HIMACHAL PRADESH

The state Police have completely switched over from the manual registration of FIRs to the digital mode. Even chargesheets are now being filed online.

A meeting of the State Apex Committee of the Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary RD Dhiman, here today. Integrating the e-system into recording FIRs and the preparation of chargesheets has been possible due to the implementation of the CCTNS in all police stations across the state.

The CCTNS data is being shared with the National Data Centre, New Delhi, for its integration with the national Database on a daily basis. Chargesheets of cases are also being filed electronically and are being shared with the courts.

The implementation of the CCTNS project was started in the state in 2009 with the signing of an MoU between the HP Government and the Central Government in September, 2009. At present, the CCTNS is successfully operational at 246 places, which includes police stations, offices of DSPs, SPs and higher offices.

Besides, various queries and reports are being generated for the assistance of investigating officers (IOs) and the preparation of periodic statistical reports.

The Hp Police have been awarded the first rank among the hilly and Northeastern states in the CCTNS two years in a row i.e. in 2020 and 2021. The state has also bagged the first rank overall at all-India level in the implementation of the Interoperable Criminal System.

The is planning to promote Khajjiar area of Chamba district for aero Sports. Rakesh Pathania, Minister for Forests, Youth and Sports Affairs, said this while talking to The Tribune. He said Monal National Aero Fest was organized last week in Khajjiar to attract tourists to the region.

During the fest, people from nine states participating in parasailing, paragliding and motorized paragliding events. A project was being prepared for promoting Khajjiar in Chamba as a new destination for adventure sports like paragliding and sailing. It would be sent to the union ministry for sports and youth affairs for funding, Pathania said.

He further said that Chamba Chalo programme has also been launched to attract tourists to virgin locations of Chamba district.

The cultivation of cannabis can emerge as an election issue in Kullu district. The area has gained notoriety for being a drugs hub but successive governments have made little efforts to help people cultivating cannabis to take up alternative crops.

The government has tried to provide livelihood to people in remote villages of the district through MGNREGA but failed to help them take up alternative .

The Chief Ministers statement had raised the expectations of those involved in cannabis cultivation. However, the government could not make any progress in the direction.

The Health Department has introduced new diagnostic and treatment facilities such as elderly and palliative healthcare, basic oral health and screening of non-communicable diseases at Health and Wellness Centres (HCWs) across the state.

The HCWs have been established to provide healthcare Services on the doorstep of the beneficiaries under the ambit of the Ayushman Bharat. A total of 2,042 health facilities, including 1,154 health sub-centres, 418 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and 13 Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) have been upgraded to HWCs in the state, said a government official.

He said all HWCs have been upgraded with desktops, along with webcams, speakers and Internet to provide teleconsultation to the community through e-sanjeevani. The state has completed more than 55,000 consultations on e-sanjeevani portal.

Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated a new Milkfed Plant Chakkar in Balh area of Mandi district which would increase its capacity to over 50,000 litres constructed at a cost of Rs 16.32 crore. He said this plant would process milk in a semi-automatic way, which would provide a facility of procurement of more milk from the farmers.

Addressing a public meeting at Chakkar, Thakur said that the HP Milkfed collected about 395 lakh liters of milk from 47,295 farmers of the State during the year 2021-22 and Rs 110.56 crore was provided to the farmers. He said that milk was one of the most important sources of income to the farmers of the State and during the tenure of the present , the purchase of milk has increased by 78 per cent, that is, from 219.00 lakh liters in the year 2017-18 to 395.39 lakh liters in the year 2021-22. The total turnover of Himachal Pradesh Milk Federation in the year 2017-18 was Rs.99 crore which has increased to Rs.172 crore in the year 2021-22, he added.

Thakur said that during the present government, an unprecedented increase of Rs.9 was made in the price of milk purchased from farmers, from Rs.22.90 per liter in the year 2017-18 to Rs.31.90 per liter in the year 2022-23. He said that the commission of milk societies was increased from 4.5 per cent to 5 percent and the Milk Federation was paying the best price to the milk producers in the country.

