The new formula for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) arrived at by a meeting of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) on Wednesday has attracted the criticism of activists of the Right to Food Campaign, who say it is full of ambiguities and leaves many issues wide open.

ROURKELA: Rourkela city is sitting on garbage, literally. Public sanitation has gone for a toss in the absence of a solid-waste treatment plant. Lack of space has been the major impediment in this direction, but not any more. The Rourkela municipality and Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) have agreed to set up a treatment plant on an isolated vacant RSP land.

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa's sex ratio of 972 females per 1,000 males looks comfortable. But, if the sex ratio of the child population in the age group 06 years is taken into account, it shrinks to only 953 girl child per 1,000 boys. Here lies the nagging problem. The problem of sex determination and female foeticide.

ROURKELA: Intense heat wave condition continues to grip Rourkela with the temperature being recorded at 46.2 degree Celsius today.

ROURKELA: Even as vegetable prices continue to soar, the horticulture potential of the Sundargarh district is not being tapped. If done properly, it could come handy in keeping vegetable prices under check across the year.

ROURKELA: Scores of natural water channels, traditionally irrigating farmlands in Sundargarh district, are now facing the question of existence.

Most of them have either dried up or are on the verge of extinction owing to man-made factors.

The tribal-dominated Sundargarh district is blessed with green canopy and small hill ranges.

BHUBANESWAR: After system of rice intensification (SRI) paddy, it is sustainable sugarcane initiative (SSI) which would be the next generation sugarcane production technique with the rising labour cost and water crisis in the State.

ROURKELA: The cry for drinking water in the Steel City is getting shriller with the rise in mercury levels. Dry pockets of the city have been feeling the pinch with the temperature hovering above 41 degree Celsius in the past few days.

CEMENT sales in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand rode an extraordinary construction boom to grow at a record 41%, 24% and 29% between April and December from a year ago, eclipsing the national average of 10% by a stretch.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Vigilance is probing the multi-crore mining scam, illegal mining activities are in full swing. This is evident from two separate official letters of the Deputy Director of Mines (DDM), Joda, to the Inspectorin- charge, Government Railway Police, Rourkela, on January 30.