Jairam unhappy over poor execution of IWMP in Odhisa

Bhubaneswar: Unhappy over poor implementation of the Integrated Watershed Management Project (IWMP) project in Odisha, Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh has suggested that the state place proper infrastructure in place. Stating that the Centre sanctioned Rs 1,595 crore for IWMP projects in the state between 2009-10 and 2013-14, Ramesh said Rs 399 crore was released while the unspent balance was Rs 208 crore. “Had Odisha implemented the IWMP projects as it had committed to, it could have got another Rs 113 crore from the Centre over the last four years,” Ramesh said in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Ramesh said barring Karnataka, the pace of implementation of IWMP in almost every state was dismal. The IWMP project was launched in 2009-10 with the objective of restoring the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water to enable multi-cropping. The introduction of diverse agro-based activities enabled provision of sustainable livelihoods to people living in watershed areas. (PTI)

Bihar government not for power tariff reduction

Patna: Amid demands in several states for power tariff reduction on the lines of AAP government’s move to reduce tariff in Delhi, Bihar government on Thursday refused to toe the line, saying the rate was already low and much below the purchase price in the state. “The power tariff is already very low in Bihar at Rs 2-2.25 per unit for urban consumers and much below the purchase price of the commodity,” state Electricity Minister Bijendra Yadav told reporters in reply to a question. “The electricity charge is not at all costly in Bihar in comparison to other states,” he said. In reply to another question, Yadav said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had, during the Independence Day speech last year, promised to improve power situation in Bihar failing which, he had said he would not seek votes from the people in the 2015 assembly polls. “All that the Chief Minister had said then was that he will not go to the people to seek votes in case he failed to improve power scenario in Bihar by 2015. He had not promised to provide power to all households,” he said. With the power situation improving and its availability expected to increase to at around 3000 MW by 2014, besides improvement in distribution and transmission infrastructure, the Chief Minister, he said, would not have to apologise to the people. (PTI)

Srinagar-Jammu highway closed for third day

Srinagar: For the third day on Thursday, the strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway remained closed due to heavy snowfall, cutting road contact between Kashmir and the rest of the country, authorities said. A senior traffic officer told IANS that due to heavy snowfall in the Bannihal and Patnitop sectors of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, there would be no vehicular movement on the road Thursday. “Efforts are on to clear the road, but fresh snowfall and highly slippery road conditions in Bannihal and Patnitop sectors are impeding the road clearance operations. “No vehicle will be allowed to move from either Jammu or Srinagar on the highway today (Thursday). “Once the road clearance operations are over, we intend to clear the stranded vehicles before allowing routine traffic,” a senior traffic police official said here. The highway was closed because of heavy snowfall Monday and has remained closed since then. (IANS)

CPI, TDP protest against price hike

Hyderabad: In protest against hiking of the non-subsidised cooking gas by a steep Rs 220 per cylinder, the CPI and TDP carried out a protest across the state on Thursday. In Hyderabad, CPI activists burnt an effigy of government against gas price hike at the busy Himayatnagar junction in the city by raising slogans against the steep hike in cooking gas by the central. A larger number of women besides left party leaders participated in the agitation. At Vijayawada, large number of women participated in the protest organised by the TDP. TDP leader Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao was arrested by the police. The price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) which customers buy after finishing their quota of subsidised cyclinders was hiked by Rs 220 per cyclinder on Wednesday. According to reports reaching here, similar protests were witnessed at Kadapa and Chittoor districts and as part of the protest, CPI activists also burnt the effigies of the government at various places. (UNI)