After a brief lull, quarrying of river sand commenced in five places on Monday, taking the total number of re-opened sand quarries to 12.

On Wednesday last, seven quarries resumed operations. Of the 12 functioning quarries, five are on the Coleroon river (two each in Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts and one in Ariyalur); five on the Cauvery (four in Karur and one in Tiruchi) and two on the Gundar (both in Virudhunagar), according to officials of the Public Works Department (PWD).

Environmental clearances granted last year to Public Works Department for sand quarrying in 21 places on the river beds of Coleroon and Cauvery are now under the scrutiny of the National Green Trib

‘NLC poised to substantially increase power generation capacity’

The first unit of the 1,000-MW Tuticorin thermal power project (2x500 MW), now under construction, is likely to be commissioned in December 2013 and the second unit by March 2014.

“There is no sand mining in the 20 mining points along the stretch of River Cauvery since Sunday as the flood has made sand mining impossible.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is facing a water deficit of 11%, says a report. This is bad news, coming as it does at the beginning of a torrid summer.

Illegal sandmining, plotting out of agricultural lands, and allegations of departmental apathy ignited sparks at the farmers grievance meeting here on Thursday.

Allegations against some panchayat presidents abetting transfer of cultivable lands to real estate was brought to the attention of the Collector T.Munusamy. Speaking of increase in the letting of agricultural lands to real estate plots, Kaveri Danapalan, Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association called for reining in of illicit transfers. Similar complaints on sand quarrying were raised, and the administration was requested to divert sand quarrying to water bodies that required rehabilitation.

Relief to be disbursed immediately through PAC societies.

Fisheries Minister K. A. Jayapal launched the Solar Energy Peoples Movement to promote solar power-based activities in the district at a function here on Wednesday.

The Minister said that the Chief Minister has a vision of developing Tamil Nadu as a world leader in solar energy and introduced Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy 2012 with that goal. The government intends to make solar energy a people’s movement.

The Centre should extend Rs. 1,000-crore aid to farmers of Tamil Nadu who have been facing an unprecedented drought in the wake of monsoon failure, P. Shanmugam, State general secretary, Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, said.

He told reporters here on Monday that nine farmers in various parts of the State had committed suicide recently, owing to crop failure. The Chief Minister did not announce relief for their families. Each family should be compensated to the tune of Rs. 10 lakh, besides being provided government jobs.

Committee makes note of the “preparedness” shown by it

The manner in which the State Government responded to the outbreak of dengue fever during the recent epidemic is a model that can be emulated elsewhere in the country, B.K. Tyagi, Director, Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME), here has said. A national-level committee formed recently by the Union Health Ministry to investigate into various public health issues had taken note of the “preparedness” shown by the State Government, its Health Department and public participation in tackling dengue outbreak, he said.

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