News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Almost a fortnight after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) banned morning walks in the historic Araam Bagh of Agra, it has finally relented and chosen to allow walkers to enter the garden. However, the permission granted by the ASI has a fine print stating that morning walkers will have to wear an authorised "name tag" issued by the ASI and prove that they live within five kilometers of the garden before they gain entry into the garden. Araam Bagh was set up during the Mughal-era by emperor Babar and it also houses Babar's cenotaph. The entire garden premises are conserved and maintained by the ASI. The residents of the Trans-Yamuna area of Agra had been using the Araam Bagh for morning walks for decades but on January 13 this year, ASI unexpectedly banned the entry of "joggers" and morning walkers into the garden. It also imposed a fine of Rs 5 on the tourists and joggers alike, blaming them for defacing the monument an...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. In a town where almost all major political figures are "milkmen", the dairies can be shifted out of the city by the end of February creating an unprecedented crisis of milk in Agra. With Agra being notified as the 27th metropolitan city of the country, more than 700 dairies would be relocated almost 20-25 km away from the city centre. Dairy owners have made big money in this town before and after Independence with the power of bovine intervention ultimately pushing them into local politics. Currently, a number of major political figures of the town are engaged in this profession, owning large, ISO certified dairies located deep inside the municipal limits of Agra, some of them even members of the UP Legislative Assembly. Lately, the town planners have made several efforts to get dairies out to give Agra a cleaner image. But the situation could change drastically with the Agra Development Authority issuing notices to the dairy owne...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Ten days after the death of a senior administrative officer in Gorakhpur, the State police is unable to ascertain the cause of his death while his family, based in Agra, claims that he was murdered. Yashveer Singh, additional commissioner of Gorakhpur died mysteriously on 19th January, a day after he left from his residence at Agra on the 18th of this month. While the police had pointed out the possibility of a heart attack as the cause of death initially, the investigation later went haywire, with the family members indicating the possibility of his being poisoned. But after the post-mortem report went inconclusive, the Gorakhpur police had preserved stomach remains of the deceased official for forensic analysis though almost 10 days later, the cause of his death still remains unknown. The family members have demanded a detailed inquiry into the circumstances that led to Mr Singh's death. They said that on the day of his death, Mr Singh was ...

Vishal Sharma Agra. With the UP government sanctioning the proposal to transform Agra into the 27th metropolitan city of the country, 167 villages located adjoining to the city boundaries will face complete extinction by 2010. According to the guidelines issued by the state government, against the earlier proposal of including 71 villages in the metro city area, the new proposal engulfs 167 villages of Bichpuri, Barauli Ahir, Etmadpur and Khandauli development blocks that shall be taken over by the Agra Municipal Corporation under a composite development plan. In the initial stage that shall begin by mid-2006 the villages shall have some independent existence of their own through their own local governing bodies that shall execute the development plans prepared by the Agra Development Authority but by the year 2010, all the marked villages shall be finally merged into the city limits, to be governed by the Agra Municipal Corporation. Till date only 26 cities of the country ar...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Agra's Vikas Bhavan is the nerve centre for the planning needs of the entire district, handling development plans worth millions. With over 35 offices of senior administrative officials in the building, it is considered to be out-of-bounds for the police under normal circumstances. On Monday, the Agra police busted a drug network worth several crore being run by State Government employees within its premises. According to Gulab Singh, superintendent of police (Agra city), they had recently received information that some Government employees trafficking in narcotics from inside Vikas Bhavan. The police assembled a team from its Special Operations Group that contacted these. employees posing as buyers and expressed their intention to buy one kg of heroin from them. Yogesh, the head cashier in the Veterinary department, who was also heading the drug ring, asked the cops to return on Monday with Rs. 17 lakh to receive the "...

Vishal Sharma Agra. After a long delay, the CNG bus project in Agra has now begun making edgeways, with the laying of the keystone for the first CNG mother station at the Inter-State Bus Terminal in Transport Nagar of Agra, last week. Talking to the mediapersons on this occasion, JK Singh Tevatia, managing director, Green Gas Limited—a joint venture of the Gas Authority of India Ltd and the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd said the company would establish 10 CNG stations in Agra in the first stage which would be divided into two mother stations, three on-line stations and five daughter booster stations. He said initially, the company would be constructing one mother station at ISBT in Transport Nagar, and three daughter booster stations, at a cost of Rs 102 crores, which would be completed by March 2006, and the remaining one mother station, three on-line stations and two daughter booster stations wouldl be completed by the end of September this year. He said besides the buses operated by UP...

