Seeking to calm passions over Mullaperiyar Dam issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa saying nothing should be said or done to create "undue alarm" and hoped the issue would be sorted out amicably through dialogue.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari on Thursday found himself at the centre of yet another controversy over a letter he wrote to the Union water resources ministry seeking release of funds for an irrigation project in Maharashtra, in which an associate of his is said to be a contractor.
Modi's irrigation push in the Budget is aimed at scoring on the political front along with achieving growth targets
The Tamil Nadu government welcomed the decision, hailing it as a 'grand victory for the 'Amma (Jayalalithaa) government' and the state's farmers'.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday retained 46 ministries as she allotted portfolios of Rural Development and Panchayti Raj, Health and Mines among her Cabinet ministers.
A plea seeking ban on 2018 Indian Premier League cricket matches on the ground that it leads to wastage of lakhs of litres of water, on Wednesday, prompted the National Green Tribunal to seek responses from the Centre, Board of Control for Cricket in India and others.
Among the cities that have fully implemented their projects are Agra, Varanasi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Udaipur, Pune, Surat, and Vadodara
As per norms, sanction for prosecution of government employees accused of corruption has to be given within four months' stipulated time.
The Group of Ministers constituted for the creation of a separate state of Telangana on Wednesday discussed the sharing of river water and irrigation resources in Andhra Pradesh after the state's bifurcation, but failed to arrive at a resolution.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
India's water future remains very bleak. The monsoon season, which once extended to 4 months, is now down to less than 30 days of heavy rain.
'The cost of flying to Prayagraj has gone up six times due to the Kumbh Mela.'
It has noted that melting glaciers due to any impact of climate change will not only severely affect the flow in Himalayan river system but will also give rise to natural disasters.
The statement of the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office comes on the heels of India issuing a notice to Pakistan seeking a review and modification of the IWT in view of Islamabad's "intransigence" in complying with the dispute redressal mechanism of the pact that was inked over six decades ago for sharing of waters of cross-border rivers.
The National Democratic Alliance government has asked states to emulate the Gujarat water management model to address the problem of water scarcity.The Centre has forwarded a compact disc received from Gujarat government's Water and Sanitation Management Organisation on the subject "The state-wide water supply grid" to the states to study how the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state managed the problem of water scarcity.
The counsel for Punjab told a bench headed by Justice SK Kaul that the state government is very keen to resolve the issue amicably.
The aim of the programme is to increase the water table in the stressed areas through dams, ponds, and afforestation. According to a NITI Aayog study, by 2030, the country's water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6 per cent loss in the country's GDP.
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
In a step towards diversifying its resource base and securing green energy minerals, India is poised to launch its first-ever offshore mineral auction in the first quarter of 2024, announced Union Minister of Mines Pralhad Joshi during the launch event of the National Geoscience Data Repository portal. The government plans to hold auctions in March, offering 10-15 blocks for bidding. Meanwhile, the ministry of mines is currently developing rules and regulations for offshore mining.
Maharashtra government on Saturday gave a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam as it tabled in the Legislative Assembly the report of Madhav Chitale committee on the issue alongwith the Action Taken Report.
MNREGS labourers are usually engaged in irrigation projects.
The ministry said it has launched an inquiry to ascertain as to how this "factual information" was not included in the ministry's response to an RTI query.
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According to the latest data, until May, 48.3 per cent of the total 207 projects worth Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) or above, also termed as mega projects, faced delays and witnessed a cost overrun of 19.2 per cent from the originally-sanctioned Rs 656,000 to Rs 781,000.
The statements coming out of India on 'reclaiming' Kachchatheevu island from Sri Lanka have 'no ground', the Sri Lankan Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda has said.
With this decision, Malik will be left with no portfolio in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
At the review meeting, chaired by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba in New Delhi, the IMD said above normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of northeast, east and central India and some parts of northwest India.
'We are going to need more technical people in government.' 'You can't expect a generalist to understand the complicated world of financial engineering.' 'I regret to say that most of our politicians have no competence to deal with these things. Nor is there a willingness to learn.'
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Monday sparred at the meeting of Cauvery supervisory committee in New Delhi over the latter's share of the Cauvery water.
A senior official of the Union water resources ministry said it was an unprecedented situation on the Chinese side where Tsangpo broke a 150-year record with swollen waters and hence China has shared the information with India.
Siddaramaiah added that all efforts would be made to provide drinking water to Bengaluru and other places as also for crops.
The standing committee on water resources, tabled in Lok Sabha, said only Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand and erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir had enacted legislation, though delineation and demarcation of flood plains are yet to be undertaken.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was given the finance and planning portfolio on Friday, nearly two weeks after he broke away from the original party and took oath as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
The Global Hunger Index exaggerates the measure of hunger, lacks statistical vigour and has problems on multiple counts, Union Health Ministry sources said.
Glaciers in the Karakoram region are in a stable condition, but those feeding the Ganga and the Brahmaputra river basins are melting at a faster rate, the earth sciences ministry has said.
After her elevation as defence minister, Sitharaman has become a member of the cabinet committee on security headed by the prime minister.
Districts along the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh have been put on high alert for possible flash floods.
Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has the task of bringing clean tap water to all households by 2024.
With different agencies showing divergent predictions regarding the southwest monsoon, the central government and states are gearing up to face adversity with various line ministries reportedly being directed to undertake mock drills and hold preparatory meetings. Around 56 per cent of the net cultivable area of the country is rain-fed, accounting for 44 per cent of foodgrain production. The June-September rains contribute around 73 per cent of the annual precipitation.
Portfolios were on Tuesday allocated in the new Bihar cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, predictably, retained the all-important home department which helps him keep direct control on the state police.
'People's expectations were very high.' 'We felt both sides had understood each other.' 'But the removal of Article 370 triggered apprehensions within the Naga people.'
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