HARYANA

The draft eco-tourism policy released by the states Forest Department, envisages district level eco-tourism plans, creation of such sites in public private PARTNERSHIP in identified areas, development of eco-tourism circuit, involvement of local communities besides conserving the existing and ecosystem in Haryana.

The policy will be applicable to all types of notified forest lands in the State and areas covered under Punjab Land Preservation Act wherever the owners of such lands become partners in the eco-tourism projects.

Around 3.5 per cent Haryanas land is under the administrative control of the Forest Department, with two national parks, seven wildlife sanctuaries, two Ramsar sites, two conservation reserves, five community reserves and many faunal habitats in addition to the old Aravalli hill range, Shivalik hills and host of water bodies.

As per the India State of Forest Report 2019, the recorded forest area (RFA) in Haryana is 1,559 sq km of which 249 sq km is reserved forests, 1,158 sq km is protected forests and 152 sq km is unclassed forests.

The eco-tourism activities included in the States policy are nature camps, eco-friendly accommodation, trekking and nature walks, wildlife viewing, adventure Sports, angling, educational tours and excursions, herbal eco-tourism, medical and Health activities, religious and cultural eco-tourism, visitor interpretation centres and conservation Education among others.

Under the policy, potential sites will be identified jointly by the Department of Forests and Wildlife and Department of Tourism and will be prioritised for phased development. An eco-tourism circuit will also be created which will allow the visitors to access the existing infrastructures related to eco-tourism in the State.

The decision has been taken in view of the interest of about 24 lakh students studying in 14,386 government schools in the state. The government has started preparations for purchase of ‘first-aid boxes’ used for first aid in schools,

In view of this, the government has released Rs. 2,87,72,000 for all government schools in the state under the scheme ‘Fund for Protection and Security at School Level’, he said.

He further said that the government through Haryana School Education Project Council has earmarked a budget for purchasing first-aid boxes in 11,049 primary and 3,337 secondary schools in the state.

On behalf of the Haryana School Education Project Council, all the district education officers, district elementary education officers, district project coordinators and district block education officers have been directed to put 24 items shown in the list in the ‘first-aid box’ kit.

The Chief Minister chaired the meeting of the High-Powered Land Purchase Committee (HPLPC) here. The projects are related to the Department of Medical Education and Research, Public Works (B&R), Haryana State Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture Marketing Board and Public Health Engineering Departments in six districts namely Rewari, Nuh, Sirsa, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jind.

Chandigarh International Airport Ltd, CEO, Ajay Kumar along with Rakesh Dembla, chief financial officer and Avneet Kaur, company secretary presented the cheque of amount Rs 3.20 crore to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after deducting TDS from this dividend amount of Rs 3.56 crore.

Significantly, the aviation sector has been hit badly by the COVID-19 pandemic as domestic and international flights were banned. Even after resumption of domestic flights, restrictions were there on the number of passengers, he added.

Chandigarh International Airport sailed through these tough times, earned profit and paid dividend to its stakeholders. The Airport has handled 13.70 lakh domestic passenger movements in the year 2020-21 and 23.23 lakh domestic passengers in the year 2019-20

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that to reduce the number of school dropouts, the state School Education Department is tracking every child in the age group between six and 18.

The Chief Minister said that the government is working tirelessly to lessen school dropouts. For this, the School Education Department has been given the responsibility of tracking a child in the age group of 6 to 18 years. Every child is being tracked by the department and such children, who are not getting education in government or private schools, nor in Gurukul or Madrasa, will be tracked and brought to schools, so that no child is deprived of education, said Khattar.

He directed the officers concerned to ensure the transport facility for school students travelling a distance of more than one kilometre. For proper monitoring of the safe and secure travelling of these students, one of the teachers of these schools should be made the nodal officer, he said.

The Chief Minister said a possibility should also be explored to develop a strategy to pay travel expenses to these students, adding that ensuring the safety of every child is the topmost priority of the .

For this, a comprehensive framework has been made. Under this, the age group-wise data of Parivar Pehchan Patra has been shared with different departments and as per this data, the responsibility of children up to six years has been entrusted to the Women and child development department.

The tracking of every child who is neither coming to Anganwadi nor in any play-way school is being done, so that the actual status of the children can be ascertained, the CM said.

The state has collected a total revenue of Rs 861.09 crore from deed registration during the first two months of the current fiscal year (April 1 to May 31).

A total stamp duty of Rs 803.12 crore and registration fee of Rs 57.97 crore were collected in these two months.

Similarly, Faridabad with a total of 3,886 deed registrations resulted in stamp duty collection of Rs 74.58 crore and fee of Rs 5.24 crore. A total of 4,746 deed registrations in Karnal resulted in a stamp duty collection of Rs 48.01 crore and fee of Rs 3.95 crore.

TheHaryanatown and country planning department and theHaryana Space Application Centre(Harsac) are working on a Software to check unauthorised constructions in controlled areas, a bid to weed out illegal colonies in the state.

The software will enable multi-layered monitoring, have features of geo-tagging and pin drop location of the point the alleged unauthorised colonies are coming up.

For the past three years, the is struggling to regularise or provide basic amenities to occupants or owners of dwelling units that have come up in unathorised colonies.

According to information, there are around 3,500 unauthorised colonies in the state. This includes 2,237 colonies existing under the areas of Urban Local Bodies, while the arae in the controlled area, one monitored and controlled by the town and country planning department.

Haryanas for the assessment year 2021-22 has exceeded the projection. The state generated Rs 70,289 crore against the expected Rs 94,070 crore announced in the last years budget.

The actual gap in Revenue Receipts has come to Rs 23,781 crore against the projected Rs 15,374 crore. The states excise and finance departments have termed the collection impressive, considering that the business and commercial activities had stalled during the lockdown. The receipts are computed minus the statesborrowings, which are projected to reach Rs 2.29 lakh crore by the fiscal-end. This has raised eyebrows.

The state earned Rs 59,230 crore fromtax revenueand it includes Rs 6,438 crore as central share.

Out of the 52,792 crore actual tax revenue, Rs 29,330 crore came from the goods and Services tax (GST), Rs 5,148 crore from stamp duty, Rs 6,792 crore from excise, Rs 8,852 crore from VAT, and Rs 2,396 crore from the transport tax.

Out of the non-tax receipts, Rs 1,970 crore came from the Urban Local Bodies, Rs 1,022 crore from the mining fee, and Rs 585 crore from the transport department.

The Central University of Haryana (CUH) here has signed an memorandum of understanding with the CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, to provide coordination of collaborative research, monitoring and data exchange in the earthquake monitoring and crustal deformation and land movements in and around Mahendergarh region.

The MoU was signed by the Registrar, Prof Sarika Sharma on behalf of the Central University of Haryana while Dr VK Gahalaut, Chief Scientist signed on behalf of the CSIR- (NGRI), Hyderabad.

The Health department plans to set up 10 hospitals across the state to improve healthcare Services and ease patient load on district-level facilities. The hospitals, each with 30 beds, will be built by the end of this year.

According to health department officials, the facilities will be constructed byHSVPand will function under the supervision of community health centres in the area. The plots will be identified and construction will start soon, they said.

The objective is to fill critical gaps in health , surveillance, and health research in both urban and rural areas, so communities are equipped in managing pandemics or other public health crises, officials said.