ANDHRA’S JALAYAGNAM IN ROUGH WEATHER

New Delhi, 13 November 2006

HYDERABAD, November 14 (INFA): Jalayagnam, the flagship programme of the Andhra Pradesh Government to crate an additional irrigated area of one crore acres through expeditious completion of 31 irrigation projects in five years, seems to be running into rough weather. It is threatening to push up the project costs. 

When the Congress regained power in 2004, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy launched the ambitious programme to complete 26 ongoing and new irrigation projects within five years.  Eight of these projects were scheduled to be completed within two years and the remaining 18 within five years.  Five more new projects are expected to take a little longer.

To ensure the completion of these projects on schedule, the State Government chose the EPC route to award “packages” to contractors, even as the main Opposition Telugu Desam alleged that kickbacks were given in irrigation tenders.

None of the eight projects could be completed by June, 2006 while other projects are also bedivilled by long delays, though the Government has appointed three Secretaries in the irrigation department to oversee these works.

The Government could provide only partial benefits from these projects for five lakh acres so far and another 7.5 lakh area by December 2006.  Another 14 lakh acres will get water by the end of 2007.

The UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi lauded Jalayagnam as the biggest-ever initiative in India by any State in the post-Independence era.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commended Jalayagnam and asked other States to emulate A.P.  But the Government is getting worried over the tardy progress of work on most of these projects. ---INFA

ELECTRICITY FROM SOLAR LEAVES

NEW DELHI, November 14 (INFA): Power generation from solar energy is definitely showing an upward trend worldwide.  However, the exorbitant price of silicon-based solar cells is slowing down the penetration of this form of energy, with efforts being made to find ore viable alternatives.

Oflate, the natural process of photosynthesis by which plants harvest sunlight and convert it into energy, has caught the fancy of scientists. Australian researchers from the University of Sydney have developed a synthetic form of the naturally occurring pigment porphyrin, which is critical to the photosynthetic function of cholorophyll. 

This synthetic form performs the process of converting light energy into electrical energy.  More than 100 of these porphyrins are assembled around a tree-like core called a dendrimer to mimic the wheel-shaped arrangement in natural photosynthetic systems. Since these solar cells are so efficient at storing energy, the researchers believe that they could also be used as batteries in high technology devices.

Meanwhile, scientists from the University of Bath, UK, have also developed organic solar cells that convert more than 35 per cent of the light that strikes them into electricity, through artificial photosynthesis. ---INFA