BIHAR

The citys air quality index (AQI), which turned poor on Wednesday, is likely to deteriorate further with calm winds, low temperature and anthropogenic activities leading to accumulation of pollutants.

According to the Central Pollution Control Boards (CPCB) daily bulletin, Patnas overall AQI was recorded at 235 at 4pm on Wednesday, a sharp spike from 203 a day before. It was the Average of the AQI measured by five continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations at BIT-Patna (277), Eco Park (273), S K Memorial Hall (199), DRM Office-Khagaul (200), andPatnaCity (228).

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe. A poor AQI essentially means that people may suffer from breathing problems on prolonged exposure to the air.

Chief minister (CM)Nitish Kumar asked youths to take maximum benefits of the government’s sponsoredskill training programmeso that they could get jobs. The CM also instructed labour department officials to make wide publicity about this programme.

The chief minister issued these instructions while reviewing the works and achievements of thelabour Resources department. He said this programme was launched as part of the “Seven Resolve Scheme” to train the youth to help them get jobs.

Raising questions on the NITIAayogs assessment system, chief ministerNitish Kumaron Monday asserted thatBiharcould not be compared with the countrys richest state Maharashtra.

Is it proper to compare the countrys richest state with the poorest, he asked, adding his government would soon send a point-wise reply to the Aayog on their recent assessment report on district hospitals in India, in which Bihar has been shown among the worst performing states in some categories,.

Reacting over the NITI Aayogs performance assessment report on district hospitals in India, Nitish said he was not aware as to how and through whom the carries out its assessment works.

Bihar has done a lot of improvement in the Health-sector”>Health sector ever since people gave us a mandate to work in the state. We brought phenomenal improvement in the way of providing medical facilities in the state. But the NITI Aayog makes similar assessments about many states across the country.

Health minister Mangal Pandey said on Monday that all preparations had been made to tackledenguein the state and 1.32 lakh medicated mosquito nets allotted to different districts.

All government health facilities have been put on alert and district hospitals directed to create five-bed wards to treat dengue patients. Besides, nine nodal centres have been set up where the facility of Elisa test, which detects recent or past dengue infections, is available.

The mines and geology department has geared up to check illegal sand trading in the state in view of the restrictions on its mining for three months till September 30. The districts have been directed to keep buffer stocks. Teams have been constituted to conduct raids on the illegal miners and black-marketers.

There are many licensed mining areas in the districts like Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Jamui, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Gaya and Lakhisarai. Besides, small mining fields are there in Madhepura, Kishanganj and Banka districts. Just a couple of days earlier, two task force teams were formed to keep a vigil on the riverbanks of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Rohtas, Arwal, Aurangabad and Gaya. District mining task force will be formed under Rule 74 of BiharMinerals (Concession and Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transport & Storage) Rules, 2019 in each district in coming days under the supervision of district magistrates. The team will comprise SP and district planning officer. The department also has its own boats for river patrolling, including 4 in Patna, 3 in Bhojpur, 3 in Vaisali andSarandistricts. Besides, the boats of state Disaster Management department and vehicles provided by the District Administration are also used in patrolling and raids.

Prime MinisterNarendra Modiconferred the second prize in NationalMSME Awards2022 toBiharin the category of states/UTs for outstanding contributions to the promotion and development of the Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) sector.

The award was received by principal secretary (industries) Sandeep Paundrik on behalf of state department at a function organised by ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises at Delhi.

The National MSME Awards is awarded in several categories for the outstanding work done by the state governments, institutions or individuals for the development and promotion of MSME across the country.

Besides limited , lack of awareness among parents is another issue.

Before lockdown this year, Bihar government had planned to conduct catchup course to address the Learning gap in 2020 among class II to X students.

TheBihar Museumwill organise a two-month-longG20 art exhibitionfrom August 7 to October 7. The exhibition will have one art piece each from countries, guest countries, as well as the artworks of 20 Indian contemporary artists.

Moving in this direction, the BiharMuseumSociety has initiated the bidding process for the engagement of a fine art handling agent to manage the movement of artworks from India and other G20 countries.
The upcoming G20 art exhibition has been christened Together We Art, based on the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or One Earth, One Family, One Future, from the Maha Upanishad.

The Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) on Saturday announced that the process for environmental clearance sought by entrepreneurs has been simplified with the introduction of the online Consent management and monitoring system.

A BSPCB communique released on Saturday said a Suvidha Kendra set up at the Board headquarters on the Patliputra Industrial Area road will facilitate the filing of applications by entrepreneurs. It will become operational from April 15. Suvidha Kendras have also come up at Muzaffarpur and Barauni.

The communique said the entrepreneurs will be able to file their applications, along with scanned documents, by paying a fee of Rs 1,000.

The online facility aims to remove the delays in the issuance of environmental clearance to entrepreneurs for their projects.

Under the manual system, the delay was often caused by errors made in filling the forms and documents, which delayed the process of issuing clearance certificate, the communique stated.

For environmental clearance from the pollution control authority, a separate set of forms would have to be filled through the online process, coupled with the submission of scanned documents for a fee of Rs 1,000 would be charged.

Cities in Indias eastern states Bihar,West BengalandOdisha are increasingly falling into the pincer grip of toxic particulate pollution during winter season, and the problem is spreading quickly to the smaller cities and towns of the region, said the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in its latest assessment.

The CSE noted that even though the long-term trend in winter air quality improved marginally, it worsened last winter (2022-23) with the eastern states experiencing the most polluted season since 2019-20. In absolute concentration terms, Bihar with an Average PM2.5 level of 134 micrograms per cubic meter (g/m3) was the most polluted state in the east, followed by West Bengal with average PM2.5 level of 84 g/m3. Odisha was third with a seasonal average of 63 g/m3.

Patnahad the highest increase in winter pollution during the 2022-23 season among the major cities whereas pollution levels were worst in smaller towns of Bihar. In fact, all the top 20 most polluted cities of east India are located in Bihar.