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In Short

  • 14/04/2006

jn-nurm gets a chair: The Union ministry of urban development has appointed Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of Janaagraha, a citizens' movement on participatory democracy, as the honorary national technical advisor and chairperson of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The mission aims to ensure citizens' participation in the integrated development of infrastructure services in cities. The mission covers 63 cities in India.

fishy crime: Toxic waste dumped on the bank of river Bastora, near Mapusa in Goa killed over five hundred fish of several varieties on March 8, 2006. According to the police, an unidentified tanker dumped toxic wastes on the highway adjacent to the river and tried to burn it. The dark toxic liquid flowed into the river and killed the fish. The Goa state pollution control board and the health department have collected samples of the toxic liquid for enquiry.

monitoring panel: The Sikkim government has set up a commission for review of social & environmental sectors policies, plans and programmes (cresp). Anthropologist B K Roy Burman chairs the commission and three state cabinet ministers and non-official experts are its members. cresp has a statutory provision for protection of bio-diversity, particularly the forestry and agricultural sectors.

back to shelf: British beef can soon return to Europe's supermarket shelves after 10 years, following the European Union (eu) food safety experts' decision to end the ban on its export. Exports of British beef to the eu were halted in 1996, after the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) or mad cow disease. The decision is now being examined by the European Parliament.

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