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 …
theMadhya Pradesh (mp) government had hired a consultancy to suggest ways of managing the mp State Road Transport Corporation (mpsrtc). Before the consultant could give a report, the state government announced its decision to shut down the corporation (see p15). It could have saved the money spent on the consultancy …
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 …
will the mid-term review of the 10th five-year plan mark its end? Or will it be used to make the rest of the plan push towards the implementation of the United Progressive Alliance's (upa) common minimum programme (cmp)? Before the more than 350 experts review the 10th plan, the process …
A recent direction by the Supreme Court of India (sc) on the upcoming Akshardham temple in Delhi has opened a can of worms: blatant master plan violations, by the Delhi government itself. These
After the 73rd amendment to the Constitution, Panchayati Raj institutions (pris) became key agencies in the Indian state's decentralisation scheme. So far, the focus of panchayati raj has been the village as a whole. This is perhaps because the colonial state
Food for work is amongst the relief measures adopted by the Union and state governments to address food distress in drought hit areas. But it has failed to ameliorate starvation. One look at the way it has been implemented tells us why. For one, a long bureaucratic process precedes declaring …
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (mcd) has released the capital's first garbage master plan. It involves putting in place a mechanism of engaging private operators for collecting and transporting municipal solid waste, and implementing a waste treatment and disposal plan through public-private partnership. The estimated expenditure is Rs 3,700 crore. …
"Master Plan to make Delhi slum-free' reads a June 26, 2004 English daily headline. "The Union ministry of urban development plans to prepare a blueprint to make Delhi slum-free in five years. The plan will be ready within a fortnight,' the daily continues. Another tall claim? Potents of another disaster? …
At one point in the epic Mahabharata, the pandavs and kauravs go to warfare school. Amid thick forests, they train hard. Then, the time comes when they must leave. Yudhister, the eldest pandav, gifts the space as guru dakshina to his guru, Dronacharya. In time, there came up a town …
The government is all set to slip on the timetable for the 5,840-km Golden Quadrilateral project. Almost 65 per cent of the work will miss the deadline of December, 2003 by more than a year. The Golden Quadrilateral, linking the four metros, forms the first phase of Prime Minister Vajpayee's …
The state governments' failure to complete irrigation projects has led to an escalation of their combined cost by close to a whopping one lakh crore rupees. According to the Planning Commission, 383 irrigation projects in 23 states have spilled over from the Ninth Five-Year Plan to the tenth plan. These …
Urbanisation in developing countries is marked by large increases in population and has consequences such as sprawl. As a physical phenomenon, urbanisation takes two paths: through expansion of existing urban bodies by engulfing adjoining villages into their territory and through the independent transformation of rural areas into urban areas. Delhi …
model town: Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, is likely to be the northeast region's first planned township. The move to prepare the city's master plan was actually triggered by fears about an impending earthquake and a rapidly expanding hill town that is already bursting at its seams. In stark contrast …
Concrete drama Actsaid the court. The government did not. The realtors are at the deep end now since April 182001new construction activity in Ahmedabad has virtually come to a standstill. The realtors of the commercial capital of Gujaratone of the two most industrialised states of Indiaare desperate. Builder after builder …
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 …
the state appraisal committee in Vietnam has approved a controversial routing plan for the new Ho Chi Highway which cuts through the country's oldest national park, Cuc Phuong, housing many rare and endangered plant and animal species. The approved plan has been submitted to the Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, …
STOMPING ON A DREAMThe incomplete check dam at Goudpali village in Naktideul Block of Sambalpur, Orissa, stands testimony to the insensitivity of the laws and the government to the needs of the people. The government has forced work to stop on the check dam being built by people. Goudpali houses …
The Brazilian government has decided against installing a new nuclear reactor at its Angra dos Reis nuclear complex. Installation of the reactor was part of the government's plan to expand its nuclear generating capacity in the wake of an acute energy crisis. But this plan was criticised by environmentalists who …
