All the 7,500 buses of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) plying in the Capital will be converted into compressed natural gas (CNG)-run vehicles by March 31, 2001, a senior government official said. ``The Delhi government is determined to convert all existing diesel-driven DTC buses into CNG-run buses by March 31, 2001,'' said Omesh Saigal, chief secretary, Delhi government.

After the deadline, only CNG-run buses will be allowed to operate in the Capital, which means that the Blue Line and KM Scheme private buses would also have to be converted into CNG buses, Saigal said. He said the state government was also planning to permit 2,500 new CNG buses owned by big transport operators to ply in Delhi.

At present, most of the Blue Line private buses are owned by single transport operators. Due to the presence of several operators, management and control is quite difficult for the state government. Leading heavy vehicle manufacturers such as Tata and Ashok Leyland have offeredto supply CNG buses and convert existing ones into CNG-driven vehicles, Saigal said.

Ordinance to ban prawn culture

The Orissa government has decided to promulgate an ordinance soon to ban prawn culture in Chilika Lake, even as agitating fishermen called a statewide bandh on June 5 in protest against police firing at Sorana. Official sources said the decision on the ordinance was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Giridhar Gomang.

Three persons were killed and 24 others injured in the police action, which took place after the villagers snatched 20 people arrested by the police on May 29. The government had leased out 20,000 acres in the lake for prawn culture till June 30, after which no further lease would be granted.

The revenue divisional commissioner (central division), Ashok Tripathy, in his inquiry report, has indicted both the Khurda district collector and the superintendent of police, in whose presence the incident at Sorana took place.

Kerala bans monsoontrawling

The Kerala government last week imposed a ban on trawling by mechanised boats in the seas off the state's coast for 45 days from June 15. Chief minister E K Nayanar told reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet that the duration of the ban this year was the same as that in the last year. He said the state government would request the Centre to ban deep sea fishing along the Kerala coast during this period.

Asked why the Centre was not responding positively to the repeated requests of the Kerala government for a ban on deep sea fishing during the monsoon months, he said the Centre was in favour of this suggestion theoretically. The ban on trawling had always been a major issue and a cause of tension in the fisheries sector during the monsoon months (June-September) with the fishermen in the mechanised and traditional sectors taking adamant and divergent postures.

Asia's largest hydel project

Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will lay the foundation-stone for Asia's largesthydel project at Suind in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh today. The prestigious 2,051 mw Parvati hydro electric project would be executed in three stages, incurring a cost of about Rs 10,000 crore, according to a HP government press release. The unit will produce 8,500 million units of power annually, of which the state government will receive 12 per cent free power in addition to a 15 per cent share at generating costs.

The annual revenue to Himachal Pradesh on account of the free power alone will be about Rs 400 crore.

Cogentrix in the eye of a storm

The Karnataka High Court has ordered issue of notices to the Union of India and the ministry of environment and forests in a contempt of court petition filed against them by a voluntary body on the controversial 1000 MW coal-based Cogentrix Thermal Power Project near Mangalore. A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Y Bhaskar Rao and Justice V Gopal Gowda, passed the order recently in a contempt of court petition filed by JjanaJagruthi, a body of the affected persons, supported by Environment Support Group, an NGO.