Environment Ministry rejected forest clearance to Kalu dam in Thane district

While irregularities were surfacing in irrigation projects around Mumbai in early April, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) rejected forest clearance to the Kalu dam in Murbad taluka of Thane district, which would have submerged around 1,000 hectares of forest land. Work started last October without permission from the MOEF, and Indavi Tulpule of the Shramik Mukti Sanghatana said hundreds of trees were chopped, in blatant violation of the Forest Conservation Act. The dam didn't have approvals from the MoEF, there was no Environmental Impact

Adivasis up in arms against ‘unauthorised dams'

Faced with mounting criticism of the irrigation sector, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday ordered that a White Paper be brought out by the department, headed by Nationalist Congress Party Minister Sunil Tatkare.

A group of agriculturists from Raigad and Thane districts has written to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that the expansion of Mumbai city has adversely affected the quality of agricultural land in these areas.

The farmers demand that the state government should direct the collectors of both the districts to examine the issue and submit a report to the state government.

Puducherry residents will soon “sell power”. The ministry of new and renewable energy is planning with the state government to install solar panels on rooftops of houses in Puducherry and excess power generated would be fed to the common grid.

Residents would get paid for excess production in summer and will be able to borrow power during rains for a nominal charge.Speaking at an event hosted by British High Commission and Inter-national Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI),

Takes it to task for lands allotted to undertakings lying idle over years, also for lack of maintaining data base

The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) has rapped the Maharashtra government for lack of a mechanism to carry out a periodic review of the lands allotted to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and other state undertakings. Such a mechanism, according to the CAG, was necessary to ensure that land not required by these undertakings would be available to the government for other welfare measures.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has fined 59 industrial units for unlawfully storing and disposing large quantities of hazardous waste on their premises.

The industries have been asked by MPCB to pay the fine (amount not specified) and have been directed to send the hazardous waste to common treatment facilities, the 2011-12 Economic Survey of the state, which was tabled in the ongoing Budget session of the legislature, said.

The Bombay high court on Thursday stayed the construction of a dam being built on Kalu River in Thane district because necessary permissions were not obtained by the state government from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). The stay would continue for three months until the ministry decides on the proposal seeking permission.

On June 5, DNA had first reported how the dam, if built, would submerge an area of 2,100 hectares, including around 1,000 hectares of dense forest, and displace four villages.

Jaipur, Mysore and Thane have come forward to do pilot projects for grid-connected rooftop solar, Mr Tarun Kapur, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, told Business Line. “Talks are on with one or two more (cities),” Mr Kapur said. Grid-interactive rooftop solar power plant is the ‘big story' about the “solarisation” of India.

MUMBAI: A Thane-based consumer has alerted the food and drug administration about iron pieces being found in a medically-prescribed iron tablet. The content of elemental iron in the tablet, prescribed for anaemia or lack of red blood cells, was way above permissible limits. FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagde has directed the Himachal Pradesh-based Galpha Laboratories to withdraw the entire stock of the product from Maharashtra. Simultaneously, the FDA has told 76,000-odd medical stores, public health and medical education departments not to prescribe the product.