ASSAM

TheCentre said distribution of free foodgrains under the fourth phase of thePradhan Mantra Garib Kalyan AnnaYojana (PMGKAY) has started in seven states and about 14,700 tonnes have been given to beneficiaries so far.

About 70.6 lakh tonnes of foodgrains were distributed in the third phase of PMGKAY between May and June, it said.

On ration card portability facility, the government said the remaining four states –Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal — are expected to come on board soon.
PMGKAY was first introduced in 2020 for eight months to provide relief to 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the NationalFoodSecurity Act (NFSA) from Covid-induced economic hardships.

The scheme was reintroduced this year for third phase implementation for two months till June and later extended till November under the fourth phase.

Free grains are provided under PMGKAY over and above the quota allocated at highly subsidised rates under NFSA to these beneficiaries.

TheAssamhealth department on Tuesday launched a drive to screen and test people in 28,000 villages across 33 districts for Covid-19 in a bid to isolate the maximum number ofhidden positive cases.

TheAssam Community Surveillance Plan(ACSP), as the drive has been named, has been undertaken to break the chain of transmission through active vigil. In the first wave of the pandemic last year, a similar initiative was carried out in the villages. Isolation of all positive cases is the primary goal of the drive to ascertain the magnitude of the Covid-19 transmission. But the actual target is beyond that and has been named Covid Plus, to enlist potential cases ofsevere acute respiratory infections(SARI), influenza like illness (ILI), fever or any other Health issues.

Many cases of malaria, dengue and vector-borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis (JE) are suspected to have been covered up fearing Covid-19 detection.

Chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma allocated the finance portfolio to the lone woman member of his cabinetAjanta Neog, making her the first female finance minister of the state. In the last NDA government, Sarma had held this portfolio.
Sarma kept the departments of Home, personnel and public works and any other departments not allotted to any minister with him. Neog will hold the additional responsibility of the social welfare department.

Representative from the Barak Valley, Parimal Shuklabaidya, has been given Environment & forests, and excise departments. He was in-charge of these departments in the last government too.

TheAssamAgricultural University (AAU), with technical support from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has successfully tested four systems by cultivating green pea, mustard, potato and lentil after sali (kharif) rice in six districts.

Field test demonstrations in rice environments were selected during rabi season in 2020-21 and 2021-22 for the four innovative cropping systems. Six districts, with an area of 20 bighas each,were selected for the demonstrations. Cultivation of these crops after paddy harvesting will help in increasing the net income of the farmers. In the long run, one of the cropping systems having highest return and system productivity can be promoted for wider adoption, saidKanwar Singh, senior associate scientist and resident coordinator at IRRI.

Geospatial technologies, including remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS), are being used under the Assam Agri-business and Rural Transformation Project (APART) for identifying suitable areas where multi-cropping can be done after rice cultivation. The AAU targeted identification of the fallow land to increase the Cropping Intensity to bring a significant increase in agricultural output in low productivity areas and enhance system productivity.

Assam has an estimated 25 lakh hectares under paddy cultivation which accounts for almost 83% of the total cultivable land of the state. But most of this paddy cultivation is confined to the kharif season (sali) during when almost 19 lakh hectares is utilized.

Over 9,000 Utilisation Certificates of various projects and schemes of 52 departments of the Assam government from 2001-02 to 2018-19 have not been submitted, a CAG report said. More than 68 per cent of the 9,379 outstanding UCs are of the last four years since 2015-16, the said in its report on state finances, under the section of ‘Quality of Accounts & Financial Reporting Practices’.

At least 1,345 UCs amounting to Rs 7,197.84 crore are due for the 2018-19 fiscal, while 24 such documents worth Rs 1,607.23 crore in 2016-17 have not been submitted, according to the report which was tabled in the assembly on Friday. Utilisation Certificates of Rs 3,494.38 crore grants paid up to the financial year 2018-19 are pending from the Health department, followed by the Welfare of Plain Tribes and Backward Classes with UCs worth Rs 2,403.51 crore.

The award was given by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions of the Government of India.

The ‘ Snapshot Kokrajhar’ app was conceptualised by the Deputy Commissioner Varnali Deka as a 24×7 configurable mobile-based application for effective monitoring of all government schemes and public institutions with both offline and online status update facility.

At least 1,561 farmers out of 3,636 eligible beneficiaries inAssamsDima Hasaodistrict have received the 12th instalment of their under the PMKisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN) through direct benefit transfer.

The eligible families are provided Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each under the scheme. He was addressing the PMKisan SammanSammelan 2022 at Haflong Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

Assam, which has witnessed rainfall deficit of over 20% for the sixth time since 2010, is among the five states that are highly vulnerable to extreme Climate events such as floods, droughts and , according to a new study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

The study, “Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability – A District-Level Assessment” done by Delhi-based think-tank CEEW, has faulted unsustainable landscape, lack of Infrastructure planning and human-induced microclimate change as the key drivers of this high vulnerability.

The northeastern zone, including Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, is only highly exposed to extreme flood events.Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Karbi Anglong, Hailakandi, Tinsukia and Dhemaji districts are also the flood hotspots in India.

A surge in extreme events has been observed across India after 2005. Our sensitivity analysis shows that this is primarily triggered by landscape disruptions. Various studies have confirmed the impact of landscape changes on the incidence of extreme events (UNEP 2009),” the study said.