Kannal Achuthan Corporation had to go for tender again A view of a closed public convenience on the Konnur High Road at Ayanavaram in Chennai. The Chennai Corporation's plan to construct new public toilets and allow advertisements on their outer walls is yet to take off. The civic body had chalked out rules stating that fines would be imposed on people who urinate or defecate in public beginning April 1 but had deferred the decision by two months to meet the demand for more public toilets. The rules are in force since June 1 but the toilets are yet to be built.

THE latest news from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) points out that all the warnings and pleading of conservationists have gone unheeded, and the world has lost nearly one-third of its bird species. India, rich in birdlife, has been particularly badly hit. In the IUCN Red List for 2008 for birds, India has the largest number of threatened species. A combination of factors has led to this pass

The Rs.253-crore flood prevention project, to strengthen the bunds of the Cauvery, Coleroon and other rivers in Tiruchi, Karur and combined Perambalur districts, would be completed within two years, Public Works Department Minister Durai Murugan has said. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would lay the foundation stones for this and three other projects of the Public Works Department to be taken up in Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Karur, Nagapattinam and combined Perambalur districts here on June 24.

INSPECTION: Transport Minister K.N. Nehru (right) and PWD Minister Durai Murugan near the site where the new Kattalai barrage will come up across the Cauvery at Mayanur in Karur district. The stage has been set for laying the foundation for Rs.700-crore worth of projects that will be executed by the Public Works Department in the Tiruchi Circle. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will launch the works in Tiruchi on June 24.

z. Manikandan Tenders to be floated for the Rs.44-crore project once the State gives administrative sanction GIVEN APPROVAL: The proposed compost yard in Venkatamangalam near Vandalur.

By R Haldorai WITH the Coimbatore Plastic Manufacturers and Merchants Association obtaining a stay in the High Court against the ban on the use of plastics, Coimbatore Corporation has stopped raiding shops, seizing and slapping fine on sellers and users for the past two weeks. The use of plastic carrybags has since increased in every nook and corner of the city. Many councillors, who were not aware of the stay, raised doubts blaming the corporation health wing officials for being inactive.

T Muruganandham AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday accused oil companies of imposing a bigger fuel price hike on consumers by compelling dealers to sell only premium variety of petrol and diesel. She said regular supply of ordinary petrol and diesel in all bunks was the need of the hour. She said that at a time when prices of essential commodities were going up following the re cent fuel price hike; oil companies had started imposing a further hike indirectly.

V NarayanaMurthi THE Olympic Games to be held this August in China appears to be playing a cruel game on the lives of thousands of people of Gudiyattam, near Vellore, who are engaged in handmade and mechanised match factories. The banning of export of phosphorus by the Chinese Government in an effort to have a green Olympics has increased the cost of this key raw material. China is the major supplier of phosphorus to many countries including India.

IN a novel campaign, farmers and environmentalists who have joined hands to fight an iron ore mining project at Kanchamalai in Salem, filed 530 applications under the Right to Information Act with the Department of Forests en masse on Tuesday .