<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Debi Prasad Banerjee Vs Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change & Others dated 22.04/2024.</p> <p>The
The poultry industry, which has suffered losses on account of the recent outbreak of avian flu in West Bengal, is eagerly waiting for the government's subvention on interest rates charged on loans extended to them by banks. The Reserve Bank of India, last week, had issued guidelines to banks suggesting a one-year moratorium on repayment of outstanding loans, conversion of working capital loans into term loans, and re-schedulement of term-loan repayment as a relief to the affected poultry industry. According to sources, the finance minister P Chidambaram may announce the government's subvention rates on loans extended to the poultry industry either before the Budget or may spell it out in his Budget speech. The Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had earlier announced that the government would work out separate relief packages for the poultry sector - one exclusively for poultry farmers in West Bengal and the other for the poultry industry in the country as a whole, which has suffered in sales due to a dip in prices in the country and the ban imposed by different countries on Indian poultry imports. The government's package would include subvention rates on interest charged by banks. He had assured that the financial package would be an improved one over that announced in March 2006 on account of the outbreak of bird flu. The March 2006 package contained 4% interest subvention, a one-year moratorium period for repayment of loans, conversion of working capital into loans, and extension of fresh loans for working capital. "The poultry industry had demanded zoning of poultry areas in the country based on geo-climatic conditions, so that exports from bird flu-free zones can be business as usual, ban on export of corn and soybean to augment feed availability, 7% central government's interest subvention on loans, and a two-year moratorium on repayment of loans,' said Anuradha Desai, chairperson of the National Egg Coordination Committee. The government has turned down the proposal for zoning of poultry areas, even though the industry had pointed out such zoning or compartmentalisation exists in the US and is allowed by the world animal health organisation - OIE. It has also refused to impose a ban on exports of corn or soybean. India has a poultry population of 489 million (nearly 3% of world's poultry), out of which 51% is concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Due to the recent incidence of avian flu in West Bengal, culling operations were undertaken not only in those states but also in parts of the neighbouring states - Assam, Bihar, and Jharkhand.
Even as the Union government is struggling to boost the country's agriculture extension system, pesticide and crop chemical manufacturers have joined hands with rural ngos to promote safe and judicious usage of pesticides among the farmers.
Speciality steel-maker Bharat Forge on Thursday announced its decision to set up a one-million-tonne integrated steel unit in West Bengal. It is also in talks with the State Government for setting up a manufacturing hub here on the lines of the one proposed in Maharashtra. The steel unit, which would make high-grade steel for the engineering and the automobile sector, would also have a 500 MW power plant along with some downstream units. While the main unit would be set up by Kalyani Steel, a group company, a forging unit might be set up by Bharat Forge, Amit B. Kalyani, Executive Director, Bharat Forge, said. Earlier, he signed a memorandum of understanding with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and the West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation (WBMDTC) towards setting up the steel unit, in the presence of State Industry Minister, Nirupam Sen. WBMDTC would help source coal for the project. Mr. Sen said that they were shown two sites for the project, one at Salboni near the Jindal project and another in Durgapur. Mr. Amit Kalyani said the detailed project report would be ready in 12 months. The Bharat Forge group is also planning to locate its eastern regional headquarters in Kolkata and efforts are now on to find about four acres close to the city.
While the Midnapore West district health department has been testing anti-malaria drug on the people of Belpahari, over 10 of them fell ill after consuming the newly-introduced drug. They are being treated in Belpahari Block Primary Hospital where the condition of Mrs Sushmi Karmakar, 35, of Chutiapukhri and Mr Manasaram Desowali, 30, of Dainmari has been reported to be serious. Admitted 16 days ago, the condition of Mrs Karmakar has been deteriorating everyday. Similar is the condition of Mr Desowali.
Commercial production of Tata Motors'
The trial production of the Tata Motors' controversial small car will begin at Singur in June or July to be followed by commercial production around October, Mr Ravi Kant, its managing director, said today after reviewing the progress of the ongoing construction. However, the Trinamul Congress greeted the announcement with a fresh threat that no car would be allowed to roll out of the factory till land is returned to the unwilling farmers who hadn't given their consent to its acquisition by the state government.
At a time when the poor infrastructure of the state's heath department has been constantly inviting criticism from every nook and corner, a model developed in West Bengal to reduce mortality rate of newborns, has been praised and recognised by the United Nations. The newborn care unit model of the state, known as the Purulia model, would be adopted by the other states to bring down children mortality rate under United Nations Millennium Development Goal-IV (UNMDG-IV). Such states include ~ Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The turtle population of India is under threat because Bengal will not stop consumption of turtle meat. The charge was levelled at a meet by officials of the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) on Tuesday. "Freshwater turtles have become extinct in Bengal in the past 10 years. Now, every turtle consignment seized elsewhere is headed here,' says Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of WSO and a member of the government's National Board for Wildlife. The NGO works for the preservation of freshwater turtles in the Mahanadi basin.
Nano could spell further privatisation of transport, more traffic congestion and pollution, and
A pull of the neck and then a twist is all that is needed to bring silent death to a hen or a duck. In scientific terms, the bird
