Mallica Joshi

Five environment secys in three years Environment secretary and Delhi Jal Board CEO A K Singh is among the officers who were transferred from Delhi.

The final act began when Kejriwal and three AAP ministers started camping at Raj Niwas on Monday, asking the L-G to persuade officers to end their “partial strike”. They are yet to leave.

From a court battle between Delhi and Haryana to angry exchanges between neighbours — water scarcity in the capital is playing out in many ways this year. The Indian Express takes stock of the worst-hit areas, where life revolves around when the water tanker will arrive

Vilayati kikar, introduced by the British, has wiped out other trees wherever it has grown. Delhi has come up with a plan to remove it from the Ridge. How does it address a challenge that many other states, too, face?

Wheat is harvested in this belt during the last week of April. The stalks left behind after harvesting are then set on fire by farmers to prepare for the next crop, adding to air pollution in the entire region from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh.

It was brought to Delhi by the British in 1920s, when New Delhi was being built. The tree has deep roots and monopolises water and sunlight, effectively killing off any competition, especially Delhi’s native trees.

In 2017, four episodes of squalls along with dust storms and thunderstorms were reported throughout the month. In 2016, this number was eight — of which only three were reported in the first half of the month.

The story of the tandoor case that fired up the nation’s imagination in the mid-90s.

Mission Buniyaad is an exercise to improve learning levels in students of classes III-IX. It is an extension of the Chunauti scheme, started by the Delhi government to improve learning levels after a survey found that students were faring poorly.

According to Delhi government sources, since the appointments were considered “void ab initio”, or having no legal validity since the beginning, questions about the salaries paid to them can be raised in the future.

Dinesh Mohaniya, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairperson, said he was not aware of the problem. A senior DJB official, however, said that several STPs have not been working as desired for a long time now, and DPCC reports have flagged this issue several times.

Even as Delhi and Haryana tussle over water from the Yamuna, the river has practically turned into a trickle at the entrance of the capital. Mallica Joshi looks at the consequences for the city and its people.

The forest department will not be able to achieve the targetted plantation for more than 25% of its area if it keeps working at the current pace, the report said. As per the Forest Research Institute report, 20.59% of Delhi's area had forest and tree cover in 2017. In 2015, this figure was 20.22%.

According to the IIT-Kanpur pollution apportionment study of 2015, the plant contributes to around 11% of PM 2.5 in the capital’s air.

As Delhi and Haryana tussle in Supreme Court over flow of water into capital, the river at middle of it all is in trouble.

While the Election Commission has been asked to hear the matter afresh, senior party leaders said that AAP’s strategy going forward is to focus on ground work, instead of court hearings and the EC.

For the AAP unit in Punjab, where it won 20 out of 117 seats and became the main opposition party, the last two days have been a culmination of almost a month-long freeze between the main leadership and the state unit.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion on ‘Managing Delhi’s Solid Waste’ under the Delhi Matters series, SDMC chief engineer Umesh Sachdeva said the plant produces close to 40 metric tonnes of compost per day, but has not managed to find many people willing to use it.

The amendments were intended to protect commercial establishments from SC-mandated sealing drive. ‘This is contempt,’ the court said.