BIHAR

In a significant step towards bringing rural areas on the real-timeAir Qualitymonitoring map of India, theIndian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur in association with partners is spearheading a project to deploy 1,362 air qualitymonitoring sensorsat block levels in Uttar Pradesh andBihar.
Similar models will later be replicated in rural areas of other states. The rural districts of India have, so far, not managed to be part of the national discourse on air quality as no baseline data is, currently, available from rural areas.

The project aims to deploy low-cost sensors, the first of its kind in rural India. Various pilots for deployment of air quality sensors have already been done in various urban areas but there is little or no understanding of air quality in rural areas in India.

Bihar’s Nitish Kumar government is likely to conduct a caste-based census in the state on its own expense, say ruling Janata Dal-United leaders.

The leaders said that Nitish Kumar has a clear stand on this issue, and is waiting for the Centre’s response on his proposal. If it refuses, he will activate “Plan B” for the state to conduct the exercise on its own.

A section of people argue that caste-based census may allow social tension to develop between the communities in the country. I want to ask them that if religion-based census had not created division in the Society as per their claim, how caste-based census can create differences in the society.

“Our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar advocated caste-based census to help people on the last levels. He is having support of opposition parties leaders in Bihar. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav met the Chief Minister on this issue and demanded the same. Nitish Kumar also assured him and other leaders to take time with Prime Minister for the issue. Nitish Kumar sent the letter to PM Narendra Modi in this regard,” Kushwaha said.

About 40% of the rural adolescent girls inBiharuse cloth instead of sanitary napkins during their menstruation.

And, at least 5% of them are not allowed to take bath during the period, according to a study conducted by the Population Research Centre (PRC) of Patna University on ‘Menstrual Health and hygiene among adolescent girls in climatic vulnerable areas in Bihar’.

The study reveals that even among the girls who use sanitary napkins, 90% have not received any government-supplied napkin in the recent past. And, surprisingly, 67% of the girls throw the used napkins in open areas.

The study reveals that lack of access to proper disposal system and awareness force the girls to burn or bury their pads. Girls throw their used pads into toilets or other open places as their schools and colleges do not have proper disposal system. Several of the households in rural north Bihar either don’t have or don’t use toilet and as such open defecation is relatively common among the girls. Majority of the girls expressed problems related to privacy, shyness and hesitation for open defecation during menstruation. Some girls said they use neighbours’ or relatives’ toilets during menstruation. Further, they expressed lack of appropriate toilet facilities in the health centres, schools and colleges as well.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said the state emphasized on educating girls to bring down the rate of Reproduction to check https://exam.pscnotes.com/Population–Growth“>Population Growth and refused to endorse the new population policy in Uttar Pradesh unveiled by its chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Every state is free to do whatever they can to check population growth. Laws alone cant check population. It was found after a lot of research work that the rate of reproduction comes down effectively if Women are educated. Bihar has experimented with this by promoting Education among girls and achieved success. If it continues, the state would have a negative growth of population after 2040.

Academic institutions have started gearing up for getting a better grade fromthe NationalAssessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). More and more universities and colleges are volunteering for their assessment and accreditation by NAAC and proving their academic worth.

Detailing the recent progress made in the sphere of NAAC accreditation,BiharState Higher Education Councils academic advisorN K Agrawalpointed out that altogether 102 institutions of higher education in the state have submitted their annual quality assurance report (AQAR) during the last four months and they are likely to submit their institutional information for quality assessment (IIQA) followed by self-study reports (SSR) soon.

He said as many as 29 institutions have already submitted their SSR and they are awaiting the visit of the NAAC peer teams for their assessment and accreditation. Patna-based A N College which is already accredited with A grade has submitted its SSR once again. The college hopes to get a higher grade this time.

Solar street lights will be installed in four wards of each of the the 320 panchayats inGayadistrict under the chief minister solar Light scheme. Ten electric poles have been marked for installation of solar lights in each ward.

Three agencies have been selected by BREDA (Bihar Development Agency) and the formality of agreement with them has been completed. The agencies will be responsible for maintenance of the installed lights up to five years

In an attempt to help those worried about Oxygen scarcity amid the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the Bihar government on Friday launched a campaign to encourage installation of oxygen-giving indoor Plants.

Department of Environment, Forest and https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change, Bihar launched the campaign ‘#NatureCuresYou’ to sensitise people about how nature can help beat coronavirus.

The rating of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the latest tiger census report released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday plunged from very good to good category in management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) system.

VTR, the only tiger reserve inBihar, has scored 77.97% in the MEE, putting it at 38th position among the 51 assessed in the latest census report, titled Status of Tigers 2022.

The VTR is among only the three tiger reserves in the country whose performance has gone down. The other two tiger reserves include Nameri in Assam and Udanti-Sitanadi in Chhattisgarh. Altogether 14 tiger reserves have found place in good category under theMEE system.

Under the MEE system, all tiger reserves were assessed on a total 31 parameters, including integration of the tiger reserves in a larger landscape, compliance of statutory requirements, presence of a tiger conservation plan, mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts and assessment of threats.

This was the fifth cycle of MEE under the nationwide tiger estimation exercise in India. Altogether 28 tiger reserves were assessed in the first cycle in 2006, 39 in 2010, 43 in 2014, 50 in 2018 and 51 in 2022.

TheBihar State Road Development Corporation Limited(BSRDCL) said land acquisition for construction of Mithapur-Mahauli elevated road would be completed by May.

The 8.86km-long elevated road from south-western flank of Mithapur flyover to Ramgovind Singh Mahuli RAILWAY halt is proposed to be constructed with an expenditure of Rs 668 crore.

Most cities in the state recorded a rising trend in annual particulate matter (PM)2.5 level in 2021 after the initial drop in Air Pollution level in 2020 due to Covid-induced lockdown, as per new analysis of regional pollution trends done by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The analysis, released recently, showed that Muzaffarpurs annual Average of PM2.5 had jumped from 74 micrograms per cubic metre (g/m3) in 2020 to 78 in 2021 whilePatnas annual average of PM2.5 rose to 75 in 2021 against 64 g/m3 in 2020. The annual average of PM2.5 level in Hajipur was 60 g/m3 and it was 49 g/m3 inGaya.

The national limit is 40 micrograms while the World Health Organisations recently set annual standard for PM2.5 is 5 micrograms. PM2.5 are tiny particles in the air that reduce visibility and trigger several diseases, including fatal ones like cancer.