In a relief to students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will complete installation of the 3m-high and 1,500m-long noise barriers from Powai lake to the end of the institute’s boundary wall by May-end. “The barriers will block the outside noise from the IIT campus. We have already installed noise barriers in Bandra- Kurla Complex (BKC) and the decibel levels have reduced from 98 to (the) acceptable limit of 55,” said Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director, MMRDA.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is yet to catch up with the ground reality of the number of species of critically endangered birds in the country. When environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan released a book on Tuesday, which updates the list of birds facing a threat of extinction in India, it perhaps escaped her mind that the ministry’s official list is outdated.

Even before educational institutions are officially directed to conduct admissions for the weaker sections, as under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009), activists have begun lining up outside schools demanding that poor students be taken in. Given that the government is yet to spell out how and when the schools should implement the 25% quota, expertsadvise activists against undue haste.

As the monsoon nears, railway authorities have sought to assure Mumbaikars that this year, there will be no disruptions in suburban services, which usually witness substantial breakdowns every rainy season. The Western Railway (WR) has added Digital Axel Counters (DACs) on standby in case the track circuiting system fails, and in turn causes signal failures, at nearly 500 flood-prone areas. DACs are trackside equipment which, when the train passes, count and store the number of axles by means of a software at both ends of the track.

The centre has sanctioned Rs588 crore as a relief measure in the 15 drought-hit districts of the state, announced relief and rehabilitation minister Patangrao Kadam here on Tuesday. The money will be released soon, he added. Following the state’s demand of Rs1,500 crore towards the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF), a central committee visited a few of the affected tehsils across the state and recommended an assistance of Rs1083 crore. However, the centre has sanctioned Rs588 crore for now. Kadam said, the funds allotted by the central government will be distributed as per the set norms.

Rampant dumping of scrap into the Mithi at Kurla has undone all the effort to de-silt the river. The residents of Kapadia Nagar, Kurla (West), complained that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has started the work a bit too late to finish before monsoon. Besides, the work will only yield result if action is taken against scrap dealers who dump waste into the river. Like every year, this year too there are fears that the low-lying Kapadia Nagar complex, comprising around 750 flats in 24 buildings, will be waterlogged during monsoon.

Anti-nuclear demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening at Dadar’s Chaityabhoomi along with National Award-winning filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, activist Dr Binayak Sen and his wife Ilina, and members of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, Konkan Vinashakari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti, and Konkan Bachao Andolan Priyar Dravidar Kazhagam. They were protesting against the controversial nuclear reactor project in Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu.

The entire Vidarbha region in Maharashtra is facing a drought-like situation following huge water scarcity due to drying of lakes and wells in most of the villages due to intense heat wave conditions. Approximately 4,300 villages are facing the grim situation as village wells and water bodies are drying up fast, prompting the administration to supply water through tankers for human consumption and live stock.

Dharavi's officer on special duty (OSD) and the committee of experts (CoE) added one more year to the already delayed Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) by coming up with alternative plans in mid-2009. Gautam Chatterjee, OSD, and the CoE, with three of its 10 members from the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre (SPARC), rejected the existing 5-sector model that had been approved by at least 12 government departments and even the Planning Commission of India.

The Indian government is driving the country on the road to fiscal perdition. It missed its target of fiscal deficit by a mile in the last budget. It has transparently under-provided for fuel subsidies in the budget for 2012-13, suggesting that it plans to reduce those subsidies with active measures. However, in its desire to cling to power, its pusillanimity in political confrontation with its allies, and its fear that the opposition will oppose what it would itself do if it were in power, it is frozen into inaction in increasing diesel prices.