Vishal Sharma Agra. The Union ministry for industry and commerce, in association with the Central Leather Research Institute, has launched an “Umbrella Project” to train 60,000 people in Agra engaged in the manufacture of leather footwear. They will be taught to use the latest technologies of footwear manufacture, including computerised CAD/CAM systems, and to use this training in increasing the share of Agra in footwear exports. The leather footwear industry of Agra earns more than Rs 1,000 crore through exports, manufacturing approximately 200,000 pairs of shoes every day. While most of the shoes produced in the town may be acceptable in the domestic market, they have still to go a long way before they gain universal approval as a brand name. As most of the footwear industry of the town is still composed of small-scale and unorganised footwear units, the leather footwear industry of Agra has been unable to make sufficient impact on international trade, seriously l...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The battle of conversion and reconversion between Christian missionaries and Hindu organisations has taken a major twist beginning this year with Hindu outfits launching a campaign to exterminate "non-Church Christianity" from rural India. The Dharma Jagran Vibhag of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, over the weekend, held a reconversion of almost 480 dalits in the Aligarh and Etah districts of Agra division, asking them to set aside the cross and wear the yagyopaveet to formalise their re-entry into Hinduism. What sets these dalits apart from other convertees who have recently re-joined the Hindu fold is that they were not followers of a particular church. In fact, the six villages of Etah where these dalits lived did not even have a church. The only way these people participated in religious meetings was through Christian assemblies held from time to time in nearby towns. Talking to The Pioneer, Rajeshwar Singh, provincial head, Dharma Jagran Vibhag...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Foreign tourists coming to Agra in December and January are especially attracted by the numerous weddings they come across during their stay, particularly the groom dressed as an “Indian Maharajah”. This coupled with the royal romance of the Taj Mahal pulls millions of love-birds from all over the world, many of whom express their wish to get married in the city of the Taj in “Indian” style, dressed like the Indian royalty. It is this secret wish that travel agencies in Agra are now trying to encash, deviating from the weather-beaten path of tourism, offering traditional Indian “royal weddings” to foreigners. Honeymoon tour packages launched by tour operators include a “wedding in Agra” as the principal attraction. The success of this innovative approach can be assessed from the fact that in the current season that began last October, several couples have got married in Agra, taking back with them memories of a magical honeymoon in the city of the Taj. These weddi...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The ecological balance of a river is largely dependent on the presence of predator and scavengers like crocodiles and other similar creatures. While crocodiles are largely found in the rivers of South India, the northern and eastern rivers in the country are solely dependent on gharials, a long-nosed relative of crocodiles that is purely riverine in its habitat. Lately, with an increase in pollution in the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers, the gharials have completely vanished from these rivers, which has made these rivers full of decomposing fishes and rotting bodies of animals and humans to further pollute these rivers. Now, in an effort to restore the ecological balance of the rivers in Uttar Pradesh, the Wildlife Authorities of the State are planning to introduce gharials, also called Gavialis Gangeticus, in the rivers. A group of 56 gharials, brought from the Kukrail wildlife park in Lucknow were released by the wildlife authorities in the Cham...

Vishal Sharma Agra. The international fame of the Taj Mahal attracts millions of tourists from around the globe to Agra. But to the motion picture industry outside India, shooting at the Taj Mahal is still an uncharted territory. Till date, very few movies made in Hollywood have featured the Taj Mahal, and that too, by means of props and models. But all that is set to change now. Renowned Hollywood motion picture group Time Warner is keen on entering into talks with the UP government to use the Taj Mahal as a shooting site for a number of historical movie projects that it wishes to initiate in the new future. The company has also expressed its intent to build theme parks, studios and shopping malls in the state, viewing Agra as a future hub for movie-making. During his Agra visit on Thursday, Millard Ochs, president, Warner Bros. International Cinemas, had discussions with Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Kawkab Hamid regarding facilities that could be extended by th...

