Interview with A.R. Ansari, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation.

Central Audit Body Pulls Up State Govt & Departments For Huge Losses Incurred

Jaipur: Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Limited (RSMML), a public sector undertaking of the state government, has incurred a loss of Rs 1.10 crore for non-compliance of legal requirements which led to unproductive expenditure towards land tax and dead rent. It also incurred loss of Rs. 1.92 core for keeping 12 areas without any plan to undertake mining having paid premium charges on it.

Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s much-favoured Project Cheetah is in doldrums.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) sanctioned `25 lakhs for a feasibility study conducted by chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India Dr M.K. Ranjisinh and wildlife biologist Dr Y.V. Jhala. Three sites in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were selected as proposed homes of the cheetahs. Mr Ramesh even visited South Africa in 2010 and claimed on his return that within a period of three years, cheetahs would be relocated from South Africa to India.

Agony, physical and mental pain and monetary problems have become part of lives of hundreds of families living in the villages of Sangrur district. Reason: The number of cancer patients is witnessing a steady increase in the area. From three-year-olds to octogenarians, almost every village now has a cancer patient battling for life. As The Tribune team visited some 24 villages, it came to light that the plight of poor families having a cancer patient is particularly terrible.

Rajasthan will soon accord the bio-diversity rich Jawai Bandh forests in Pali district the status of a conservation reserve. The rich forests and the water bodies along the Jawai dam in Sumerpur tehsil have a large presence of crocodiles. The wildlife census in 2011 had put their number at 288.

AJMER: The forest department has on its hands the task of finding the number of remaining Great Indian Bustard (GIB), the state bird, to chalk out a conservation plan for them. The census will be carried out on February 14 to know the area and number of birds in Ajmer, Baran and Jaisalmer divisions. At present, the bird, which is found only in the Indian subcontinent, is included in the endangered species list.

Concern over decline of Rajasthan's State bird population

The critically-endangered grassland species, the Great Indian Bustard, will be counted in the desert terrain of Rajasthan in the second week of February. Rajasthan, specially its desert region, accounts for maximum population of the bird which is globally threatened and listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Bikaner: The state housing board is planning to make houses available to the poorer section of society at cheaper rates in remote rural areas. “An action plan is under consideration for the purpose,” Parasram Mordia, chairman of the Rajasthan Housing Board said here on Friday.