The Bikaner Development Authority Bill, 2025, passed by the Rajasthan Assembly, aims to establish a Bikaner Development Authority to regulate development activities in the Bikaner district. The bill was passed by voice vote, with the opposition Congress walking out of the House due to insufficient discussion. The bill was introduced …
Another serious administrative crisis has come to the fore in Afghanistan with the resignation of the country's planning minister Ramazan Bashardoost on December 13, 2004, after the government refused to wrap up 2,000 national and international aid agencies working in the country. A week ago, Bashardoost had declared that 80 …
This paper is based on the empirical findings from the Supervision Mission of a project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The mission visited the two project districts from 3 May to 17 May 2004 and conducted assessment on the on-going programmes in Karbi Anglong District of …
golden danger: The fragile eco-system of Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana's largest natural lake, is in danger. Ghana's mineral commission has reportedly permitted a Canadian exploration and development company, Norcan Resources Limited, to explore the area around the lake for gold deposits. The company now needs only the clearance of Ghana's environmental …
in a move towards direct funding of Panchayati Raj Institutions (pris) by the Union government, the 12th Finance Commission (fc) has decided to recommend allocating one per cent of the divisible pool of central taxes and duties for pris. This is the first time pris will share the central tax …
A women development programme is changing the face of Rajasthan's countryside Something unique is being done in the countryside of Rajasthan, in the self-help groups (shgs) formed in the villages. Following keen interest shown in the matter by chief minister Vasundhera Raje, poor women who live in abject poverty in …
The draft National Environment Policy marks an advance from the past approaches but has basic flaws that would limit its effectiveness. A BOLD, visionary policy, dealing with India's environmental crisis, is an urgent necessity. Even the most conservative official figures reveal the serious extent of deregulation of forests, pollution of …
On September 22, 2004, the World Bank (wb) officially unveiled its Country Strategy (cas) for India. That very day, a draft critique of the bank’s strategy
www.ifiwatch.tv Faced with the bleak choice of an urban slum or a distant resettlement site, an Indian family chooses to stay and drown rather than make way for the Narmada dam. Such is the focus of one of the sixty documentaries available through
function graph() { var popurl="image/20040930/26-graphs.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=300,height=475,scrollbars=yes") } High altitude sickness The Brits made India's hill-stations. Invariably, a responsible officer of the colonial government chanced upon a scene of delirious beauty that completely seduced his senses. Ootacamund or Udagamandalam (Ooty) in the Western Ghats was
function illustration() { var popurl="image/20040930/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } Scarcity amidst plenty summarises the water problem ailing hill-stations today. They receive good rainfall but there is no mechanism to collect runoff for later use. Result: water shortage every year. How did the Brits manage it? They cashed on the terrain, and gravity, …
The stinky spectacle of hill-stations getting buried under their own garbage is turning more real. Look down the slopes and you will see mounds of coloured plastic bags, and tourist staples such as empty packets of potato chips and plastic water bottles. All of which is mixed with vegetable waste …
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore,' she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the …
Planning is non-existent for India's hill-stations, admit hill municipalities. In the absence of a master plan, a free-for-all situation prevails where one constructs wherever one finds free space; if there is lack of space, one can simply add another storey to one's house. There is no tourist plan, which becomes …
Incredible India. The land of mystic splendour. The hidden paradise. These are just three slogans to convince people to turn themselves into tourists and land up, every summer, in droves in hill-stations. Ooty's annual flower show attracts 0.2 million tourists over two days. In addition, it receives over 0.3 million …
Shankar Sharma, vice-chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal, recently admitted that the country would be unable to achieve the Millennium Development Goals if the Maoist activity was not curbed immediately. This is the first such statement by a senior government official. According to government estimates, nearly two-thirds of …
Several years back, I mentioned to an editor of an environmental magazine that I was associated with a project under the World Bank- sponsored India Eco-development Programme (iedp). He immediately flew into a fit of rage. "Apologise immediately in writing,' he said. "And resign immediately from iedp, else I will …