Vishal Sharma Agra. The golden triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur has a tarnished stretch. The popular circuit that accounts for the lion’s share of tourism revenues is hamstrung by the poor condition of Agra-Jaipur road. Tourists travelling on the National Highway 11 have to cope with one of the worst stretches of inter-state roads, that too without necessary amenities. All this is about to change. The Union surface transport ministry has recently approved the conversion of the Agra-Jaipur stretch of NH-11 into an international standard four-lane highway that is earmarked for completion by the end of the year 2009. According to the National Highway Authority of India sources at Agra, the project could cost Rs 928 crore with the Agra-Bharatpur stretch alone costing Rs 195 crore. Work on the project is expected to begin as early as February and the NHAI is all set to acquire land adjoining the NH-11 to broaden the road. Those in the travel business are expecting to reap m...

Vishal Sharma Agra. The Agra shoe industry, which currently holds almost 35 percent share in the total production of leather shoes in the country, is facing a tough challenge from the entry of Taiwanese foam in the footwear manufacture segment as a replacement to leather. According to sources at the Hing Ki Mandi retail market for footwear in Agra, 70-75 per cent of the demand for leather shoes in the retail market has been replaced by the shoes manufactured using Taiwanese foam, which is currently being marketed as “synthetic leather”. While this fall in the retail demand of leather shoes has made survival tough for small manufacturers relying on domestic sales, even the larger manufacturers have begun to feel the impact now with the foam based shoes establishing a strong hold on the footwear market and new shoe manufacturing companies rising in Delhi, Gujrat and Punjab in competition to the Agra footwear companies. Yunus Khan, managing partner, Bonno Sho...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. People think that morning walk and jogging are the best solution to a number of health related problems. But, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) seems to think differently. On Saturday, the ASI banned the entry of the people for morning walk in the "Araam Bagh", Agra's own version of the senior citizens' "Jogger's Park", which is the only public park available to the residents of the trans-Yamuna area of the town. The locals had been using the Araam Bagh for morning walk since several decades. But on Saturday, the ASI suddenly issued a notification to formally banned the entry to this Mughal-era garden, posting guards on its gates, while strictly imposing a Rs five ticket on the entry to the garden. Due to the sudden ban, the senior citizens were surprised and jostled with the ASI officials and policemen on Saturday to get entry. A group of people who had come for morning walk forcibly entered the garden by br...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The 200 km Agra-Delhi railway track will finally be shorter by 20 minutes with the launch of the new High Speed Shatabdi Express this January. The final rehearsal of the train's operation between Agra and Delhi was completed on Friday afternoon with the train achieving a maximum speed of 150 kmph, a record speed for any train in the country. Although the distance between the two stations was covered in just over two hours, Railway authorities believe the average running time of this train will be 115 minutes. Railway sources indicate that this high speed train will, in fact, be the Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi which shall hit a speed of up to 150 kmph on the Delhi-Agra track. The train is expected to be flagged off by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on January 21. Talking to The Pioneer, M Suresh, Divisional Railway Manager, North Central Railway, said there have been several trial runs in the past few years to study the problems faced in mai...

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA MEDICAL science may have made prenatal sex determination a child's play but a dead body has been shuttling between Agra and Lucknow for 10 days now just to determine its sex. Rekha, wife of Hari Om, was allegedly killed for dowry by her in-laws on January 4. Her body was being cremated surreptitiously when her brothers arrived to retrieve it from the burning pier. However, by then the body was charred beyond recognition and her in-laws had escaped. It was handed over to the police for verification. They first sent it for a post mortem examination and then to the Forensic Science Laboratory for determining whether it was a male or female corpse. Surprisingly, the lab failed to identify the sex and referred the bones to its counterpart in Lucknow. From here too the bones returned with a request for coloured photos and X-rays for further analysis. Last Thursday, the police got the charred remains photographed, X-rayed and sent to Lucknow. However, that t...

