The Jammu and Kashmir government is spending Rs 500 crore to raise 40 important infrastructure projects including construction of roads and bridges in Kashmir division, a senior official said on Sunday. Work has already started on 32 projects, Mehboob Iqbal, divisional commissioner, Kashmir said while addressing a meeting convened here to review the pace of work on the road and bridge projects. Iqbal said adding Rs 278 crore are being spend on 16 road projects while the economic reconstruction agency is incurring Rs 42 crore on construction of 17 bridges.

DHUBRI

Ten of the largest rivers in the world are dying. Amongst these are the Ganga, Indus, Nile, Yangtze, Mekong and Danube that are the lifeline of millions of people. These rivers are not merely water sources but repositories of history, myths and cultural memories. And, the greatest threat to these and many other rivers is industrial pollution apart from natural sewage channels.

Ichhamoti River flowing through Pabna town has narrowed down to a canal as unscrupulous people have grabbed over 60 acres out of 84-acre river areas in the town during the last several decades. After takeover of the present caretaker government in January last year, the district administration demolished several illegal structures beside the river and fresh survey also started to recover the river areas but the task seems tough as many illegal occupiers have already made land documents.

Amazon dam project frozen: A Brazilian judge has issued a restraining order on a controversial dam in the Amazon basin. In response to a suit, the court ruled that the government has illegally

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday demanded that the sand quarry across Gundaru river in Tiruchuzhi taluk in Virudhunagar district should be closed down immediately as all norms for quarrying had been violated there affecting the ground water table in the area, besides causing serious and horrible drinking water scarcity. AIADMK cadre will stage a demonstration in front of Tiruchuzhi taluk office on May 29 protesting the mindless sand quarrying which had been going on across Gundaru, Jayalalithaa said in a statement here.

Balasun river: Horses are proving to be as effective as heavy machinery in the hills of Darjeeling. Hydraulic excavators on crawler belts using air compressors to break huge boulders are working alongside ponies on the banks of the Balasun as the company executing the Darjeeling Water Supply Scheme tries to meet its December 2009 deadline. The Hyderabad-based construction company, Ramky Infrastructure Ltd, stumbled on the idea of using horses after they observed the local villagers.

Kerala is examining the possibilities of exercising its riparian rights to seek higher allocation from the Parambikulam-Aliyar rivers in view of the steep increase in utilisation of water from the river basins of the Bharathapuzha and the Chalakudi. The matter was discussed at a high-level review meeting convened by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan here on Monday in preparation of the Chief Secretary-level conference to be held in the State capital on May 30.