Bombay HC halts work at Mulund-Thane SEZ

The Bombay High Court has put a spanner in the land reclamation work currently on at the Mulund-Thane Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project site in the ecologically sensitive coastal area in northeastern Mumbai. It has asked the project proponent, Zeus Infrastructure, to stop dumping solid waste in the area immediately. The company was using construction debris and municipal garbage to reclaim land.

Maharashtra sets up probe into sickle cell anaemia

maharashtra has set up a committee to look into the growing prevalence of sickle cell anaemia in the state and prepare a plan to check the spread of the disease. The move comes in the wake of a recent study in 19 districts by the Nagpur-based Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, which found almost 10 per cent of the state's population was affected by the disease and that most of the victims were tribals.

Food coupons for BPL families

in a bid to stop pilferage in the Targeted Public Distribution System (tpds), the Union government plans to introduce food coupons for people below poverty line (bpl). Under the scheme initiated by the Union ministry of food and civil supplies, the coupons worth a fixed amount of cash, instead of food grains, will be issued to bpl families and the beneficiaries can choose what food to buy. The coupons can be exchanged for food grains at the fair price shops.

Urban renewal: more talk, less infrastructure

on january 25, 2007, the Union government approved 22 more urban development projects in 11 cities across the country. The Union ministry of urban development (moud) approved Rs 795 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (jnnurm), a central government initiative for infrastructure development in cities.

Survival in a chemical dustbin

Dombivli is an industrial township in Thane district of Maharashtra. Any taxi driver can point it out to you from a distance. This small town with a big industrial estate, comprising some 50 chemicals units manufacturing dye intermediaries, is perpetually engulfed in smog. For the 100,000 residents, life is worse than hell. "The factories emit gases at night. They discharge effluents openly into the drain passing through our colony.

Dreams from six world's apart

WE are a tribal people from Western India, from a predominantly tribal area, about 125 kilometers north of Bombay. Though barely a 2-hour journey from the suburba prima of India, we are part of a third world within the Third World, so we are really 6 worlds away from you. We don't know whether you will understand us. The fault lies neither with you nor us, but because we are, as others say, perhaps a century behind the times in our thinking. We are made to feel ashamed of our 'backwardness'. We are told ever so often to leave behind our world of backwardness and step into the future with you.