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• As per the directive of the Supreme Court, the first green bench in the judicial history of the country sat at the Calcutta High Court n June 3. The bench will deal exclusively with environmental and pollution control matters and was set up following a judgement on a writ petition filed last year by the Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samity.

• All of Delhi's 274 petrol pumps will soon he authorised to carry out a pollution check. The department of transport will have supervisory control over these pumps under the Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1989. The decision was taken to put an end to a racket run by touts at some transport centres.

• The Jammu and Kashmir government has drawn up an ambitious Plan of bringing more than 13,000 acres of land under cotton cultivation, for the first time since independence, in four districts of Jammu region this year. The state agriculture department has procured about 1,05,200 kg of different varieties of cotton seeds from Punjab and the National Seeds Corporation.

• Gene therapy, the revolutionary biomedical cure, which is still in its infancy, is being accepted by Paediatricians in Kerala for the treatment and prevention of diseases like AIDS, haemophitia, cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia and even arthritis. Doctors in the state are optimistic that gene therapy will provide answers to several hitherto untreatable diseases.

• Observance of crop holidays and outbreak of viral diseases have accounted for a decreased output from India's shrimp farms. The production during 1"5-96 was only about 70,000 tonnes as compared to nearly 83,000 tonnes the previous year.

• Supply to a lot of gas-based projects in Assam, including the 200-MW Amguri power project, the gas cracker complex and Gas Authority of India's 27-inch, 207-km Duliajan Numaligarb pipeline may have to be scaled down or even scraped down due to acute shortage of gas in the state. A report by the petroleum ministry's task force called for a review of commitments to these projects because gas supply is falling short of demand by a whopping 41 per cent.

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