect data about infant deaths across the state. It will give Rs 50 as reward for every infant death reported by a health worker.

While the state is still awaiting adequate rainfall, most of the lakes, ponds and water bodies are driying up fast.

What has made matters worse for the aam admi, mainly farmers, is the erratic power supply beacuse of which the government-owned tubewells have also come to a standstill.

LUCKNOW: The population of Lucknow has almost doubled in the past two decades and so has its demand for water. Today population of the city is nearly 30 lakh. A population of one lakh, including migrants, is being added every year. Although the Jal Sansthan says that water demand is about 480 million litre daily (mld), unofficially the demand today is said to be over 800 mld.

LUCKNOW: The week-long Van Mahotsav would come to a close on July 7. The Green Run-2009 will mark its formal conclusion on Tuesday. The run will start from KD Singh Babu stadium at 7.00am on the day and end at GPO Crossing.

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Mayawati on Thursday said that she would not impose any additional tax on the increased prices of diesel/petrol in order to give relief to people. The state tax input on the diesel would be 9 paise now sold at Rs 34.50 per litre and 22 paise on petrol sold at Rs 47.70 per litre after the price hike on Wednesday.

LUCKNOW: Pending since 2005, enactment of the UP Ground Water Conservation, Protection and Development (Management, Control and Regulation) bill will take some more time. The ground water department has decided to put the draft of the proposed law on its website for public objections and suggestions before starting the legislation process. This, if all goes well, may take at least an year.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress would stage demonstrations all over the state on Saturday to register their protest against acute crisis of power and drinking water.

In an attempt to encourage people to plant saplings on private land, the Forest department has instituted the Kanshi Ram Conservation award.

Forest Minister Fateh Bahadur Singh announced the institution of the award at the inauguration of the Van Mahotsav at Vardaan Khand of Gomti Nagar here on Wednesday.

LUCKNOW: Lucknowites need to wait a little to avail forest department's scheme to provide `plantation at one's doorstep'. Though it has been in existence since August, 2008 the delayed rains have put it on hold for some time.

June 24: The famous mango belt of Lucknow that spans over the entire Malihabad region may get transformed into a guava belt in the coming years if the present trend continues.

More and more mango growers in the region are planting guava trees in their orchards due to a plethora of problem relating to mango cultivation.