NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday said there was “nothing to suggest” that China was building dams to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra river towards its northern regions.

Replying to supplementary questions in the Rajya Sabha, Bansal said India has been assured by the Chinese government that all dams being built on rivers that flow into India are only for generating electricity, and will not store water.

Guwahati: Assam is set to undertake the second phase of power sector reforms, which is expected to see major initiatives to boost generation and greater efforts for privatisation.

“In 2005 we started the first phase of reforms which saw restructuring of the then power behemoth Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB).” “Now we are poised to undertake the second phase of the reforms where focus would on increasing generation and improving transmission and distribution,” Minister for Power, Commerce and Industries Pradyut Bordoloi said.

Experts recommend use of green technologies including cold mix to expedite road construction

Gangtok: Sikkim’s Green Mission Programme started in 2006 has catapulted the State as among the most clean and green in the country. This has been possible due to the various innovative environment-friendly initiatives taken by the Green Chief Minister Pawan Chamling. Along with the protection and conservation of its rich biodiversity, the adoption of green rural roads in the State can play a vital role in the development of the State as well as help achieve its Green Mission Programme, said experts at a media workshop on Tuesday.

Agartala: ONGC-Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC)’s 724-MW gas-based thermal power project at Palatana in South Tripura district would start generation by June, a top official of state-owned oil major ONGC said on Tuesday. The first phase of the project would be operational by June, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Basudeva, who reviewed the progress of work at the project with OTPC officials on Monday, told reporters here.

Agartala: Tripura will launch a disaster management programme in its schools to enhance the State’s preparedness in an event of a natural calamity striking it, an official said here on Monday.

“The government has launched an ambitious School Disaster Management Planning (SDMP) project from this academic session. Under it, teachers and students will be trained to deal with any natural disaster, including earthquake,” said State education department joint director Dilip Debbarma.

Agartala: Timely vaccination of birds and animals, access to standard laboratories and maintaining bio-security are among the measures required to curb the sporadic outbreak of bird flu in India’s northeast, says a team of international and Indian experts touring the region.

Experts of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and India, who are on a five-day visit to Tripura to probe the causes of frequent bird flu outbreaks, have asked the northeastern states to maintain stipulated protocols to stop the contagious disease from resurfacing.

New Delhi In a bid to reduce pilferage of grain, food ministry and UN body World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for scaling up the modernisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

WFP, which is currently supporting a pilot project in Orissa’s Rayagada districts, where biometrics based technology is used to eliminate ‘bogus’ BPL card holders, would support other states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and North-eastern states in taking up modernisation of TPDS.

SHILLONG: The fundamental demographic disparity between the developed and developing nations presents an extremely difficult cultural, technical and moral challenges to any attempt to manage global climate change, stated State Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in today’s closing function of the operational planning workshop on climate change adaptation in Northeastern region organized by the GIZ in cooperation of Republic of India and Federal Republic of Germany in partnership with the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

Cancer killed 5,56,400 people across the country in 2010. The 30-69 age group accounted for 71 per cent (3,95,400) of the deaths. In 2010, cancer alone accounted for 8 per cent of the 2.5 million total male deaths and 12 per cent of the 16 million total female deaths in this age group. These are some of the findings of a paper published on March 28 in The Lancet.

The study found that 7,137 of the 1,22,429 deaths during 2001-2003 were due to cancer, corresponding to 5,56,400 cancer deaths in 2010. At nearly 23 per cent,

SHILLONG: It is during these months that water becomes scarce in this hilly state albeit being endowed with high rainfall (approximately mean annual rainfall of 11,100 mm) annually.

Considering the fact that rainwater is a viable mean to augment the water supply for domestic needs, roof top rainwater harvesting was taken in North Eastern Region (NER) under Central Sector Scheme during the 9th Plan in Meghalaya, as well as other NE states under Fresh Water Year 2003.