Plan to weed out rare herbs theft

Miracle-cure plants are giving Andhra officials a lot of pain.

The bio-diversity board has started cracking the whip on smugglers spiriting away rare herbs from a large swathe of the forests that line the Eastern Ghats in the state.

Their suspicion is that the culprits are part of a larger, more organised racket that supplies to companies and foreigners peddling ayurvedic concoctions.

The lid on the theft was blown off recently when sleuths in Visakhapatnam caught a few tribals from nearby Paderu smuggling black turmeric. This spice, called nalla pasupu locally, is mainly used in HIV/AIDS drug research.

Board chairman R. Hampaiah said the unique turmeric, also found in the Papikonda hills of east and west Godavari districts, was on the endangered list. The Visakhapatnam haul was said to be worth Rs 20 lakh a kg in the international market but the smugglers, allegedly assisted by a retired forest officer, paid the tribals only Rs 4,000-5,000 a kg to pluck and deliver. A seminar was held on August 23 to spread awareness on bio-piracy.

Poll pitch, raised on flyovers

Flyovers appear to be turning poll pulpits in Tamil Nadu.

Chief minister M. Karunanidhi knows this more than any other politician around: he has asked DMK workers to be in “election mode”. The call was given at the inauguration of a Chennai flyover recently and most observers believed he was alluding to the general elections.

“Be ready for polls,” he told the legions of DMK workers on the busy Usman Road, where the flyover has come up. The 781-metre flyover was built in a record time of nine months at a cost of around Rs 20 crore.

With an eye on the ballot, the chief minister said several steps had been taken to spruce up Chennai and sought the “co-operation” of the residents to make it a “green city”.

Games leg-up for road repair

Delhi’s civic body, hoping to give the city a new look for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, is lining roads with cash.

The MCD recently announced it would invest Rs 6.8 crore in upgrading and strengthening key south Delhi streets.

Money for the job will start pouring in from this financial year. A special escrow account will be opened for the purpose. The amount will be in addition to the Rs 75 crore for urban roads and Rs 25 crore for village streets that have already been set aside in this year’s budget.

MCD standing committee chairman Vijender Gupta said recently the improvement and strengthening had started but the job would be carried out in a phased manner.

One of the prominent roads to be spruced up will be the artery that links Indira Gandhi National Open University to Maidan Garhi village to the Badarpur Road crossing. This project alone will soak around Rs 3.67 crore and will take nine months to be completed, Gupta said. Several other streets are also poised for a makeover.

On a joyride

DTC employees seem to have got a ticket to good times.

The jobs of 17,000 daily-wagers were regularised and 471 promotions, an unusually high number, granted recently.

State transport minister Haroon Yusuf announced the decisions, saying the old demand of DTC employees seeking regularisation of daily wagers had been fulfilled.

Many of the corporation's problems have long been blamed on the lack of adequate manpower and the moves would help overcome the limitation, the minister said. (PTI)

MUMBAI: This Thursday, watch painter Prajakta Potnis make a splash at Porous Wall Exhibition with her creativity and style. The venue is Guild Art Gallery, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Colaba. Time: 10am to 6.30pm. You can call 22875839 and 22876211 for more information.