New Delhi West Bengal has the highest number of red category industries causing high pollution, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while 43 industrial clusters have been identified as "critically polluted", the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Environment and Forest Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said during Question Hour that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and IIT-Delhi had conducted a survey based on Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) for assessment of pollution load of industrial areas.

To move competition watchdog against Coal India’s ‘monopolistic’ rejection of liabilities for default
Frustrated by uncertainty over fuel supply despite a presidential decree, top power generation firms have adopted a confrontational approach towards Coal India and decided to complain to the competition regulator against the state-run giant’s “monopolistic” rejection of liabilities for default.

BARJORA, 4 APRIL: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is set to flag off coal production next week at a mine that supporters of her Trinamul have been opposing since 2004. The Trinamul’s opposition to the Trans-Damodar Sector coal mine forced the erstwhile Left Front government to suspend operations there. And Trinamul activists are still protesting against the mine, which has been leased out to the West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation (WBMDTC).

Nature serves well even when rivers run dry. Students of Government Polytechnic-Nirsa who recently unearthed four artesian wells in a rocky stretch of Dhanbad, will surely vouch for the natural source of water that promises succour as another arid summer looms. The nine final-year civil engineering (diploma) students, under the guidance of senior lecturer of the institute Suresh Prasad Yadav, spotted the four wells in Baliapur block of the district — one at Rangatand near Sindri police outpost and three at Chandkuian, Paharpur and near Bhuiphore temple.

Dhanbad, Jan. 29: More than 2,000 people displaced by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) marched to Maithon’s BSK College Ground, 45 km from the district headquarter, today to take part in a public meeting organised by Adivasi Mahasabha, an organisation that has been fighting for the rights of the displaced for over a decade. Prominent social activists like Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar besides former Dhanbad MP Chandrashekhar Dubey joined the agitation, which started around 11am and continued for more than four hours.

Ranchi, Jan. 15: A first-ever water pollution audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pegged Jharkhand at the bottom of the performance chart with most river conservation projects lying incomplete in the state. According to the report, Performance Audit of Water Pollution in India, the Ganga, Damodar and Subernarekha were selected for pollution abatement projects in Jharkhand under the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP), which was launched in 1995.

BURDWAN, 6 NOV: Thirty lorries, loaded with illegally-extracted sand from the Ajoy riverbed, were seized by the Durgapur SDO yesterday evening. The illegal consignment were meant to be transported to Dankuni, Rajarhat and Salt Lake.
The sand, worth at least Rs 2 lakh, was being sold without required permit and without paying royalty to the state.

The Supreme Court today said it would not favour interlinking of rivers if it causes huge financial burden on the Centre and asked for a report on its costs.

“My concern is only on the financial liability of the project. We want to make it clear that we would not pass order on it if it causes huge financial burden,” a three-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice, Mr S.H. Kapadia, said.

The coal ministry will award mining blocks to state-run NTPC for four of its upcoming projects and could also return licences that were revoked in June, putting the power plans of the company back on track.
“We committed coal blocks to NTPC's four projects in Karnataka, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh,” a senior ministry official said. The ministry would also review its decision to de-allocate five blocks of NTPC.

KOLKATA, 23 AUG: The death toll in floods jumped to 58 today with eight more deaths being reported from four districts over the past 24-hours and flood situation in south Bengal districts remaining grim.