HIMACHAL PRADESH

The hill state ofHimachal Pradeshhas one of the highest number of colleges per lakh Population in the country, as per the All-India Survey of Higher Education 2020-21.For every one lakh population in the 18-23 age group in Himachal, there are 50 colleges, suggests the survey released recently by the Union education ministry.

In the survey report,Himachalis placed alongside Kerala, which also has 50 colleges per one lakh population the third highest in the country. Karnataka with maximum 63 colleges per lakh population is at No. 1, followed byTelanganaat No. 2 with 53 colleges.There are a total of 348 colleges in Himachal Pradesh, including private colleges, government degree colleges and Nursing colleges.

The survey report coincides with the Himachal governments move of shutting down colleges that have registered low or zero student attendance from the time they were opened.While there were 132 government degree colleges till December 2021 in Himachal, as many as 23 new degree colleges were opened during the BJP rule in the election year of 2022.

The water cess has been imposed only on the states hydro-power projects, the Himachal Pradesh Government clarified that the move will not put any financial burden on the common people.

The Governments official spokesperson said that the implementation of water cess was aimed to increase the states revenue and strengthen its economy, so that sufficient funds would be available for welfare schemes.

The has implemented the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Generation Ordinance on March 10, 2023, and the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Generation Bill, 2023, would also be brought in the upcoming assembly session, for which the state Cabinet has already given its approval, added the official.

The clarification from the government assumes significance as it is being apprehended that the burden of cess on the water being used to generate Hydro Power in the state would finally be passed onto the common people.

Notably, the Congress-led State Government has decided to impose water cess on the power projects established in the State to increase its financial Resources. The water cess has been imposed up to a maximum of 50 paise per cubic metre.

The Hydroelectric project with head up to 30 meters will have to pay 10 paise per cubic meter cess; hydroelectric project with head above 30 meter and up to 60 meter will have to pay 25 paise per cubic meter cess; hydroelectric project with head above 60 meter to up to 90 meter will have to pay 35 paise per cubic meter cess; and hydroelectric project with head above 90 meter will have to pay 50 paise per cubic meter cess.

Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in a meeting with the team, headed by Regional Director (Sustainable Development), South Asia Region, John Roome here on Monday, discussed the Green agenda of the State and the measures to be adopted to achieve the target of ‘Green Energy State’ by 2025, with the assistance of World Bank.

The World Bank indicated that it is keen on the Green Resilient Integrated Development programme for the state with Basin approach with an estimated cost size of Rs. 2500 crore (300 Million US dollars) depending upon the technical analyses, which may be enhanced further.

The visit of the team was going to be a landmark for the transformation of State towards Green Resilient Himachal, said the Chief Minister and highlighted the priorities in terms of Green Agenda for the State.

Apart from this the Chief Minister also indicated to the team that the State is all set to go ahead in line with National Green Hydrogen Energy Mission in a big way apart from the production.

Discussions about the future plan of action of the World Bank in the implementation of various programmes in the State focusing on Sustainable Forest Management, Forestry“>Community forestry, Ecosystem Services, and Disaster Management along the Basins, Water Resource Management, Nature-Based Tourism and Payment on Ecosystem Services were also held. The World Bank agreed upon providing its support in the implementation of proposed projects.

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for providing subsidy on the purchase of pesticides to fruit growers has received a poor response. Only a handful of fruit growers have completed the required formalities to claim the subsidy. The response has been poor. Not many growers have come forward to claim the subsidy amount in Shimla district where the consumption of pesticides is the highest because of high apple production, says Desh Raj Sharma, Deputy Director, Shimla. The response in other districts, too, has been lukewarm.

Till last year, when the scheme was introduced, the growers used to get subsidised pesticides from around 350 outlets in the state. The Horticulture Department used to purchase pesticides worth Rs around Rs 18 crore to Rs 20 crore from the market and sell it to the growers on subsidised rates. Under the DBT scheme, a grower can claim a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per hectare for temperate fruits such as apple and pear, and Rs 2,000 per hectare for sub-tropical fruits such as mango, and guava. To avail of the subsidy, the growers have to buy the pesticides mentioned in the spray schedule of the Horticulture Department from the empanelled companies and then upload the bills along with the forms and revenue papers/Udyan card on the e-Udyan portal.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today said that an outlay of Rs 12,638 crore had been proposed under the development budget for the financial year 2022-23.

It is due to effective financial management and resource allocation that the government has been able to ensure the welfare of people in the past four years, he said while presiding over a meeting organised to finalise priorities for the budget 2022-23 with the MLAs of Solan, Bilaspur, Mandi, Sirmaur, Una, Hamirpur and Kullu districts.

The Chief Minister said that the previous Congress government had approved 779 MLA priority schemes worth Rs 3,200.34 crore through , while in the four years of his regime, 825 MLA priority schemes worth Rs 3,347.20 crore had been cleared. He added that while the previous Congress regime had provided Rs 2,363.80 crore for the implementation of the MLA priority schemes, the present government had made a provision of Rs 3,183.37 crore for them.

He said that under the Ujjwala Yojana of the Central Government and the Grihini Suvidha Yojana of the State Government more than 4.69 lakh families had been provided with free gas connections worth Rs 141.71 crore. He added that under the Jal Jeevan Mission of the Central Government, 8.23 lakh households had been provided with the tap water facility in the state and a timeline had been fixed to achieve the target of covering all households by June.

Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Dharamsala, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indiana University, Pennsylvania (IUP), USA. The PARTNERSHIP will focus on academic and research collaboration between the two universities.

Professor Bansal added the universities would make efforts to identify and develop courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level wherein credit sharing could be possible. The institutes will also work toward developing and offering dual or twin and joint degree programmes in different disciplines. The faculty as well as students will receive international exposure about their prospective profession.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Indias report, for the year ending March 2020, tabled in theHimachal Pradesh assemblyon Wednesday revealed thatof the State Government increased from Rs 27,910 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 40,572 crore in 2019-20 registering an increase of 45.37 per cent during the period 2015-20.

The burden of interest payment ranged from nine to 10 per cent of the Revenue Receipts.
During 2015-20, 45.83 to 72.71 per cent of debt receipts were used for discharging existing liabilities.

However, during the five-year period 2015-16 to 2019-20, while GDP has grown at a CAGR (compound annual Growth rate) of 7.69 per cent, the outstanding public debt has grown at a faster rate of 7.77 per cent.

The CAG said that borrowed funds should ideally be used to fund capital creation and developmental activities.

Using borrowed funds for meeting current consumption and repayment of interest on outstanding loans are not sustainable.

It said that during 2015-20, no portion of debt receipts was used for meeting Revenue Expenditure.

The borrowed funds are used for repayment of previous borrowings (principal) and on Capital Expenditure.
It said that there has been a continuous decreasing trend in the growth of revenue receipts except the year 2018-19.

As compared to a growth of 31.37 per cent in 2015-16, the revenue receipts registered a decrease of 0.67 per cent in 2019-20, which resulted in higher dependency on borrowed funds for meeting the current consumption.

Only 33 per cent of the revenue receipts came from the states own Resources comprising taxes and non-taxes, while the remaining 67 per cent was contributed by central transfers comprising the States share in central taxes and duties (15 per cent) and grants-in-aid from GoI (52 per cent).