The Mamata Banerjee government is gearing to fight the Centre afresh for an additional allotment of subsidised rice to keep a pet project afloat. A shortage of cheap grain has hit the state’s Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme for about 20 lakh “needy” people who don’t figure on the below-poverty-line (BPL) list, with supplies having been stopped in the Darjeeling hills since April. Although the Centre had made it clear on March 12...

Weather conditions promoting El Nino persistent, says Met department; drought feared In its first monsoon forecast in late April, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had announced that monsoons would be normal this year and there was a little chance of El Nino—associated with dry spells west of the Pacific—arriving in the second half of the season. But of late, IMD seems to have shifted its stand. Now the weather agency is...

Yet-to-be-made public report dismisses environmental concerns The high-level committee set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to study the socio-economic and ecological impacts of the proposed bauxite mining in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district has submitted its final report  favouring mining. The committee concludes mining will not have any significant negative impact on the ecology. At the same time it recommends settling all claims under the Forest Rights...

-The Telegraph Dispur has decided to provide free treatment to children below 12 years who are suffering from blood cancer or leukaemia. Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said Dispur was working on the project and hoped to launch it on Independence Day. He told this correspondent that considering the huge cost of treatment for leukaemia, the government was also considering free treatment for adults below poverty line and subsidised rates for those...

Can a city’s bird count impact its health? Well, if ornithologists are to be believed, it can. Jamshedpur has shown two clear trends in terms of its avian population. One, the number of crows has dwindled to less than 5,000 now from 20,000 in the recent past. Two, the number of pigeons (also called rock dove) has increased to 10,000 from4,000 to 5,000. And this, a city ornithologist says, can be dangerous...