Environmental News and Media Roundup for Week 17, 2012
Weekly environmental news roundup from across different media networks for week 17 (starting April 23, 2012) 2012.
1. Finally, a law to govern e-waste
At Old Seelampur, an impoverished neighbourhood in Northeast Delhi, rows of hollowed-out computer monitors line a dingy lane. On another street here, room after room on either side is piled high with dusty keyboards and metallic innards of computers and other electronic goods.
2. Haryana, Delhi in water row
Haryana and Delhi are on the verge of locking horns over an opening made by the latter in the under-construction Munak-Haiderpur concrete lined channel (CLC) for withdrawing water for a new water treatment plant for Dwarka in New Delhi.
The city of Tughlaqabad, the previous incarnation of Delhi, was abandoned in the 14th century due to severe water shortage. Akbar’s capital at Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned in 1585 due to paucity of water. Leading global cities like Sheba and Babel declined and subsequently disappeared because water sources had dried up. The destiny of some of the greatest cities of the world like New York, London, Paris and Rome have been shaped by water.
4. Animal specimen row: Petition in Delhi HC seeks CBSE guidelines’ amendment
Days after the People for Animals along with Chandigarh Police had searched Sacred Heart School to seize animal specimens kept in the school’s laboratories, a New Delhi resident has moved the Delhi High Court seeking “amendment in guidelines issued by CBSE and UGC regarding the specimens of animals in school and college laboratories”.
5. Make Delhi car owners pay three times more for parking: Survey
Car users in Delhi are taking up 10 per cent of the city’s land space for parking and should be made to pay three times higher charges, says a survey by the Centre for Science and Environment.
6. Groundwater may be taxed, Bill in cabinet
After a delay of some years, the controversial groundwater Bill is finally ready to be presented to the Delhi cabinet. Government sources say the draft is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of the Delhi assembly and, if passed, will make groundwater a chargeable asset in the capital.
7. Sarojini multi-level car parking pointless: CSE
The Center for Science and Environment has written off the Rs. 80-crore automatic multi-level parking in Sarojini Nagar. It has said that the project was developed ‘without a clear strategy’, and is now proving to be pointless as commuters are still choosing to park on the roads.
8. Parliamentary panel cites flaws in implementation of green programmes
A parliamentary panel has pulled up the environment ministry for serious deficiencies and inadequacies in the implementation of various green programmes while expressing concern over the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources.
9. Gram sabhas now hold key to projects in forest lands
More than two years after the environment and forests ministry ordered so, the statutory Forest Advisory Committee, which gives green nod to divert forests for projects, decided that it would not entertain proposals until resolutions from affected gram sabhas favouring the projects are submitted.
10. India sparks solar energy market: Report
India’s ambitious national solar programme has catalysed rapid growth in the solar market driving solar energy prices low and demonstrating how government policy can stimulate clean energy markets, according to a new report.
