Is the Asia-Pacific region set to bear the onerous title of having become the disaster centre of the globe? So it would seem if one went by UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Development Report “One Planet to Share — Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate”.

Climate-related disasters are on the rise and during the last two decades, 45 per cent of the world’s natural disasters, whether it be floods in Pakistan in 2010 or Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma in 2008, have occurred here, resulting in numerous deaths, massive human dislocations and severe economic losses.

Power Minister says in 2011-12, capacity of 20,400 Mw was added, which was much higher than projection of 17,000 Mw

A mammoth 80,000 Mw power generation capacity is under construction during the 12th Five Year Plan period ending March 31, 2017, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told the Rajya Sabha today. He said during Question Hour that 21,000 Mw of electricity generation capacity was added during 10th Plan period against the target of 42,000 Mw.

The Maharashtra government, caught between the rising mismatch between demand and supply of power and deteriorating finances of power utilities, has introduced an amnesty scheme for payment of dues by consumers. The scheme would be applicable for the recovery of pending electricity bills for various drinking water schemes.

Fighting the elephant menace with a small electric bulb may appear strange to many, but it has become a reality in over 2,000 villages in Assam affected by the man-animal conflict where it is common to see elephant herds destroying crops, damaging houses and attacking people. According to villagers, electrification has changed the entire scenario. Not only has the man-animal conflict reduced, the wild life has started avoiding venturing out to villages at night due to electric illumination of their houses, they claimed.

State Congress has claimed that 1,068 villages of the Shajapur district of the State would be illuminated with the electricity on the initiative taken by the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president and MP Kantilal Bhuria in a statement here on Sunday said that a sum of Rs 52.31 crores has been sanctioned for the same, over 38000 BPL families would be benefited by the electrification.

Madhya Pradesh Government on Wednesday extended the tenure of the Union Carbide Toxic Gas Leak Probe Commission by an year, sources said.
The term of the committee, headed by Justice SL Kocchar, was to get over on February 25, they said. The decision in this regard was taken by the state Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

DIBRUGARH: The Assam State Electricity Board(ASEB), under its much hyped Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification project(RREP) has provided power connection to 75 below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries at Romai Tea Estate in Dibrugarh District recently.

Distribution reforms in power sector should be accelerated for capacity addition to yield results. At a time when India has staked its claim to a seat at the high table alongside world powers, around 57% of rural households and 12% of urban households have no access to electricity. That partly explains why India’s per capita consumption of power of around 717 units a year is way below the world average of 2,600 units and developed countries’ average of 8,000 units.

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over the recurring incidence of electrocution, the State Government has decided to replace single and double poles with elephant-friendly electricity structures in districts where the jumbos are most vulnerable. To avoid the electrocution, narrow based lattice structures (NBLS) will be established in Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj by replacing the single and double poles in all 11 KV and 33 KV lines in future.