Latest news with #change
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Pending coastal maps delay 20 infra projects
Mumbai: As many as 20 infrastructure projects along the Konkan coastline including three passenger jetties in Thane and one in Mulund are stuck due to delays in issuance of Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) maps by the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM). The state government has been awaiting maps from the agency for six months to a year in some cases, which has pushed up project costs significantly. Ports minister Nitesh Rane has raised the issue with union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav and the minister has directed the agency to issue the maps within a month. NCSCM is an autonomous research institute under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. Eleven of the 20 proposed projects with a cumulative cost of ₹190.9 crore are located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The remaining nine projects with a cumulative cost of ₹58.40 crore are located in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. The delay in execution of the 20 projects due to pending CZMP maps was raised during a recent meeting of the ports department. The state government has paid the fees for the maps to NCSCM, but has been awaiting the maps for more than six months up to a year, officials said during the meeting. They also pointed out that last year, the central government withdrew around ₹220 crore from the funds given to the state government for development of port infrastructure as the money could not be utilised due to delays in project execution. On May 28, ports minister Nitesh Rane wrote to union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav regarding the delay in issuance of maps by NCSCM. 'Without CZMP maps, it is not possible to apply for Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) and environmental clearance. Presently, NCSCM Chennai is taking about a year for preparation of maps, which is delaying CRZ and environmental clearance, and in turn delaying the execution of projects escalating project costs too,' Rane stated in the letter, urging the union minister to direct mapping agency to issue the maps within a month. 'I met the union minister personally and informed him about the projects which were delayed due to pending CZMP maps,' Rane told Hindustan Times. 'He called officials at the institute at Chennai immediately and ordered them to resolve the issue in a speedy manner.' Following Yadav's intervention, the state government had a meeting with NCSCM officials over video-conferencing to resolve the issue, said Rane. HT reached out to NCSCM for comments, but did not receive any response from the agency. Environmental activist D Stalin said CZMP maps are crucial to protecting the coastal ecology. 'The concept of ex post facto clearances has been struck down by the Supreme Court, so now, projects cannot commence without prior approval,' he said. 'Pressuring scientific agencies to finalise the maps hurriedly in a haphazard manner would only create further conflict before the judiciary.' Maharashtra has the maximum number of CRZ violations including due to fabrication of maps, he said, adding, 'This cannot continue.'
ABC News
4 days ago
- General
- ABC News
The poppy and the pea: A 1,000 voices perform in Parliament House to mark Reconciliation Day
Skip to main content 11m ago 11 minutes ago Sat 31 May 2025 at 12:50am The Anthem of the Desert Pea echoed through the halls of parliament, sung by 1,000 strong voices determined for change.
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Trump, Musk Praise Each Other at Farewell News Conference
WASHINGTON—President Trump said farewell to Elon Musk on Friday, closing out one of the most turbulent periods in modern government, with an Oval Office news conference in which both men said their relationship would continue. 'He's my friend and he's done a fantastic job,' Trump said. 'He didn't need this and we find that government's a little nasty on occasion.' He said the world's richest man 'delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The threat to Starmer may come from the Left
Politicians are adrift. They don't know how to tell people the truth without frightening the horses – and perhaps it's not surprising. Countries with ageing populations, low growth and high migration are unhappy ones, especially if, like Britain, they are running a trade deficit, debt at nearly 100 per cent of GDP, and a budget deficit all at once. We spend more on servicing our debt than on defence. This is unsustainable. Sooner rather than later, the bailiffs will come with the bill. Enter Labour. Its solution to these problems, during last year's election campaign, was a single word: change. Or, to put it another way, throw out the Conservatives. Once they've gone, renewal can begin. Not just because Labour values are better than Tory ones, but because Labour people are, too. Nicer, kinder, gentler, they would – by their mere presence in government – generate national recovery. The result was spectacular: Labour won 411 seats. Two hundred and thirty one of those MPs were new to Parliament – over half. Now imagine yourself as one of them – elected, as you saw it, to distribute ever-larger subsidies to your grateful constituents (paid for by the taxes of those who don't vote for you). First of all, you were ordered, in the wake of your triumph at the polls, to tramp through the lobbies in support of the two-child benefit cap – and told that if you didn't, you would lose the whip. Next, only a few days later, came the news that this new Labour Government would cut the winter fuel allowance. Finally, some six months later, it was announced that £5 billion would be saved annually from the welfare bill by measures including reassessments for incapacity benefits for those capable of work, and the focusing of some disability benefits on those with higher needs. Your response would doubtless be – as many of theirs surely was – to look hard at yourself in the mirror. Did you really come into Parliament for this? To boost child poverty, let needy pensioners freeze and take away support from disabled people? Enter John McDonnell, once Jeremy Corbyn's shadow chancellor. Like Corbyn, he's a man of the hard Left. Unlike him, he won his seat in Hayes and Harlington under the Labour banner last year, only to lose the whip a few weeks later for voting against the two-child benefit cap. Earlier this week, he surfaced to call for a change of leadership: 'Unless party members, affiliated unions and MPs stand up and assert themselves to take back control of Labour … we may not only lose a government. We could also lose a party.'
CBC
6 days ago
- Health
- CBC
Nunavut passes legislation to allow pharmacists to perscribe medication
The territory's legislature has passed legislation making that change possible. We spoke with John Main about what's next.