Vishal Sharma Agra. After the big sales during the December trade fair in UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s home village Sefai, the automobile market of Agra is facing a slump. Though the fair was a boon to the auto dealers of Agra, who earned Rs 100 crore in December, it has also cost the state’s exchequer Rs 15 crore. Now sales have dropped to almost 30 per cent of those expected during the month (January is when sales pick up), with only vehicles that cost more than Rs 7 lakh selling currently. According to the UP trade tax department sources, the auto dealers of Agra had sold about 6,100 vehicles, ranging from two-wheelers to mid-range four-wheelers and even tractors. This was an unexpected boost to the auto business in the usually “cold” month of December, and most auto buyers who were planning to purchase vehicles in January or February had made their purchases in the Sefai trade fair to avail themselves of the huge trade tax benefit offered on the auto purchases...

Vishal Sharma Agra. An average middle-class woman discards at least 4-5 sarees each year in India and this number rises to almost a dozen as we climb up the economic ladder. It is these rejected sarees that have given birth to an innovative, yet profitable industry of “recycling” used sarees in Agra. Over 5,000 people living in the three villages of Kachchpura, Nagla Devjeet and Moti Mahal located, on the Yamuna river bank just opposite the Taj Mahal, are thriving solely by recycling worn-out sarees and then selling them off to women belonging to the lower economic strata all over Uttar Pradesh, especially the eastern parts for dirt-cheap prices, yet making a handsome profit on these sarees. Initially started as an in-home affair by a few families of Nagla Devjeet, the trade, which is completely in the unorganised sector, has spread out over all three adjoining villages largely populated by “Syed” and “Abbasi” Muslims. And over the past decade a large number of resident in thes...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Every profession has its associated hazards but for the railway line maintenance crew, everyday is a battle between life and death. Three members of this crew have been mowed down by moving trains in the past five days while they were conducting maintenance jobs on the Agra-Jhansi and Agra-Delhi railway tracks on Saturday and Monday. The accidents have raised serious concerns about the safety of the railway crew which has to work, monitor and repair tracks that have constant stream of train traffic. Dayal and Chhadami from the number 53 unit of Jhansi Railway division were run over by the Utkal Express on Saturday when they were working on a line fracture on a small bridge over a canal between the Agra Cantt and Bhadayi stations. The accident happened at about 11:30 am when the Chhattisgarh Express and the Utkal Express crossed each other on the track where the crew was working. According to eye witnesses, upon seeing the Chhattisgarh Express approach them, the ga...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. It is one of the worst nightmare come true for a woman of 21. Thrice abducted from her home, raped and tortured by so-called journalists for almost two years, and to top it all broadcast nude all over Agra by two cable networks, former Miss Agra Kamna Chowdhary is still awaiting justice to take its rightful course. The cable operators named in the FIR filed by the Kamna's father are still roaming freely. To make matters worse, almost a month after Kamna Chowdhary was sent to Women's Home by the UP Commission for Women, the Agra District Judge unceremoniously packed her off with her so called husband, Hemant, on Saturday after recording her statement, despite objections raised by the victim's family. Taking serious note of the court's order to send Kamna back to her tormentors, the victim's family is now planning to file a contempt proceeding against the Agra district authorities and other judicial officials for interfering in a matter that was ...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The Vedic tradition of Gurukuls places the teacher at a seat adjacent to God but it seems the Vedas are no longer applicable in modern Indian society. On Sunday, a teacher-student duo sought refuge at the Agra Police Superin-tendent's residence after the girl's father filed an FIR against the teacher for having abducted his daughter. However, instead of sending the girl back to her father, the police is now trying to persuade him to accept the wedding. Bharti, a final year graduation student of Agra college, disappeared from her home in the Motikatra area on Friday. Her father Sribhagwan Verma filed an FIR on his daughter's disappearance and named Gyanendra Verma, the girl's tutor for three years, as her possible captor. When the police began applying pressure on Gyanendra's family for the girl's recovery, the couple appeared before Gulab Singh, the Superintendent of Po...

