The Uttar Pradesh government has stepped up efforts to attract private companies from the United States and South Africa to set up units to generate electricity from solid wastes.

"I am very much interested in this scheme. I really want such units to be set up in big cities. This will not only take care of power problem but also help the urban local bodies to manage domestic waste," Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan told 'The Pioneer' here on Friday.

Hundreds of young and old eco-activists turned up at the Yamuna ghats in this Taj city on Sunday morning to pick up trash, mostly polythene bags, to mark the start of World Water Week March 18-25.

Programme coordinator Shravan Kumar Singh said: "UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is known for his love for environmental and nature conservation programme. Through our clean up exercise today (Sunday) we have sent out a strong message - that we want the cleaning up of Yamuna to be taken up at the earliest and on war-footing."

The earthquake today that jolted the National Capital and the adjoining NCR region has brought the safety of buildings in and around the capital back into focus. Two other temblors had hit the area in the past six months.

Strong tremors that lasted almost 10 seconds at 1.11 pm today sparked panic among the denizens in Delhi and other parts of north India. No casualties have been reported from the region.

LUCKNOW: Even as the city remained under the grip of biting cold on Sunday, the minimum temperature dropped to 1.3 degrees Celsius in Agra, which was the lowest in record in the plains of the country. Significantly, on Saturday, Agra had recorded 0.4 degree Celsius minimum temperature, but Churu was the coldest with below zero degree minimum temperature. However, the weatherman predicted relief from the cold wave conditions as night temperatures may rise by a couple of degrees in the next 1-2 days.

Alleging that giving power distribution of Agra city to private hands was causing huge losses to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Friday demanded Chief Minister Mayawati to dismiss the agreement with private franchisee company Torrent Power immediately.

AIPEF general secretary Shailendra Dubey in a letter to the Chief Minister said, the private company was violating terms of the agreement which has resulted into additional loss of Rs 53 crore to the power corporation.

LUCKNOW: An ailing Yamuna may heave a sigh of relief if claims of Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam are anything to go by. The corporation has claimed that the 144 million litres per day (mld) capacity water treatment plant in Agra will start functioning in less than a year.
Chairman, UPJN, Navneet Sehgal said that the existing plant has the capacity to treat only 0.1 mld of water. This will increase significantly, when the treatment comes into operation by October 2012, Sehgal said.