New Delhi: The Delhi high court has asked the Delhi Jal Board to place before it the rules relating to installation fee and rent payable for water meters. Justice Hima Kohli, in a recent order, asked the board to place the rules and regulations before it and in case DJB hasn’t made the rules, to frame it in eight weeks’ time and inform the high court.

New Delhi: Delhi’s solar mission is in trouble. The Delhi government had formulated a roof-top solar policy under which consumers would set up solar panels on their roof-tops and feed extra power generated into the main grid. Government officials, however, felt the scheme could be exploited on several grounds, a major violation being production of power through cheaper means and selling it to discoms at higher rates.

The shortage of ambulances in the city is likely to end soon as the government has approved the purchase of 70 new vehicles. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by health minister AK Walia on Wednesday. The minister told TOI that the new ambulances are being purchased from funds released by the Central government under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Andhra’s Khammam Alone Accounts For Almost 50% Loss: FSI Report. India recorded a net loss of 367 sq km of forests between 2009 and 2011, with Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh alone losing 182 sq km of green cover in the period, the latest ‘state of forest’ report has found. The report, prepared biennially by the Forest Survey of India — the Dehradun based wing of the environment and forests ministry — was released on Tuesday.

India’s economy is expected to grow by 6.9% in 2011-12, the slowest pace of expansion in three years, dragged down by sluggish industrial growth and a decline in the mining sector. Data released by the Central Statistics Office on Tuesday showed growth in 2011-12 is estimated to be a shade below the 7%-7.5% being projected by policymakers and well below the 9% estimated last year. This is the slowest pace of growth since the 2008-09 global financial crisis, which pushed down India’s gross domestic product growth to 6.7%.

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on Monday filed its final report on illegal mining in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka recommending cancellation of 49 mining leases for “flagrant” violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act and other laws. The CEC has told the court that “these (49) leases should be directed to be cancelled on account of being found to be involved in substantially illegal mining”. PTI

New Delhi: Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Monday said, “I shall reject any project recommended for clearing without adhering to the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the ministry’s order.” This was in response to a TOI story on the Forest Advisory Committee violating ministry directive while clearing projects.

New Delhi: In another embarrassment for the poll-bound BSP government in Uttar Pradesh, the Union environment ministry has put Ansal’s 2,400-acre housing project, Hi-Tech Township City, at Dadri on hold for ‘illegally’ reclaiming a wetland in the plot. The ministry has sent a showcause notice to the project developers under the Environment Protection Act, asking them to explain why legal action should not be taken for violating the clearance norms and the project should not be scrapped.

TEHRAN: Iran has given a one-month ultimatum to an Indian consortium over the development of a gas field whose delay by India has been attributed to western pressure, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday. Tension between Iran and the West rose last month when Washington and the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions yet on Iran in a bid to curb its nuclear programme.

New Delhi: Nandan Nilekani’s UID or Aadhar has been snubbed again, this time by the food and public distribution ministry. The ministry has ignored the Nilekani taskforce report making UID central to information technology reforms in the public distribution system and has instead proposed its own system through the National Informatics Centre. A taskforce chaired by Nilekani had been set up by a group of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee to lay out the technology reforms required in delivering subsidies directly under the PDS.