The representatives of five Bhopal gas survivor organisations on Sunday urged the Group of Ministers on Bhopal to take a long term view in dealing with the issue of hazardous waste and toxic contamination linked with the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster.

The demand raised by the Bhopal gas survivors acquires significance as the GoM will be meeting on Monday to discuss the issue of disposal of 350MT of toxic waste as directed by the Supreme Court. The Apex Court has listed the matter on May 28 and will be awaiting the decision of GoM on solution for disposal of 350 MT of Union Carbide waste.

Efforts are underway to bring Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, on the tourism map of the country. In this regard, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation is developing spots of historical and tourist importance around the city at a cost of Rs21 crore. A high-powered meeting of the district administration was held here at the office of the divisional commissioner on Wednesday. The meeting was aimed at giving a fillip to ongoing development works in the city.

After the Supreme Court’s nod to the authorities on April 4 to go ahead with a test incineration of the toxic waste of Bhopal’s abandoned Union Carbide factory at Pithampur near Indore, there is new twist to the toxic waste disposal issue as Union minister for rural development, drinking water and sanitation Jairam Ramesh has written a fresh letter to home minister and chairman, group of ministers on Bhopal, Mr P. Chidamabaram asking that the proposal by GIZ, a German government agency, for incinerating the toxic waste at Hamburg in Germany should be considered.

A group of NGOs today strongly opposed the state government's fresh proposal of disposing of nearly 350 tons of toxic waste lying in the defunct Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in the Pithampur industrial area near here. “The facility of treatment, storage and disposal at Pithampur is not even equipped to handle the normal waste, so how can it dispose of such a highly toxic waste!” NGO Lok Maitri's convenor Gautam Kothari said today.

The battle for Maheshwar dam and Indore water crisis appears to have reached a decisive phase with both the senior Government officials and distinguished citizens of Indore batting for filling of Maheshwar dam up to 160 meters so as to enable Indore to derive optimum benefits of the Narmada Phase III.

Only mass rapid transit solutions can provide India’s urban commuters with efficient mobility. Billions of man-hours are lost with people ‘stuck in traffic’. This fact is also echoed in government’s national urban transport policy. The reasons are well known: exponential growth of motor vehicles with negligible increase in road space. To make things worse, unprecedented rate of urban population growth has been reported in the last census. So, travel within major urban networks such Mumbai and Delhi has become unpredictable.

New Delhi A specialised body for promoting sustainable development of the Indian auto sector, dubbed the National Automotive Board, is likely to be set up by April.

"The proposed National Automotive Board (NAB), which is being finalised by the Department of Heavy Industry, is likely to be cleared by the Cabinet in a month," an official said.

While the plan to set up a nuclear power plant at Chutka in Mandla district is yet to take shape, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd ( NPCIL) has identified another site in the state to establish one more plant. 'Madhya Pradesh has the capacity to house more than one nuclear plant… so, apart from Chutka, we have identified one more site in the state for setting up Plant, 'Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banarjee told reporters on the sidelines of the Foundation Day celebration of Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, on Sunday.

Vesting legal power in the Commissioner, Indore division, the Madhya Pradesh Government has authorised him to lawfully redress applications submitted to him by persons displaced by the Maheshwar hydel project who are dissatisfied with the rehabilitation process. These powers have been vested in the Commissioner, Indore division, through a notification published by the Government in the January 31, 2012 edition of Madhya Pradesh Gazette (Extraordinary).

The senior citizens’ forum, a forum of distinguished intellectuals of the city, apparently concerned over delay and denial of complete benefits of Narmada Phase III to the people of Indore and adjoining regions, has called upon the State Government to ensure early operationalisation of the now complete Maheshwar dam. They opined that the opening of dam for the people would provide adequate potable water to the residents of Indore from Narmada Phase III, for which the Indore Municipal Corporation is spending a staggering sum of about Rs 700 crore.