Govt to launch website to help tourists during CWG

To prevent exploitation of tourists during the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi government will launch a website containing all information needed by them to avoid dependence on middlemen.

"The website, yet to be launched, will include all information needed by a foreign tourist like location of hotels, nearest foreign exchange centre, metro routes, routes to the stadia, location and details of monuments etc," Rina Ray, Managing Director of DTTDC, said today.

She said the government will operate a 'hop-on-hop-off' bus service connecting different commonwealth sites, the details of which will be provided in the website.

The tourism department will set up a 24x7 centre to address problems faced by visitors during the mega event scheduled from October 3 to 14. "The tourists can call up anytime to register complaints, which will be looked into promptly."

The government will also launch a 'Delhi Celebrates' campaign to train its residents on etiquettes, the official said on the sidelines of the Delhi Tourism Conclave.

"The idea is to involve as many citizens as possible.

Anyone can join the scheme, from school children to auto-rickshaw drivers. They will also be given training in basic English," Ray said.

According to official estimates, over 2,00,000 foreign tourists are expected to visit the city during the 12-day sporting event.

15 PSUs in HP running in losses: Dhumal

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today said 15 out of the 25 state-run corporations were running in losses and admitted that efforts to disinvest some of these PSUs went in vain.

According to the latest auditor's report, 15 out of the total 25 boards/corporations in the state were running in losses, eight had marginal profits while rest two were started recently and their expenditure assessment was yet to be done, Dhumal said in reply to a question from Kaul Singh Thakur of Congress in the assembly.

The chief minister attributed sorry conditions of the state PSUs to their unprofessional ways of functioning over the years and over-staffing.

According to the report, there are over 740 surplus staff in these PSUs, he added.

Dhumal said the state government has planned to merge some of these PSUs to cut cost of their running.

Dhumal said efforts were made to disinvest some of these PSUs but since these are loss-making organisations nobody came forward to buy them.

He said Rs 2.74 crore by way of salary and pension of 102 employees of Agro Industries Corporation was pending and there was no additional fund available with the state government to clear the outstanding at the moment.

Gujarat tops list of hazardous waste producing states

Seven states account for 80 per cent of the total hazardous waste in the country with Gujarat topping the list followed by Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

According to a recent government report, Gujarat accounts for 29 per cent of the 6.2 million tonnes of hazardous waste generated, Maharashtra 25 per cent and Andhra Pradesh 9 per cent. Chhattisgarh accounts for about 5 per cent and Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu about 4 per cent each, it said.

Overall there are about 36,000 industries in the country which generate hazardous waste to the tune of 6.2 million tonnes of which land fillable hazardous waste is 44 per cent at about 2.7 million tonnes.

Incinerable hazardous waste is 0.4 million tonnes (7 per cent) and recyclable hazardous waste is about 3.1 million tonnes (49 per cent).

However, currently, only 12 states have 25 operating common hazardous waste facilities (TSDFs). In other states, 35 notified sites are at various stages of development.

"The gap could be filled as a top priority activity. State governments should play a catalytic role for providing financial support matching the central subsidy," the report prepared by a panel comprised of environment ministry officials and NGOs says.

Indiscriminate and unscientific disposal of wastes in the past has resulted in several sites in the country to become environmentally degraded, the report says.

There are 141 hazardous waste dump-sites that have been primarily identified in fourteen states and union territories out of which 88 critically polluted locations are currently identified.

The Centre has recently ordered a moratorium on further industrial activity in these 88 identified polluted sites till August by when a policy will be evolved for improvement of environment quality.

As per National Inventory of Hazardous Waste Generating Industries, the total waste handling capacities of TSDFs is about 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTA) and there is a deficit of about 1.2 MTA for land fillable wastes and about 0.9 MTA for incinerable wastes, according to the report.

The panel members have stressed that remedial strategy needs to focus on the "polluter pays principle" with the polluter being asked to pay penalty as well as costs of cleaning up the pollution.

"Industries causing pollution repeatedly should be blacklisted. Where polluters are not traceable, a dedicated fund needs to be created by State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) for remediation," the report adds.