Vijay Upadhyay Bareilly/Etah. Perhaps for the first time in the history of anti-dacoit operations in the ravines of Uttar Pradesh, the State police on Sunday sought the help of the Indian Air Force in tracking the movements of notorious bandit Kalua. In one of the most intensive operations against the bandit, the Uttar Pradesh police and the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel, armed with surveillance reports from an Air Force chopper, scoured the ravines of Manpur in Fatehganj area of Bareilly for two days, using advanced weaponry, bullet-proof tractors and night-vision scopes in an attempt to trap Kalua. However, despite these efforts Kalua managed to slip away into Etah. According to Chhavinath, Deputy Inspector General, Bareilly range, the police received information on Saturday that Kalua was camping in the ravines of Ramganga near Manpur in Fatehganj. While the police tried to surround him on its own, the attempt proved unsuccessful, as a result of ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. The Khandoli town of Agra stands out prominently on the country’s agricultural scene, producing about 8 percent of the country’s total production of potatoes. The high – grade potato varieties produced in this region had recently prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to brand this potato as “Taj Potato”, planning to export atleast 2000 tonnes of this potato to various countries under a single brand. But the sudden temperature drop in Agra, almost touching the Zero degree mark through the past three days, has destroyed all export possibilities of the Khandoli potatoes this year, killing almost half of the winter potato crop worth almost Rs. 15 crores, which could also drastically raise the prices of potatoes this year. The winter crop, spread in the potato belt of Agra, spread from Khandoli to Hathras town about 60 km away, has been almost completely destroyed in some pockets of the belt while at most places, the winter chill has killed atleast 45-50 percent of the c...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. When some youngsters went looking for a chance to throw away their virginity on the lines of the comedy flick American Pie, in the red-light area of Agra, hardly had they realised that in search of sex as cheap as a pack of good-quality condoms, they were walking into a sex-trade racket involving the abduction and exploitation of Nepalese girls which has now landed them in jail. Three youngsters and four prostitutes were picked up on Thursday by the Agra police in the Kashmiri Bazar area of the town for engaging in flesh-trade but when interrogated by the police, the youngsters revealed a shocking story of Nepalese girls being thrown into a sex racket operational in the town. While the prostitutes were sent to a women's home, the youngsters have been put behind bars. According to the boys, Sonu, Dheeraj and Yogesh, all aged around 20-22 years, they had planned to throw away their virginity together in the new year a...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. The market for cosmetic and toiletries in India is worth more than 950 Million US Dollars out of which, the skin care market accounts for almost 120 million US Dollars. The market for skin care products such as moisturizing lotions, fairness creams and facial cleansers has grown steadily in recent years with these products accounting for approximately 60 percent of the skin-care segment. The major players in this segment are Lakme, Ponds, Fair & Lovely, J.L. Morison and Revlon, almost all of whom rely on Indian packaging firms to supply them with Squeeze PE tubes that form an essential part of their products but so far, there are not many players in the field and most of the PE tube production scene is captured single-handedly by Essel Propack Ltd. But a Mathura based packaging firm is now targeting to make its own mark in this business by establishing one of the first seamless PE tube manufacturing units in North India, with the cost of Rs. 10 c...

