Gandhinagar: Amid loud talk about spread of canal irrigation, especially Narmada-based, leading to asharp fall in the amount of electricity going into the farm sector, a recent Planning Commission document has revealed just the opposite.

Titled “Annual Report 2011-12 on Working of State Power Utilities and Electricity Departments”, the document, prepared by the power and energy division of the Planning Commission, has found no decrease in the share of agriculture in the total sale of power in Gujarat.

Gandhinagar: With summer setting in, the Narendra Modi government does not want to take any chances with rural folk in an election year. In a massive drive to make full use of Narmada waters across Gujarat for drinking purposes, complete plans have been worked out to ensure that not only do they reach in all parts of Gujarat, but also to as many as individual households as possible. Funds have been made available, and administrative sanction obtained, to begin tens of big and small projects.

500 HA Land Earmarked Near Lodhwa Village

Gandhinagar: Government of India conveyed to the Gujarat government on Thursday that it is all set to begin the procedure for setting up the second ultra mega power plant (UMPP) in the state within three months. Central government officials in Gandhinagar on Thursday told state officials that time has come for the latter to be ready with offers on cost of land and infrastructure facilities like water, port and permissions like right of way and right of use, needed to implement the Rs 20,000 crore project.

Gandhinagar: The Reserve Bank of India in its latest report, ‘State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2011-12’, has identified Gujarat as one of the states where power sector reforms, despite being initiated early, have failed to create the “desired impact” on the financial position of the state power utilities (SPUs). The report says, “Subsidies to SPUs/State Electricity Boards (SEBs) have been rising over the years for Gujarat and Karnataka, which had unbundled utilities”, calling it a “growing area of concern.”

Guj To Have Monopoly Over Variety Developed Jointly With A Pvt Co

Gandhinagar: In a major boost to Gujarat’s big farmers, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Government of India has approved commercial distribution of a new variety of Bt Cotton seed, developed jointly by US multinational Monsanto, Gujarat Seed Supply Corporation (GSSC) and Navsari Agricultural University.

Gandhinagar: Closely following the draft Gujarat Water Policy 2011 sent to the chief minister’s office (CMO) for finalization, a fresh high-level document, prepared for the Planning Commission of India, has proposed major water reforms in rural Gujarat.

This document proposes introducing availability of water 24x7 through water meters at the individual household level. Suggesting that this can be done on a pilot basis in 50 selected villages in the first year of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the document says other villages can follow “based on results and response of the community towards water usage.”

Gandhinagar: Gujarat government may have to go in for major changes in the state’s land-related laws which are currently being applied for regularizing land titles – in case it wants to apply the new impact fee law, passed in the state assembly in September 2011 for legalizing illegal structures constructed on plots of land without necessary clearances. Top Sachivalaya sources said this is particularly crucial as of 15-lakh-odd illegal structures, which the law seeks to regularize, two-thirds are land related.

Gandhinagar: Water woes in the Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR), an important industrial hotspot along Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, may come to an end soon.
The PCPIR, coming up over 480 sq km in the Dahej-Bharuch region, will get a two-km-long weir off the mouth of Narmada river at Bharbhut, next to the Gulf of Khambhat, for storing sweet water coming from Narmada dam.