Mumbai: The national allocation for the midday meal scheme in the interim budget announced on Monday remains the same as last year. The programme, which is one of the world's biggest school-feeding schemes, has been given Rs8,000 crore for 2009-10.

DODAMARG & SAWANTWADI: On the back of the recent border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka over Belgaum, here comes a territorial dispute of another sort. The Maharashtra Forest Department is in a bind over what to do with three elephants that strayed over from neighbouring Karnataka and caused havoc in the state.

Thane residents say no to waste tax RESIDENTS of Thane city are not willing to pay tax for the garbage that goes out of their homes each day. The Thane Municipal Corporation in November 2008 had proposed a nominal solid waste tax for scientific disposal of garbage. The target was to collect Rs 3.16 crore a year. But the civic body gave in to pressure from corporators and people who were

People come to the Bhima river in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, to rejoice. They leave behind a drain Pandharpur, a pilgrim town on the banks of the Bhima river in Maharashtra, hosts four religious yatras every year. Over two million people take part in these yatras, which celebrate, among other things, four months (chatur maas) of Lord Vishnu

Five years ago, in what seemed to many as a scam in the making, a plan to exploit part of the huge 226-acre Mahalaxmi racecourse for commercial purposes created a major uproar among citizens. Civic activists, environmentalists and NGOs got together to oppose the plan, which they said was yet another attempt by the builders' lobby to grab one of the last major open spaces in the island city.

Mumbai: State forest minister Babanrao Pachpute is drawing flak from environmentalists again. Earlier, he was criticised for threatening non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for opposing a proposed coal mining project in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district, east Maharashtra.

Mumbai: It's time the world woke up to the threat of global warming, says Harriet Nimmo, CEO, Wildscreen, which delivers the world's biggest wildlife and environmental film festival. Nimmo, along with nine environmental filmmakers from the UK, is in the city as part of the British Council-organised Wildscreen Festival.

Mumbai: With the state's revenue deficit almost reaching Rs2,300 crore due to a drastic fall in revenue collections, Maharashtra's debt burden has touched Rs1.54 lakh crore this fiscal.

Also, with expenditure on employees reaching 49% and a revenue deficit of 5% as a target, development work in the state is expected to take a hit.

Mumbai: With an aim to generate funds through development of Metro rail stations on the second Metro corridor, the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) are undertaking a pilot study on the impact of commercial utilisation in and around one station along the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor.

Yavatmal: Whenever Vidarbha