New Delhi, May 23: The raised petrol prices and the untouched diesel reflect a disturbing trend that is pushing consumers towards private diesel vehicles and hurting the country’s environment, health and economy, analysts have said. The increase announced today will mainly jack up the fuel bills of owners of small cars and two-wheeler motorbikes, the analysts said, pointing out that most big cars, and virtually all of public transport, freight trucks and railways run on diesel.

Calling the Rs.7.50 increase per litre in petrol price shocking, Delhiites on Wednesday expressed their outrage at the Central Government's “inconsiderate” move.

“The Government has clearly not taken into consideration the already sky-rocketing cost of living. Rising fuel costs and the lack of adequate, safe public transport system adds to the problems of the common man. The worst hit are two-wheeler users,” said Jatin Gandhi from Janakpuri who uses his bike to come to Connaught Place and works as a marketing executive.

New Delhi: The Delhi government finally seems to be waking up to the threat of environment pollution from the expanding private vehicle pool in the city. Based on an EPCA (environment pollution control authority) recommendation, the transport department is putting together a proposal for mandatory fitness checks of all private vehicles. At present, only commercial vehicles need to get an annual fitness check done at authorized regional transport offices.

Technicians dismantle e-waste from discarded electronic devices such as computer peripherals at Earth Sense Recycle unit in Andhra Pradesh.

It is mostly caused by deliberate neglect and designed failure of the way we manage water and land

It’s drought time again. Nothing new in this announcement. Each year, first we have crippling droughts between December and June, and then devastating floods in the next few months. It’s a cycle of despair, which is more or less predictable. But this is not an inevitable cycle of nature we must live with.

Though, the new draft of National Water Policy has favoured privatisation of water-delivery services and tariff hike, members of a working panel of the Planning Commission are strongly divided over the crucial issue. But strangely, for reasons best known to the Commission, the views of the members who have opposed the privatisation of water, were not initially incorporated in the report prepared by the committee on Urban and Industrial Water Supply and Sanitation for 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) led by activist Sunita Narain.

NEW DELHI: Trucks and tourist buses with national permits and registered in NCR that need to move cargo or people between two points in NCR are now required to comply with Bharat Stage IV emission standards. The notification was issued this February but sources claim there is negligible compliance. With the Delhi government planning to go big on reining in overloaded trucks and polluting vehicles to bring down emission levels in the city, this has become a major point of worry.

New Delhi: Have environment clearances become an impediment to setting up power projects in the country? Data submitted by environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan to the Lok Sabha on Monday suggests otherwise. In the last three years, the environment ministry rejected environmental clearances to only two power projects.