Parts of UP under flood water, while others face long dry phase

LUCKNOW: The crests and troughs in rainfall patterns have triggered a dual problem of floods and drought in parts of Uttar Pradesh. Even as several districts along the IndoNepal border are recovering from floods, 12 districts of West and East UP are reeling under drought-like conditions.

Though UP government has not officially declared drought yet, officials of the agriculture department confirmed sowing of paddy was delayed in some parts due to delayed scanty rains. In West UP , chief PRO, Ganna Sansthan, B S Bisht, said, "On the basis of GPS mapping conducted this year, sugarcane acerage in UP reduced by 6.4%. This may be attributed, partially, to rainfall deficit." 

According to official data, acerage has reduced drastically in the Meerut division, by 11.4%, while the fall in the Moradabad and Saharanpur divisions is by 4.2% and 0.5% respectively . The impact of this reduction on yield, Bisht said, is not known yet as the survey is yet to be conducted. 

According to government data, this year's sugarcane acreage in UP has reduced to 22,09,888 hectares from last year's 23,60,266 hectares.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Parts-of-UP-under-flood-water-while-others-face-long-dry-phase/articleshow/41149298.cms

Water board deputes ex-army men to collect over Rs 1,000 crore dues

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), which failed to recover nearly Rs 1,000 crores from defaulters, has now roped in ex-servicemen to collect the arrears. 

According to water board records, 3.27 lakh defaulters have been identified and 'red notices' served on 2.72 lakh to collect nearly Rs 1,000 crore dues. However, so far, less than10,000 defaulters have come forward to clear their dues after water board officials threatened to register cases and seize assets. Though the water board has a separate 'vigilance team' headed by a former army officer, they were unable to cover the entire city and peripheral municipal circles. 

"It has become a tough task to collect dues worth Rs 1,000 crore from chronic defaulters. We have constituted 'vigilance task force' (VTF) teams in each operation and maintenance (O&M) division to collect dues. The water board had deputed VTF teams in divisions IX (KPHB Colony, Hasmathpet) and X (Saroornagar, Dilsukhnagar, Sahebnagar) last month and successfully collected dues worth Rs 13 lakh from defaulters," HMWS&SB director-revenue, P Suryanarayana told TOI.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Water-board-deputes-ex-army-men-to-collect-over-Rs-1000-crore-dues/articleshow/41145383.cms

Water tariff agenda too on the cards

CHANDIGARH: Deferred in the last house meeting owing to time crunch, water tariff agenda is coming up for detailed discussion on Friday.

According to the new plan, the civic body has revised the plan by enhancing the tariff to curtail the misuse of water in northern area of the city. If MC passes the revised tariff plan, then the authority will be able to earn a revenue of Rs 36.30 crore more.

The MC has analyzed last one year's data of all consumers under MC and concluded: "There are 1,50,000 water meter connections across categories such as domestic, lawn, commercial, semi-commercial, institutional, government, industrial, etc. in the city. It has been found that out of 1.2 lacs consumers of domestic category, about 13,760 consumers are having water consumption more than 60 kl per month, which is much higher than the normal water consumption. Further, the analysis shows that consumption is more in northern sectors as compared to the other sectors and some sectors?2, 3, 4, 5 and 9?are drawing more than 1,000 litres of water per day as against the average domestic demand of the city, 252 litres. This is due to the fact that the houses are of size one kanal or more in these sectors and drinking water is used for irrigation of lawns causing wastage/misuse of water."

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Water-tariff-agenda-too-on-the-cards/articleshow/41133510.cms

13 illegal water connections discontinued in Rajkot city

RAJKOT: In order to maintain the water distribution smooth in the city, Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has launched a drive to find out illegal water connections and electric motors which are being used to pump waters in different parts of the city. According RMC officials, on Thursday, 13 such illegal residential water connections in Kasturi residency in ward number 13 were disconnected by RMC's water works department. 

Earlier, over 100 illegal water connections have been disconnected by RMC in last two months. "We were receiving complaints of irregular water supply from some parts of the city. So we launched a drive to check smooth water distribution. Electric motors are not allowed to draw water. So, we also seize electric motors if we found them in water drawing in our drive'' said an official from Water works department.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/13-illegal-water-connections-discontinued-in-Rajkot-city/articleshow/41116133.cms

Plastic waste may trigger water bombs in Himalayas

Unfortunately, this is the ugly truth of the Himalayas. The heap, which includes biodegradable plastic, can be found just four kilometres from Shimla in the reserved forest of Lalpani. And this is not an isolated pocket either. The amount of plastic and other bio-degradable waste in the Himalayas is growing at an alarming rate and wreaking havoc with this fragile ecosystem. Trekkers and tourists have become litterbugs, who don't think before tossing a juice can or wafer wrapper by the mountainside. 

To save the fragile ecology of Himalayas, the Himachal Pradesh government on October 2, 2009, banned the use, storage, sale and distribution of all types of polythene bags. On October 2, 2011, the government imposed blanket ban on the use and storage of nonbiodegradable disposable plastic cups, plates and glasses and warned that violators would be fined up to Rs 5,000. Himachal Pradesh was the first to ban plastic and polythene bags. This photograph is, however, proof that the law is totally ineffective.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Plastic-waste-may-trigger-water-bombs-in-Himalayas/articleshow/41053304.cms