Hindustan Insecticides to resume work amidst pollution charges

on january 7, 2006, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (kspcb) permitted Hindustan Insecticides Limited (hil), a central government-owned enterprise manufacturing ddt and endosulfan, to resume production. This, even as environmentalists protested that the company has not met all pollution control measures.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala slug it out over Mullaperiyar dam

THE longstanding controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam on the river Periyar assumed bitter proportions in December 2006 with the Kerala government accusing its Tamil Nadu counterpart of pulling out of talks initiated by the Union minister of water resources, Saifudin Soz. The talks had begun on September 25 after directives from the Supreme Court. But it reached a dead-end with both sides refusing to budge from their well-held positions.

Safety call

at a hearing on November 10, 2005, the Supreme Court (sc) suggested that an expert committee be set up to probe technical and safety issues relating to the height of the Mullaperiyar dam -- the subject of a 25-year long dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu (tn).

No sale

widespread public protest and media debate has forced the Kerala government to shelve its ambitious project to sell the waters of two major rivers to multinational companies. The project sought to attract global corporate investment in two industrial water supply programmes.

DAM REPORT

The Supreme Court has directed the Union government and the state governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to file replies on the outcome of a meeting organised to discuss the safety aspect of the Mullai Periyar dam and raising the water level in the reservoir. The apex court directed the concerned parties to send their report to the expert committee set up to study the matter.

Slow murder

periyar -- the river of life -- is dying a slow death. According to estimates, nearly 4,37,000 tonne of sand is being mined everyday. The on-going mining has caused the river to sink by 12 feet in the last seven years. And the river bed has been destroyed to a great extent.