Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India to finalise agreement on transit fee next week. In an important decision, the Union Cabinet this evening gave its nod to sign a pricing agreement with Turkmenistan for the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project. The pipeline will terminate at Fazilka in Punjab.

It's summer vacation time for Vaishali Koli. But, for this eight-year-old from Degaon village in Dhule's Shindkheda taluk, the months of April and May do not mean summer camps and hobby classes. They mean long hours of filling water at hand pumps in her village, one of many in Maharashtra hit by scarcity. “I fill 20 steel pots everyday, twice,” she says, pumping water on a hot afternoon. Hoisting one vessel on her head, and fitting the other on her waist, she says, “I don't know if this is better than giving exams,” speaking to The Hindu earlier this week.

The Indian Supreme Court yesterday ordered the government to implement an ambitious project to link the major rivers of the region in a “time-bound manner”.

The court also appointed a high-powered committee to plan and put into action the Rs 5,00,000 crore scheme.

The river-linking project was first devised in 1980 and has been under discussion ever since, reports BBC.

Bangladesh has been opposing the plan since 2002 as the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee formed a taskforce to get the project going against the backdrop of the acute drought that year.

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to implement the ambitious interlinking of rivers project in a time-bound manner and appointed a high-powered committee for its planning and implementation.

Observing that the project has already been delayed resulting in an increase in its cost, a three-judge Bench headed by the Chief Justice, Mr S.H. Kapadia, said the Centre and the State Governments concerned should participate for its “effective” implementation “in a timebound manner“.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to implement the ambitious interlinking of rivers project in a time-bound manner and appointed a high-powered committee for its planning and implementation.

Observing that the project has already been delayed resulting in an increase in its cost, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said the Centre and the concerned State governments should participate for its “effective” implementation “in a time-bound manner”.

Ahmedabad: Tribal districts, which were the torch-bearers for the girl child in Gujarat, boasting of a far healthier number of girls in 0-6 age group, too have shown a decline in the past decade. Sociologists see this trend as alarming as almost all non-tribal districts in Gujarat are already reeling under a skewed sex ratio.
All the tribal districts including Dang, Dahod, Panchmahals, Tapi, Valsad, Narmada and Bharuch, have posted a decline in the child sex ratio in 0-6 age group as per figures of Census 2011.

Contrary to apprehensions in Indian official circles, Pakistan still wants India to join the ambitious Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. ''If India desires, they are still welcome to join the project,'' Pakistan's Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Asim Hussain told The Tribune during his visit to India recently to discuss the transit fee and other issues connected with the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

India and Pakistan today agreed in-principle to have a uniform transit fee for ferrying natural gas through the proposed $7.6 billion pipeline from Turkmenistan.

India will pay a transit fee to Pakistan and Afghanistan for getting its share of 38 million standard cubic metres per day of gas through the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, while Islamabad has to pay ferrying charges only to Afghanistan for allowing passage of the fuel.

Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Tapi district of Gujarat has come under the scanner of regulator Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for a “minor incident” of radiation exposure to four workers in May this year.

“Our medical staff had checked them and there was no problem with them as such. We had instructed our hospital that if they wanted to undergo any investigation, it had to be done but none of them turned up,” KAPS Additional General Manager HR Sujaya Kajur said. The KAPS nuclear power station has two 220 MW pressurised heavy water reactors.

Surat: Five daily wage workers, hired for cleaning and colouring a tunnel at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS), about 75km from the city, have alleged that they were exposed to radiation there on May 30, 2011. In a memorandum to the Tapi district collector, they have sought employment and proper treatment for radiation exposure.