Vishal Sharma Agra. The bitumen industry of Chhata town in District Mathura of the Agra division trades in more than 30,000 tonnes of bitumen every year, converting it into products like tar felt, insulating strips, battery compound, plastic wires, road grit, and creosote oil. There are 10 registered units, manufacturing bitumen products out of by-products of the petroleum refinery in Mathura. Currently, this industry is facing threats owing to the high rates of trade tax imposed by the UP government on bitumen and its products, compared to the neighbouring states of Haryana and Delhi, forcing the units to shift base from UP to Haryana for tax relief. According to Virendra Khandelwal, UP territory-in-charge, Bitumen Products Manufacturers Association, and director, Krishna Tar, a company engaged in the export of coal products and heavy creosote oil, the trade tax on bitumen and bitumen products was set at 20 per cent in the state while in Haryana, barely 50 km away from Chhata, the sa...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. With the Rs. 85 crore power reform project for Agra to begin shortly under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), the Agra based UP power discom Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (DVVNL) has decided to sub-let the tender for the testing of electrical appliances being installed under the programme to RITES, the consulting arm of Indian Railways. Talking to Business Standard , Kripal Singh, Managing Director, DVVNL said that lately, the power corporation had faced charges of installing sub-standard equipments under the various electrification projects being conducted by it. He said that since the electrification work to be done under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) and Accelerated Rural Electrification Programme (AREP) was worth almost Rs. 200 crores in Agra alone, the company thought it prudent to invoke the help of an "impartial" and technically sound company to conduct test...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has strongly refuted CPI-M leader Brinda Karat's allegations against Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev and claimed that Ramdev had become the victim of multi-national propaganda against the "Swadeshi" concept of medicine. Talking to newspersons on Wednesday evening in Agra, Mr Yadav said that Baba Ramdev was struggling for the development of yoga as an alternative medicine concept in the country and had more than two crore disciples, which had made him appear as a threat to the dominance of multinational medicine and consumer products companies in India. Feeling this threat, he said, the multinationals were now trying to destroy Baba Ramdev's reputation amongst his disciples through such cheap propaganda of which, Brinda Karat had unwittingly become a medium, of which, he strongly disapproved. He said that the CPI-M leader had probably not gone into the depth of these fake allegations being made against the yog...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. It is a common statutory practice to send a rape victim for medical examination. But the tests turned out to be traumatic experience for a woman scientist of Agra when one of her seniors began making sexual advances towards her in the name of "further tests". Tired of facing continual harassment by Tan Sen, a senior scientific assistant at the Forensic Science Laboratory at Agra, Neeta Gupta (name changed), also a scientific assistant at the laboratory has now filed an FIR in the Rakabganj police station of Agra against her senior, claiming of being sexually harassed by Tan Sen at work. According to Neeta Gupta, she had been working in the Forensic Science Laboratory at Agra since 1998 and Tan Sen had also joined the service at precisely the same time and was promoted as her senior last year and it was then, that her trauma began. First she was deliberately posted in the section specialised in conducting tests on vaginal swabs of ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA, 2 JAN. McDonald’s, one of the largest fast food restaurant chains in the world with more than 30 thousand restaurants working in 119 countries, made its debut in Agra on the New Year’s Eve with the opening of its first family restaurant in the town at a local shopping mall. Opened with a vision of en-cashing the festive crowd of the New Year, the McDonalds family restaurant is the first establishment to open its doors at the DC Nand Plaza in Sadar Bazar area of Agra, one of the over dozen shopping malls under construction in the town, which is yet to become fully-operational. With the opening of this outlet, the number of McDonalds restaurants in North India, being managed by Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd, the Joint Venture partner of McDonalds in the Northern parts of the country, has risen to 54 and the number of restaurants in Uttar Pradesh has reached 13, making it the largest concentration of McDonalds restaurants in any state...

Vishal Sharma Agra. Located over a vast stretch of land, the Mughal monuments in Agra cause a strenuous physical exercise for tourists. This physical stress sometimes calls for emergency medical aid to be provided to heart patients inside the monuments, which was completely unavailable in the past. But in the new year, the situation will change completely, with the Agra Development Authority installing automatic external sefibrillators at the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. The arrangement will incur an initial cost of Rs 30 lakh, and is a precautionary measure to ward off the danger of any mishap at the monuments caused due to cardiac problems of any tourist. According to Ashok Kumar, Agra divisional commissioner and chairman, Agra Development Authority (ADA), initially, this comprised installation of one machine at the Taj Mahal, a second at the Shilpgram vehicle parking, and one inside the VIP battery-bus, meant exclus...

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. Environmentalists of Agra may now have a reason to rejoice in the New Year. In a decision passed recently by the High Court of Uttar Pradesh, the Agra administration has been asked to restore more than 70 public ponds of Agra to their former state, demolishing almost 200 buildings in the process. Giving an interim decision on a Public Interest Litigation filed by D.K. Joshi, the member of Supreme Court’s Monitoring Committee on Environment, on the illegal encroachment of public ponds by builders in Agra, the High Court has clearly directed the Agra administration to ensure that the public ponds, tanks etc. that are recorded in the revenue record, are “redeemed, restored and properly maintained” by the Agra authorities. According to the Agra administration sources, if implemented per se, this order could result in the demolition of almost 200 buildings, many of them multistoried and several of them being used as government offices, that have been constructed on thes...