Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants every UPA flagship programme independently audited by an external agency so that the progress report can be put under public scrutiny.

NAFTA, US Drought Endanger Canada's Water -Study CANADA: April 4, 2008 OTTAWA - Increasing droughts in the United States and American unhappiness over NAFTA mean Canada could one day be forced to allow bulk shipments of water to its giant neighbour, a left-leaning think tank said on Thursday. The Polaris Institute demanded that Canada pass a law banning the bulk export of water to the United States. Ottawa says such exports are already blocked under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the two leading US Democratic presidential candidates want to rewrite.

IF THE Victorian Government is the main tenant in La La Land, then the Productivity Commission's latest report, Towards Urban Water Reform: A Discussion Paper must be the rent book. Its drift is plain. There is no problem with water supply that a competitive market couldn't fix. "Ultimately, it is possible to envisage an evolution to a fully decentralised urban water market involving many retailers and wholesalers offering different forms of product (for example price and security). However, an important caveat is that such arrangements do not operate elsewhere in the world."

THE UPA government is faced with the task of reconciling its own interests in poll-bound Karnataka and that of the DMK regime in Tamil Nadu on the Hogenakkal falls issue.

With Election Commission announcing dates for the Karnataka assembly polls, the latest water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Hogenakkal drinking water supply project is in danger of taking a serious turn. A large number of policemen stood guard in Hosur town bordering Karnataka even as buses between the two states did not ply fearing attacks by protesters.