Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Ramdevbhai Samatbhai Sanjva Vs State of Gujarat & Others dated 09/05/2025. The matter related to remedial actions to be taken for abatement of pollution of river Bhadar near Ahmedabad. Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has filed the response affidavit, March …
RIGHT now, it is politically correct to talk of water conservation. Yet ground realities have a different story to tell if one were to go by the spate of reports on water riots pouring in from across the country. It's a parched summer once again and water is suddenly precious. …
The Gujarat high court has directed Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) to set up an expert committee to look into ways of recharging water bodies. The court has also directed AUDA to give details about permissions granted for development around the lakes in the city. While suggesting the names of …
Any villager owning agricultural land can become a member of the self-help group. Every member will surrender, through a contract on stamp paper, all rights to any water sources that are in his/her individual possession. The member will have equal rights on all water sources managed by the group. While …
To say that our prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is not in charge of the country, after what is happening in Gujarat, would not be saying much. Vajpayee says he is anguished and ashamed about the senseless riots that Gujarat has seen over the last month, but can do nothing …
We need to give the devil his due. Finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, has drawn flak from almost all sides for his nightmare budget 2002. But there was one item, which missed most eyes, which said that the budget would provide deduction for afforestation projects on degraded non-forest land. The crucial …
"I took the responsibility of spreading water harvesting because of two reasons. One, it would have ensured water in the scarce areas," he says. For equally important for him was the "opportunity it gave me to mend my ill-doings". Today, his work has brought about a sea-change in the attitude …
Dada, as a child in a Marathi family, was a witness to the discordant practices. But unlike most people, he couldn't turn a Nelson's eye to existing conventions. Finally in 1958, he founded Swadhyaya (self-learning), an institution where faith, irrespective of religion, matters. From the motley group of 19 people, …
He shares his name with the father of the nation. But that's not where the similarity ends. If an incident in South Africa was to change Mahatma Gandhi's life forever, Gujarat's second Bapu's changed on the trip to the Netherlands in 1979. That's learning home truths in alien lands. Sadhu …
THINK saffron. Think sadhus and sants, communal frenzy, the Gujarat pogrom, of swords raised to the sky and the battle cry of kar sevaks and their adversaries renting a fresh spring morning. Now take a break. Picture a rishi meditating on the edge of a temple tank - say, a …
Modesty could very well be his second name. Seventy-one check dams, 55 percolation tanks, 33 ponds, 22 nullahs and 60 gully plugging - 241 rainwater harvesting projects in just nine months. But Pramukh Swami Maharaj is humility personified. His refrain: "This is not enough. We can do more." The mantle …
Village Hatiyaniki. Fifteen-odd people have gathered to discuss water harvesting activities in the vicinity. But there's just one face among the crowd, which is conspicuous enough to attract attention. Bereft of tact, his often-blunt interjections are received by a smirk from the other like-minded participants. But being unconventional only comes …
The Union ministry of urban development has issued a notification stipulating that construction activities that create noise will not be allowed after 10 pm. However, construction of highways, roads, and other government undertakings has been excluded from the purview of the regulation. At the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of …
As always , in the run up to Budget 2002-2003, there was much speculation about what the budget would or would not contain, and what finance minister Yashwant Sinha might or might not say in his speech. February 28 has come and gone, and the speculation is over. Budget pundits …
IT IS ironic that earthquakes should extract such a high human cost in India, which pioneered the framing of building codes for seismic areas in 1962. When the Japanese city of Kobe was rocked in 1995, the death toll was 6,400 as compared to about 30,000 lives lost during the …
Acting on a petition, the Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the forest department on the Gopalpur lake controversy. The petitioner challenged the constitution of the state wildlife advisory board, which is not in conformity with the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It was pointed out that the appointments of …
while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (MP) governments are set to resume construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (nba) has criticised the recent announcement by the Union government to raise the height of the proposed structure from 90 metres to 100 metres by June 2002. The NBA …
The closure of tunnels T3 and T4 comes even as a vast majority of people displaced remain to be rehabilitatedeven as recommendations of the Union government appointed Hanumantha Rao Committee remain to beimplementedeven as the Prime Minister appointed Murli Manohar Joshi committee is yet to submit its report and even …
A year has passed. But Gujarat remains shaky in more ways than one. Metaphorically, its residents are struggling to come to grips with the devastation caused by the January 26, 2001, earthquake. In a literal sense, too, the ground beneath their feet is anything but terra firma. Sample this. Junagarh …
A year down the road, the quake-ravaged Gujarat has undergone more than a cosmetic change. In Ahmedabad, the debris has been cleared. Buildings that collapsed in a roar of brick and mortar are being pieced together again. And makeshift structures have sprung up. But the scars are yet to heal. …
