-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal barred on Thursday any fresh constructions under the environment ministry's December 9 notification exempting real estate projects of all sizes from environment impact assessment and environmental clearance. The NGT has received two applications questioning legal issues with the December 9 notification, which even has a "self-declaration" clause that will ensure issuance of permission from urban local bodies. For larger projects of more...

-Hindustan Times Chinsurah, West Bengal: A 163-year-old municipality administering a small town in West Bengal has shown the world how to manage solid waste in an eco-friendly way, potentially giving urban planners and administrators the key to tackling one of the biggest civic problems. The initiatives of Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality helped the Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project win a global award, defeating nearest contenders Auckland and Milan in urban solid waste management...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government has declared 362 towns and cities in 15 states free of open defecation, with Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra topping the chart and Bengal scoring a duck. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims to make the whole of India open-defecation-free by 2019. In Gujarat, 167 urban local bodies have been provided with open-defecation-free certificates, followed by 91 in Andhra Pradesh and 70 in Maharashtra. (See chart)     "A ward...

-The Indian Express Floods and water-logging show that urban planners have paid scant respect to hydrology Rains have been good this monsoon season so far. But instead of welcoming the bounty, urban India seems to be wallowing in misery. Guwahati is flooded. People in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai and Hyderabad are beset with water-logged streets and traffic snarls. Even half an hour of rainfall is enough to make a lot of places go...

-The Indian Express Of the Rs 80,310 crore the 26 states allotted to SCSP schemes in 2012-13, when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, Rs 61,480 crore was spent. WITH various political parties staking claim to the legacy of Dr B R Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary, the latest annual report by the Scheduled Caste Commission has found that almost all states have failed to honour their budgetary...