ANDHRA PRADESH

The has imposed certain curbs to extend the financial assistance is baseless, says Special Chief Secretary (School Education)

Special Chief Secretary (School Education) B. Rajasekhar has said that the World Bank (WB) has extendedan unconditional loan of $250 million to the Supporting Andhras Learning Transformation (SALT) project in appreciation of the path-breaking reforms implemented by the State Government.

The SALT is the

first project in the school Education sector to be funded by the World Bank without any precondition.

Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the Swechha programme, which aims to improve Health and hygiene of adolescent girls studying in government schools and colleges by providing quality sanitary napkins free of cost.

Speaking on the occasion, Jagan said

many reports have revealed that almost 23 per cent of young girls in the country stay away from schools and colleges during menstruation. In order to change this, the is taking measures right from improving toilets in all government institutions under Nadu-Nedu initiative to launching Swechha programme.

He said under the Swechha initiative, awareness on menstruation will be spread among the students studying in classes 7 to 12 once a month by Women teachers and women cops. Apart from this, awareness on Disha App and Disha Act will also be created by women Police, and joint collector (Aasara) will be monitoring the orientation programmes. A woman teacher will be appointed as a nodal officer. The state government will provide quality sanitary napkins to over 10 lakh students studying in classes 7 to 12, at a cost of Rs 32 crore. Each girl student will receive 120 napkins every year. The students will also be taught on proper disposal of sanitary pads in places where separate dustbins and 6,417 incinerators have been set up under clean AP programme.

he Irrigation authorities atSomasilaproject inNelloredistrict are on their toes as flood level is increasing in thereservoir.

The authorities had a tough time last year in lifting crest gates during floods. Although they averted a crisis at the eleventh hour by managing to

lift the gates, the recent incident of a crest Gate washing away atPulichintalaproject due to heavyfloodsis worrying the administration.

The water level at Somasila project has already touched 68 tmc ft against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 72 tmc ft. Heavy rains in upstream areas are leading to increase in water level at the project.

TTD also plans to procure 35 electric cars which will replace the fuel-dependent vehicles in its fleet. This will be in addition to the 100 electric buses to be launched soon by the APSRTC to ply on the twin ghat roads leading to and exiting from the hill town.

The temple body also sanctioned Rs 9

crore from its Srivani trust funds towards the development and renovation of some ancient temples listed out by the endowments department.

The central government would discuss with AP ways to deal with the damage to Polavaram Irrigation projects diaphragm wall and the spillways guide bund, at a meeting in New Delhi on Sunday, July 9.

In a recent meeting chaired by Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Shekhawat, it was decided that members from central water commission, the Polavaram project authority as also officials from the Jal Shakti ministry and AP Resources“>Water Resources department would meet again to deliberate on the steps to be taken to address the issue of damage to components of the project. Shekhawat

wanted safety to be the top priority irrespective of considerations like cost escalation.

AP water resources authorities say that the Union minister stressed that there should be no future complications once the repair or replacement works are done for the two damaged components. The responsibility for this must be taken by those who oversee the works.

As for the diaphragm wall, there is a proposal to construct parallel walls at four portions to replace the damaged portions and connect the new walls to the existing undamaged wall. However, safety issues have been raised. Nowhere in the world had such an experiment been carried out so far, it was stated.

According to an estimate, it would require nearly `400 crore to carry out the repair works and construct

a parallel diaphragm wall in four portions. If the whole length of the diaphragm wall spread over 1,300 metres is to be erected anew, it would cost nearly `800 crore.

APMarkfedscripted a new HISTORY as the first agency to directly handle the exports from India. Markfed, which procured tobacco directly from the farmers under market intervention

during 2020 market crisis, has started export of tobacco stocks to the USA.

Tobacco growers rushed to the Centre to press the national level Marketing agencies likeNafedto purchase the stocks to prevent the crisis situation. The price fall sent shock waves among the tobacco growers as a similar crisis in 2018 had prompted many farmers to commit suicide. Although Union commerce ministry held discussions with traders, the prices further went down due to the poor export orders following the outbreak of Covid-19.

: Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (APEPDCL) on Friday announced central financial assistance for residential customers interested in installing grid-connected rooftop solar (RTS) Plants.

The facility was extended

to Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and both Godavari districts residential consumers by installing grid-connected plants in their homes through EPDCL, the chief general manager, Energy Conservation, Energy Audit, Solar/APEPDCL V Vijaya Lalita said.

The ministry of new and (MNRE) has sanctioned 8MW capacity in the residential sector under Phase II of the RTS program for APEPDCL with timelines for completion of allocation capacity in 15 months.

Empanelment of agencies for Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic power units of capacity 1 KWp to 500 KWp capacities in APEPDCL has already been done. Sixteen agencies are empanelled in 1 KWp to 10 KWp category and three agencies are empanelled in above 10 KWp to 500 KWp category.

Parvathipuram Manyamdistrict has secured a good rank in the basic theme among all the aspirational districts. For this, the district is entitled to receive an additional Rs 3 crore allocation. Under the aspirational districts programme,NITI Aayogmonitors the districts’ progress on key performance indicators and providesperformance-based additional allocation.

The additional secretary informed that as per the scheme guidelines, the

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