Budget proposals include increase in outlays for education and social security measures for youth

Even as he announced major increases in outlays for education, agriculture, social security and programmes for the youth, Punjab's new Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa in his maiden Budget speech in the State Assembly here on Wednesday came up with proposals that left Rs.3,123.31 crore as revenue deficit and Rs.8,923.92 crore as fiscal deficit. The State would also require at least Rs.2000 crore more to implement its Rs.14,000-crore Annual Plan for the 2012-13 fiscal.

The multi-crore Odisha Integrated Sanitation Improvement Project will see the State Government create low-cost toilets and physical infrastructure in slums of the Twin Cities in the first phase.

Some good sanitation news, discussed in a Nature commentary this week, is that some 80 percent of India’s urban residents now have access to a toilet.

Absence of a sewerage treatment plant in Bhubaneswar has led to release of urban and industrial effluents into the rivers untreated, in turn polluting the rivers from which Capital sources its drin

With the water crisis worsening in Gurgaon, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has finally woken up to the need of ensuring proper water supply in all areas.

NAMAKKAL: The Cauvery river, the main source of water for most parts of the state, is facing a serious threat from the untreated industrial effluents, particularly from dyeing units and sewerage, being let into it.

On a stretch of about 80 km in the district, two municipalities and five town panchayats contribute hugely to the contamination of the river water. Nearly 10 million litres of sewage is let into the Cauvery by Kumarapalayam and Pallipalayam municipalities, while a half of that quantity flows into the channels that connect the river from town panchayats -Venkarai, Paundamangalam, Velur, Pothanur and Mohanur situated along the banks.

All hydroelectric projects on the Ganga could be asked to reduce their power generation — possibly up to 50 per cent of capacity — in an effort to provide a clean and continuous flow of the river's waters, if a proposal by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan is found to be legally viable.

“We cannot shut down existing projects, but we are exploring the legality of reducing the capacity of operational hydroelectric plants,” she told The Hindu on Tuesday. “A clean Ganga is my top priority at present… we need to get extremely proactive.”

Chandigarh: The Haryana Government has decided to install web cameras in highly polluting industrial units to control pollution.