A division bench comprising Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the AP High Court issued notices to the state government and the HMWS&SB on a PIL against the decision to enhance water tariff. Forum for Good Governance secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy, filed the PIL contending that the decision is against to Article 21 of the Constitution.

The city’s drinking water distribution network consisting of Krishna, Manjira, Singur, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar and the proposed Godavari will be interlinked. Interlinking is crucial as water from any source can be diverted to areas facing shortage. For example, there were complaints of foul smelling water from Osmansagar and Himayatsagar two years back as the water level had reached dead storage levels. Krishna water was then diverted to the areas that were fed by these two reservoirs as they were interlinked.

The district administrations of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam have issued a bird flu alert in the wake of avian influenza cases in Odisha.

The administrations of the three coastal districts have also appealed to the public, particularly poultry farmers and non-vegetarians, to take precaution. A senior Animal Husbandry Department officer said they have started making all possible efforts to stop migration of crows, parrots and cranes, besides poultry chicken, from Odisha.

Almost 10 per cent of villages in the state have been freshly earmarked to receive notifications under the Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act, 2002.

The villages have been identified by the groundwater department here that has asked the state government to strictly check deep-bore drilling in about 2,500 villages that are to be notified in a fresh move this year.

Builders constructing malls and multiplexes, even in district headquarters across the state, have to leave a whopping 66 per cent space of the total built-up area for parking.

It is mandatory for all municipalities, municipal corporations and urban development authorities in the state to follow this rule while approving building plans for malls and multiplexes. Presently, the space reserved for parking varies in municipalities and corporations.

The office of the Water Board was flooded with complaints regarding the tariff hike and the poor quality of water, during the Prajavani programme held in the main office at Khairatabad on Monday. During the two-hour programme, around 70 grievances were collected, a majority of which were regarding the tariff hike. Consumers complained that they were not aware of the increase in tariff and were shocked on receiving such huge bills.

Hyderabad is staring at a drinking water crisis as Osmansagar and Himay-atsagar are fast drying up. The water available in the two reservoirs will be sufficient up to May only through gravity . After May, water will reach dead storage levels forcing officials to use high power motors to pump water. However, the water quality is not good at the dead storage level as citizens had complained of foul odour and coloured water supply from the two reservoirs.

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board is ready for the visit of the Parliamentary standing committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests led by Dr T. Subbarami Reddy.

The Board is quite relieved that the officials are not being taken to task, in fact, it is now pinning their hopes on small and medium enterprises availing of the incentives offered by the Committee to relocate to areas beyond the Outer Ring Road in an effort to reduce pollution.

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has served showcause notices to more than 50 hospitals over the last few weeks for flushing out waste water, and liquid biomedical waste, without chemically treating them.

Highly toxic in nature, they can be a source of severe health hazard if not treated properly, according to experts.

India needs to have a proper set of protocols and a credible regulatory mechanism to address issues related to genetically modified crops, according to Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission. Mr Sen was addressing a gathering at the inaugural day of the two-day international seminar on ‘Biotechnology in Indian agriculture: performance, potential and concerns’ here on Wednesday.