BIHAR

In the wake of the Centre allowing the states to buy Covid Vaccines directly from the manufacturers, the Bihar government has decided to procure Covishield from Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, for vaccinating people above the age of 18 from May 1. CM Nitish Kumar has already announced that free Covid vaccines for everyone above 18.

Altogether 5.46crore people in the 18-44 age group have been identified for vaccination in the next phase starting May 1. As SII has announced its rates for procurement by states, we have decided to place our first order ahead of the commencement of vaccination of people above the age of 18.

the Centre announced its strategy for phase-3 of vaccination against Covid, which included inoculation of everyone above 18. It stated that vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% of their monthly production to the central government and they would be free to supply the remaining 50% to the state governments and in the open market (private hospitals). Manufacturers have also been asked to declare their prices for the supply to state governments and open markets.

SII announced that it will charge Rs400 per dose for Covishield from the state and Rs600 per dose from private hospitals from May 1, when open for all adults.

The ‘s ambitiousJal-Jeevan-Hariyali Abhiyanreceived the ‘award of excellence’ for e-Governance in the 20th CSI-SIG e-Governance Awards ceremony held in New Delhi.

It was presented to the Abhiyan portal under the ‘project’ category. The Computer Society of India (CSI) gives out the award each year to projects for their contributions to the field of e-governance.

The campaign was launched by CM Nitish Kumar in 2019 to combat the adverse effects of Climate-change”>Climate Change and protect the Environment.

The campaign has 11 target initiatives that are being put into practice, such as rooftop rainwater harvesting, massive afforestation, promotion of Organic Farming, and Solar Energy.

Under the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Abhiyan, about 30,000 public ponds, puddles, and dug wells have been made encroachment free across the state so far, and more than 68,000 public water harvesting structures have been rejuvenated.
With the objective to increase the groundwater level, approximately 1.5 lakh soak pits have been constructed near public wells and hand pumps under the campaign.

Junk foods and change in life-style have led to an increase in the number of obese children across the globe. Even inBihar, the Percentage of obese children has almost doubled. As per the data of national family Health survey (NFHS-4), only 1.2% of children below five years of age were found obese in the state, but this has now doubled as per the NFHS-5 survey, with 2.4% children being obese.
City-based paediatricians too pointed out at the huge increase in the number of overweight children in the state and cautioned about arming health issues which these children may face as they grow.

TheBihargovernment has directed the teachers of government schools to keep an eye on the consumption of liquor, manufacturing units, smuggling, and provide information to the officials on the toll free numbers.

As per the directive, the principals, teachers, contract teachers and teachers of Madrasas to collect the information about consumption of liquor, manufacturing units, smuggling, transportation and other operations of mafias and informed on toll free numbers.

With places of scenic beauty going untapped, the has initiated a variety of measures to promote shooting of films in a bid to cultivate its fairly new image before the world.

Chief ministerNitish Kumar, who reviewed the works of the arts, culture and youth affairs department asked the officials concerned to simplify the official processes for clearance and provide all facilities to the interested filmmakers so that they don’t face any problems in film shooting in the state.

The CM said filmmaking in the state would not only promote tourism, but also provide opportunities to local artists and create new job opportunities.

The is setting up a film city in Rajgir, a prominent tourist town in Nalanda which is the Home district of Nitish, while several other sites located amid hills and other natural surroundings are being developed to draw the attention of filmmakers. Shekhodewra, a village located in Nawada district, is one such location which has been especially developed for the purpose in the state.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) proposed for the alignment of another expressway, that will run from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to Siliguri in West Bengal via Bihar.

NHAI will prepare the detailed project report, after the greenfield alignment is approved by Bihar government.

NHAI had submitted the portion of alignment of Gorakhpur-Siliguri expressway, to the road construction department (RCD) in order to discuss and approve in November itself.

Out of total length, 450km stretch of expressway of four/six-lane configuration will pass through Bihar.

This highway is part of Bharatmala project.

Estimated cost on this project will be aroundRs 6000 crore.

The proposed expressway will enter Bihar from Gopalganj and exist from Kishanganj. It will crisscross Siwan, Chapra, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Supaul, Saharsa and Purnia, in that order.

Theeducationdepartment launched a fortnight-long state-level “Praveshotsava” (enrolment festival) in a big way. The campaign is aimed at ensuring 100% enrolment of boys and girls passing Class VIII examination into Class IX of their respective schools.

The minister said Education department officials would accompany the education rath and there would also be some cultural artists who will attract students towards schools by motivating their guardians.

He appealed to the officials to organise the enrolment festival sincerely from July to 15 so that not a single student who has passed Class VIII examination this year is dropped.

The foursewage treatment Plants(STPs) at Beur, Karmalichak, Saidpur, and Pahadi inPatnawill be made functional by the end of the 2021-2022 financial year. Sewer networks are being laid to connect all the households to the STPs so that untreated water does not get discharged into the Ganga directly.

The foundation for the plants, which have a capacity to treat 200 million litres of wastewater per day, was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mokama in Patna district in October 2017.

According to sources, the wastewater will be treated through sequencing batch reactor system and used for Irrigation after chlorination.

Two other STPs at Digha and Kankerbagh are in the initial stage of construction. While the one at Digha will have a 228km-long sewer Network, the Kankerbagh STP will have a 150km-long sewer network.