State secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) D. Pandian has urged the State government to drop any scheme that involved acquisition of land and demolition of houses. Speaking at a meeting at Sholinganallur on Wednesday, he said that the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) had proposed the demolition of many houses constructed on

The Board of Approval (BoA) of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on Monday cleared 14 new proposals, including ten formal approvals. While two SEZs each have been cleared in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, one each will come up in Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The BoA granted formal approvals to two SEZs of the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. (SIPCOT), one for transport engineering goods at Tirunelveli and another of automobile and auto ancillary at Thiruvannamalai. Similarly, two SEZs of Mahindra Worldcity (Jaipur) Ltd. of handicrafts and light engineering at Jaipur were given formal approvals. Other SEZs cleared include an information technology SEZ by Videocon Realtors and Infrastructure Ltd. at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, IT SEZ by Devbhumi Realtors Pvt. Ltd. at Ranga Reddy District in Andhra Pradesh, pharmaceuticals SEZ by JB SEZ Pvt. Ltd. at Panoli in Gujarat and Power SEZ by Wardha Power Company at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. According to Commerce Secretary G. K. Pillai, who also heads the Board of Approval, so far formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 439 SEZs out of which 201 have been notified as on date. The Commerce Secretary said that over Rs. 67,347 crore had been invested in these notified SEZs, giving direct employment to 97,478 persons, which is in addition to the employment provided to 1.83 lakh persons by the seven Central Government established SEZs.

Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency will invite proposals soon Officials will visit Germany and Spain where large solar photovoltaic power plants have come up Programme to encourage generation of grid quality power from megawatt-sized solar plants CHENNAI: Half-a-dozen companies have expressed interest in implementing the recently unveiled national programme on solar power generation in the State. Noting that this is only in the formative stage, a senior official says that soon the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency will formally invite proposals from these companies, and specific projects will be formulated at the end of this process. Also, as part of firming up its plan to promote solar energy, the State Government has decided to depute to Germany and Spain the Agency's two senior officers, including its chairman-cum-managing director Mohan Verghese Chunkath. The two nations have been chosen since most of the recently installed large solar photovoltaic power plants have come up there. Distribution losses An official document of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy states that in view of the large potential of solar energy in the country, the Ministry has launched a demonstration programme to encourage grid quality power generation from megawatt-sized solar power plants. Besides capacity addition, the proposed plants could help to tackle peak load operations and reduce distribution losses caused by voltage drops in several regions. Under this programme, registered companies, as project developers, would be encouraged to set up solar power projects on a build, own and operate basis. The Ministry will provide generation-based incentive up to Rs. 12 a unit for solar photovoltaic and Rs. 10 a unit for solar thermal power fed to the grid. Proposals from each developer with a maximum aggregate capacity of 5 megawatt (MW) will be considered. Totally, the Government will provide incentive for installation of 50-MW solar power projects. The projects with an aggregate capacity of 10 MW in a State will be considered for support. However, preference will be given to the projects from the States where the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have announced, or about to announce, tariff for solar power. The Centre will also provide an incentive of 10 paise a unit to power utilities and one- time incentive of Rs. 2 lakh per MW to the State nodal agencies for their assistance in implementation and monitoring of the projects. The generation-based incentives announced by the Centre are over and above the tariff that will be determined by the commissions and should not go into the calculation of tariff, the document says.

cauvery river is heavily polluted. A recent study has found high levels of dioxins and furans in the drains joining the river. The study has implicated Chemplast Sanmar, a local company into

No littering in bhutan: Bhutan has passed a law to prevent littering and pollution in the kingdom's capital Thimphu. The Thimphu Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules and Regulations 2007 will come

flyash, the notorious waste product of coal-based thermal power plants, known for its ill effects on agricultural land, may now come as an aid for the farming community. Scientists of

on march 23, 2007, 500 local people stopped work at the landfill and incinerator site in Gummidipoondi, Tamil Nadu, fearing the work would affect agriculture and water table in the area. Despite