Nudged by the Delhi High Court and the Central Information Commission, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has finally made public the Gadgil panel report on ecology in the Western Ghats, but with a disclaimer.

The report, which was uploaded on the Ministry’s site on May 23, says: “The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report has not been formally accepted by the Ministry and that the report is still being analysed and considered by the Ministry.’’

The report was submitted to the Ministry in August 2011. Public comments have been invited within 45 days.

Delay in land acquisition is proving to be a stumbling block in expediting road projects as 16 schemes worth about Rs 15,000 crore are stalled due to it.
“Sixteen major highway projects in four states entailing about Rs 15,000 crore investment are stalled due to inordinate delays in land acquisition,” a road transport and highways ministry official told PTI.

The State-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Russian steel maker Severstal are likely to sign a final agreement to set up a steel plant in Bellary by the end of this year.

“Both companies have appointed legal consultants to study the project structure, and based on inputs, both firms will sign an agreement,” N K Nanda, Chairman and Managing Director, NMDC, told Deccan Herald on Thursday.

No parking on arterial roads, but only at designated spots

Soon, parking vehicles on the arterial roads of the City’s central business district (CBD) may be a costly affair. By restricting the parking to designated locations and fixing fees for the same, the government proposes to decongest the major thoroughfares, thereby eliminating traffic bottlenecks. The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) is preparing a parking action plan for the CBD in association with BBMP. To begin with, parking will be banned on the arterial roads of the City.

The BMTC has decided to run 150 more Volvo buses to IT corridors from various destinations in the City.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Doubling public transport share: A thrust to make public transport a choice for every citizen’ on Thursday, Principal Secretary for Transport P B Ramamurthy said, in a recent meeting held with heads of IT companies, it was decided to increase the number of buses to IT hubs like Electronic City and Whitefield.

Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court

The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.

Development activities, human settlements narrowing pathways

Most of the elephant migratory corridors in the State are under threat, experts have found, even as the High Court’s June deadline for the government to submit a report on man-elephant conflict in Hassan and Kodagu is fast approaching.

The State government on Thursday informed the High Court that it would hold negotiations with Andhra Pradesh government with regard to providing drinking water to Pavagada taluk in Tumkur district from the pipeline, part of which passes through Pavagada, laid by the neighbouring State to supply water from Tungabhadra dam in Karnataka.

The government counsel made this submission during the hearing on a PIL plea filed by the Karnataka Rashtriya Kissan Sangha and other organisations from Pavagada taluk seeking supply of drinking water through this line to their taluk which is facing water shortage.

Recommending scrapping of two controversial hydro-power projects in Karnataka and Kerala that had run into difficulty due to opposition from environmentalists, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has suggested setting up of a statutory authority to protect the Ghats.

The report of the panel, headed by Madhav Gadgil, formerly with the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, has called for cancellation of Karnataka's Gundia and Kerala's Athirapally hydro-projects, and gradual phasing out of mining activities in ecologically highly-sensitive areas of Goa by 2016.

New Delhi Highlighting its inability to support increasing number of metro projects, the Centre has asked state governments to follow the models of Karnataka and Delhi for financing capital-intensive Metro rail projects by levying cess on residential and commercial developments, and increasing house tax. It has also urged them to set up state-level urban transport funds with such levies to finance the projects.

The Centre says its unable to support the increasing number of metro systems through the Budget and therefore wants the states to develop their own funding sources to part-finance such capital-intensive systems.