He said that Milkfed today has 11 Milk Processing Plants, one Cattle Feed Plant and one Powder Plant functioning in the State. With the commissioning of Milk Plant Chakkar (Mandi), the daily capacity of milk plots has increased from 100000 litres to 130000 litres. He said that another Milk Processing Plant of 50,000 litres capacity was under construction in Duttnagar, of which 70 percent work has been completed. He said that this plant would facilitate about thousands of farmers from Mandi, Kullu and other districts.

Union Minister of Commerce & and Textiles Piyush Goyal, accompanied by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur, witnessed an exhibition of handloom and handicraft under the Seva and Samarpan campaign on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the statehood at Dhalpur here. He interacted with local weavers and artisans and listened to their suggestions.

There is a lot of potential in promoting handloom by reforming designing and packaging, standardising quality and modernising Marketing techniques. A committee has been formed to use marketing techniques for competing in the international market.

The states Forest Department has decided to deploy drones in the forest areas of Himachal for tracking and monitoring purposes with an aim of better management and conservation of the forest and wildlife Resources of the state.

Out of a total geographical area of 55,673 square kilometres, Himachal has a forest area of 66.52 per cent (37,033 sq km) and a forest cover of 27.72 per cent (15,433.52 sq km), as per the India State of Forest Report 2019.

As per the Departments plan, drone technology driven information will also be used to monitor the Growth and survival rate of plantations in the state.

The performances of various districts in Himachal has marginally improved and Mandi figured in the Uttam category in the performance grading index for districts released by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, on Monday.

The index has been released for 2018-19 and 2019-20 and Mandi district, which improved its score from 357 out of 600 in 2018-19 to 388 in 2019-20, figures in the Uttam category (61-70 per cent).

Meanwhile, Kangra, Shimla, Hamirpur, Una, Kullu, Bilaspur, Kinnaur and Chamba with scores between 300 and 359 are in the PrachestaI category (51 to 60 per cent) and Sirmaur, Solan and Lahaul and Spiti with scores between 270 and 300 are in the PrachestaII category (41 to 50 per cent).

The score card is based on performance of districts on 83 indicators in six domains, namely outcome, effective classroom transaction (ECT), , facilities, student entitlements, school safety and child protection, digital Learning and Governance process.

He announced that Rs four lakh each would be provided to the families of the deceased and financial help would

be given to the people whose houses had been damaged in this natural calamity for construction of houses.

Rescue operations were still underway in Boh valley following a landslide in which one person died and nine others are still feared trapped beneath the debris till the evening.

The Chief Minister took stock of the losses suffered due to flash flood on July 12 and also met the affected families of the area. He directed the Kangra District Administration to take up the relief and rehabilitation work on war-footings in the affected area.

Thakur said that a team of NDRF is coordinating with the District Administration in rescue and relief works and all out efforts are being made to trace the missing persons.

He also talked telephonically to DC Sirmaur Ram Gautam and enquired about the efforts being made by the NDRF and District Administration to rescue the persons who got stranded on the island in Giri river in Paonta Sahib sub-division of Sirmaur district on Monday.

Notably, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Monday that the situation caused by heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh was being closely monitored with central authorities working in coordination with the .

The Met Department has forecast heavy rainfall may likely continue in Kangra, Hamirpur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan districts in the next 24 hours.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday said a policy would be framed to find alternatives to plastic within a year and industries would also be encouraged to seek substitutes for plastic.

Presiding over a state-level function on the World Environment Day, Sukhu said that gradually thereafter, the would enforce a complete ban on use of plastic.Emphasising on utilisation of plastic waste in road construction, he also called for incorporating culture and environment-oriented courses in the educational curriculum to promote environmental awareness amongst children.

The chief minister said that his dedication towards shaping a greener future for Himachal Pradesh was visible in the first green budget which emphasised on addressing environmental issues.Funds have been allocated for RENEWABLE ENERGY initiatives besides focusing on combating single-use plastic, and the government’s vehicles will be gradually replaced with electric vehicles in the next three years, he added.

Himachal Pradesh is taking the lead in establishing green corridors thereby becoming the first state in the country to do so and Infrastructure development is underway for this purpose, he said.At the event, Sukhu was presented with a jacket made of recycled plastic waste as a symbol for promoting environmental awareness.He also inaugurated an exhibition of various self-help groups and other organizations