The Tree Authority Committee has approved the hacking of more than 822 trees for various developmental projects. Municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte also directed the civic officials to start a survey and prune weak and dangerous trees from Tuesday. Kunte announced his decision while chairing the Tree Authority Committee meeting on Monday.

Daily milk production in the state is seeing a surplus by 28 lakh litre, with drastic rise in contributions from the drought-hit talukas like Jat and Mann leading to a massive production of milk powder. Of the 1.13 crore lakh litres of milk being produced a day, 28 lakh litre is surplus.

The tigers of the Tadoba reserve in Vidarbha region, have new owners. They are the tribals who live in the 79 villages just outside the reserve (known as the buffer zone), who have been given a direct economic stake in the well-being of the tigers. “Visitors who wish to see the tigers in the buffer zone have to pay a fee to the village,” said a senior forest official. “And, each party travelling in that area has to hire a guide, who must be a tribal, and pay him Rs200, up from the Rs100 earlier. This gives the tribals a sense of ownership in the wellbeing of the tigers.”

After last year’s failed rainfall dried up most wells and the depeleting water table drove the hand pumps to a trickle, farmers in the nearly 200 villages in Mann and Khatav talukas in Satara are now struggling to save their cattle. While both farmers and their livestock await government relief with parched throats, help it seems is lost somewhere in the not-so-unusual ways of bureaucracy and procurement glitches by local officials.

City schools are caught in a catch-22 situation. The state government’s latest announcement that 25% of the student strength will have to comprise those from weaker and disadvantaged sections from this year itself has caught them off guard. Since most schools were expecting that the 25% provision will be implemented only from 2013, they did not keep aside seats for poor students. Many such schools claim that they will not be able to take in more than four to five students through this reservation this year.

A study on irrigation projects across the state has exposed corruption to the tune of Rs26,000 crore in the sector in the last decade. The irrigation ministry says the total expenditure in the past 10 years has not exceeded Rs42,000 crore. However, the budget approved shows the expenditure as Rs70,000 crore. This means Rs26,000 crore under ‘plan and non-plan budget’ is unaccounted for. Also, successive governments often diverted funds from other departments to the irrigation department.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said decision would be taken soon on drought-related assistance demanded by Maharashtra. "A central team visited Maharashtra after the state sought aid and submitted its report. The high-powered committee comprising Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, myself and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia have seen the report and we would take a final decision soon," Pawar told reporters, at a function here.

The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has set up an 'emergency assistance committee' to tackle issues related to scarcity of water and fodder due to drought situation in the state. The cell has been set up by MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre to coordinate relief efforts in view of the drought, MPCC spokesperson Sachin Sawant said here today.

The committee would be operational from May to June and will operate from the state Congress office at Tilak Bhawan in central Mumbai, Sawant said in a release.

Two major residential projects being planned under the slum rehabilitation scheme, with a combined value of over Rs330crore, were recently granted clearance by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) on environment. Located in the western suburbs, both projects have been cleared with several conditions attached. The costlier of the two, Goregaon-based Trimurti SRA Co-Op Housing Society Limited, estimated at Rs200crore, has been directed to restrict the height of the building to 45 metres, along with the provision of a setback of six metres without a wall to ensure enough road space.

In an ambitious plan, the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) is planning to commission 280 MW solar power capacity by July 2013. The MahaGenco already has 5 MW solar power capacity at Chandrapur, while work on a 25 MW project at Sakhri in Dhule district has started. The decks for another 125 MW have been cleared at the Dhule site, work on which will begin soon and the utility has tied up with KfW, Germany for financial aid.