In a tearing hurry, the jnnurm directorate has cleared over 23 infrastructure projects worth Rs 86,482.95 crore to meet the March 31 deadline.

Hyderabad has submitted a wish list worth Rs 20,017 crore to MoUD, under JNNURM. The ministry's central sanctioning and monitoring committee has approved Rs 379 crore and released Rs 33.22 crore as the first instalment.

This year, Chandra Nagar village in Savli tehsil of Vadodara district got water from the SSP. It received water for the third year in succession. And for the third consecutive year, water did not reach the village service area as promised. The plan was: each water users' association at the service area would be supplied.

Trade unionists and environment experts from around the world have agreed that environmental rights such as access to clean water, health care and energy be made part of workers rights.

The decision was taken during a conference on labour and environment organised by the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi from January 15-17, 2006.

The government says that poor people living along the Yamuna are the problem. But the fact is that s/he who uses the most water also generates the most waste. The situation in India's capital city is shameful in this regard. The bulk of the water goes to the rich and powerful, with the majority population getting less than survival quotas of water. Therefore, it is the water users who generate waste. If water use is the criterion for a pollution inventory, then it is clear that the rich, not the poor and unconnected or unserviced, are the cause of the river's condition.