goa town planning minister resigns Embroiled in a controversy over the Goa State Regional Plan 2011, the state's town and country planning minister, Atanasio Monserrate, resigned from the cabinet on January 3, 2006. In less than a week, the Goa chief minister, Pratapsinh Rane, sworn in BJP legisator Manohar Azgaokar in his place. Rane described the resignation as a decision "taken in haste". But Monserrate blamed his party colleagues for his resignation, as they did not back him in the controversy surrounding the regional plan. The plan has attracted opposition ever since it was notified. Opponents fear it would damage the state's fragile ecology and have demand to scrap it.
new wetlands in the list Two Himachal Pradesh lakes--Rewalsar in Mandi district and Khajjiar in Chamba district--have found their way into the list of 92 wetland sites in India.
mud payment Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the energy firm Lapindo Brantas to pay US $420 million to victims of a mud disaster that left about 10,000 people homeless (see 'Gushing mud', Down To Earth, October 31, 2006). Since the accident happened in May 2006, in Sidoarjo, tonnes of mud has flown from the oil well and inundated nearby villages. Lapindo will pay US $275 million to compensate losses faced by people.
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