Provide drinking water to flood-hit areas, Minister directs officials
The Hindu
‘Ensure proper power supply and desilting of drains’
Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao surveyed several flood-hit areas here on Wednesday morning to assess the situation. He instructed the officials to take relief works on a war-footing.
Initially, he visited colonies at Yellapuvanipalem, near the airport, and spoke with locals about their issues. A few locals brought to his notice that due to increase in encroachment of drains, the flooding is occurring. They also informed the Minister that permissions are being given to several apartments without proper clearance and they do not even have proper drainage outlets. The Minister asked the officials to ensure that proper drinking water is being supplied to the areas and there should be no issues with electricity supply and that the drains are desilted.
Aasheesh Pittie says birdwatching is not very unlike hunting, except that nothing is killed. “You track… you want to follow the bird… see it,” he says about this activity that he has pursued for nearly fifty years. Pittie, the editor of the ornithological journal Indian Birds, author of many classic reference books about birds and most recently, a collection of bird essays titled The Living Air: Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching, was speaking at an event organised by the Archives of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).