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.

Kendrapada: The World Bank authorities have expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in handover of the roadside land required for widening of the 106-KM long Cuttack-Chandballi State Highway in state, official sources said. The funding agency has refused to start road widening work for the Rs 800 crore worth State Highway project as the state government agencies have failed to make the transfer of the 30 per cent of roadside land to the executing agency, sources said.

Planning Commission nod for cancer hospital in Malwa; water-logging, depleting water table to be dealt with. The Planning Commission today approved an annual plan outlay of Rs 14,000 crore for Punjab for the 2012-13 financial year. The amount has been hiked by 10 per cent as compared to last year's outlay of Rs 12,800 crore.

The Centre will be providing separate funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) for enhancing road connectivity in the six border districts of Punjab. The proposed move would benefit Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Taran Taran and Pathankot, according to Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

Also, the condition of minimum inhabitation of 500 persons for providing road connectivity under PMGSY would be relaxed to 250 persons in the case of border districts on the lines of tribal and naxal areas, he said on Saturday.

New Delhi: The first woman chief executive officer that Delhi Jal Board has ever had, Debashree Mukherjee has taken over the reins of the organization just before it enters its critical summer period. This is also a time when several projects have just been flagged off and are expected to take a concrete shape in the coming months. The 1991-batch IAS officer, who has a degree in water and environment management, aims to bring about massive improvements in consumer services.

The Delhi government on Monday decided to expedite the construction of around 70,000 low-cost flats for slum dwellers while asking the concerned department to immediately start distribution of 14,000 flats completed.

The 14,000 flats will be distributed among the residents of the slums which have come up on land owned by the city government and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).