The tug of war between the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) and the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) over "who will cap the Curca garbage dump?' may have ended but the work of capping the dump is yet to start though the monsoon is not far away. The work had to be completed before the monsoons to ensure that polluted water does not reach Curca village. The CCP which has been directed by the High Court, last week, to cover the garbage dump with tarpaulim before the monsoon of 2008, has not been able to start the work for want of funds.

Even after spending crores of rupee on the relaying and upgrading the city's sewer lines under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), civic body can hardly heave a sigh of relief that they have given the city dwellers respite from waterlogged streets during the monsoons. Thanks to the century old sewer lines and age-old pumps at various pumping stations. Moreover, engineers are also skeptic about the fate of these pumps once de-silting and sewerage-relaying projects under the JNNURM are completed.

MUMBAIKARS looking for some respite from erratic rainfall predictions as experienced on 26/7, are in for a disappointment. Reason: The much-awaited installation of a Doppler Radar for accurate weather forecast continues to be stalled for one reason or the other.

Monsoon is not far away. According to meteorological scientists it might come earlier. Heavy rain during monsoon washes away a lot of road. Moreover, the low quality roads cannot stand even light rains. Condition of roads is not that good in the State. Several roads start becoming worn out soon after their construction. Though all the roads are not of low quality work. It is about those roads which are of low quality. Several roads which connect different cities are not good which were constructed before some days. Pot holes could be seen in these roads at various places.

With only two weeks to go for the pre-monsoon deadline for road and drain works to be completed, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is struggling to meet the demands of the newfound stress on preparedness for disasters. First, even after allocating an additional Rs 110 crore for its works on widening and deepening the Mithi river, officials are unable to promise that a swollen Mithi will not cause floods as it did in 2005.

A continuous lake record elucidates how Saharan climate changed gradually from humid to today's desert conditions.

Desiccation of the Sahara since the middle Holocene has eradicated all but a few natural archives recording its transition from a "green Sahara" to the present hyperarid desert.

To tie up with traffic department, railways and cellphone companies to keep citizens informed This monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will rope in a brand new slew of initiatives to cause minimum inconvenience to citizens during emergencies or major floods. While civic officials seeking to monitor water-logging will soon approach the Traffic Police to set up a mechanism to obtain video feeds from 64 important traffic junctions that the traffic department's CCTVs monitor for traffic offences, real-time weather updates will also be uploaded on the BMC's all-new portal.

deposits in Sanbao cave in Central China tell the story of the region's climate more than 200,000 years ago. They also reveal the working of the East Asian monsoon over timescales that range over

After the failure of government in controlling inflation now there is hope on clouds. It is believed that if monsoon comes in time and rains properly , production of crop would be good and rates of food grains would lower itself. But the scientists of meteorological department said that normal rainfall is likely during monsoon. Inflation has hit commodities most and it has brought great concern before the government. Flour, pulses, rice and edible oil like commodities are out of budget. When the government efforts were not successful the traders have left hopes from government.

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