Environmental News and Media Roundup for Week 29, 2013
Weekly environmental news roundup from across different media networks for Week 29 (starting July 15, 2013) 2013.
1. DDA unable to install scanners at Mayapuri
The Delhi Development Authority, two months after the National Green Tribunal ordering installation of scanners in the Mayapuri junkyard in west Delhi to ensure that no radioactive substances are stored, has conceded that it does not have the know-how to do the job.
2. Dumping on along Yamuna; Green Tribunal wants police presence
Despite orders by the national green tribunal to stop dumping of debris along the Yamuna and to remove what has already been thrown there, local commissioners appointed by the court informed it on Wednesday that debris are still being dumped, especially at the Geeta Colony site.
3. No council to advise Jal Board on policy-making
The inability of the Delhi Jal Board to constitute a water consultative council has drawn flak from experts, who say policy-making, including tariff, should be left to an independent body.
4. Plant saplings to help extend green cover: Dikshit to Delhiites
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today exhorted citizens to plant saplings in the city in the current monsoon season so that the green cover can be extended further.
5. 20,000 truckloads of debris on riverbed not ours: DDA to tribunal
The Delhi Development Authority has told the national green tribunal that it has no information regarding 20,000 truckloads of construction and demolition waste or debris dumped on the banks of the Yamuna under its control.
6. 23% child mortality due to environmental degradation: WB
About 23 per cent of child mortality in the country is caused by environmental degradation and diseases caused by poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene, a World Bank study has found.
7. Air pollution costing economy Rs 3.75L crore a year: World Bank
Only outdoor air pollution in urban areas claims 1.09 lakh lives of adults, another 7,513 of children below 5 years annually, says a latest report of World Bank.
8. Tackling garbage: north corp appoints new director
To give more teeth to its garbage management and sanitation force, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has created a post of director-in-chief in the environment management services department.
9. PWD cleared Vasant Kunj project: Contractor
The Delhi government’s public works department had been maintaining that it never ordered felling of trees for the much-controversial road-widening project in Vasant Kunj.
10. Jindal SAW fined Rs 1 crore for starting construction prior to environmental clearance
Jindal SAW Ltd has been slapped with a fine of Rs one crore by the National Green Tribunal for its “reprehensible” conduct of starting construction prior to grant of environmental clearance for expansion of its iron pipe manufacturing unit in Gujarat’s Kutch district.
