KERALA

Kottayamhas become the only district in the country without anypoor residentsas per the latestMultidimensional POVERTY Index(MPI) released by theNiti Ayog. The headquarters of the district Kottayam was the first town in the country to be declared as 100% literate town way back in 1989.

The MPI has three equally weighted dimensions-Health, Education and standard of living. The three indicators under health are Nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, and antenatal care. The indicators under education are schooling years and school attendance. Under the standard of living comes indicators – cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account.

The MPI measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The government medical college hospital in the district had recently received the national award for the hospital that provided the highest number of free treatments and is one of the best hospitals in the government sector. During the pandemic, the hospital also started an Oxygen parlour. The district has 912 schools in the government, aided and unaided sectors. Around 1,58,712 students are there from Class 1-10. There are also 135 higher secondary schools in the district.

Erraticrainfalland changingclimatehas furthered the challenges ofdam water managementin the state, even more so in the case of shared operations betweenKeralaand Nadu.

This year, erratic rainfall events have been more frequent, causing disruptions in reservoir management. The short-duration intense rains have been recorded more this year. For eg, on Oct 11, there was 10cm rainfall reported in just four hours which impacted Chalakudy river, Kerala Sholayar, Peringalkuthu and Parambikulam Dams. Following this sudden rainfall event, there was much hue and cry saying dam waters were released.

While rule curve is an indicator, authorities should take a call to release water before the levels increase downstream. Hence, when Mullaperiyar water levels are being fixed, the Idukki dam situation should also be kept in mind.

With the objective of making citizens digitally literate,Pullampara panchayats DigiPullampara project has successfully accomplished its well-charted goal.
The panchayat is all set for the official declaration which will be done by chief ministerPinarayi Vijayanon September 21. The success of the project owes to its detailed planning under the Leadership of a core team comprising five members.

The trainers who taught different modules were students from five different engineering colleges in the city.

The highlight of the project is that officials did not stop with the TEACHING phase. Each participant had to then go through an evaluation process led by the students of Balaramapuram Trinity College.

The department has already identified locations for setting up caravan parking hubs in the district. Caravan tourism is a new concept being introduced by the state tourism department with the support of motor vehicles department (MVD). Caravans will be provided by private tour and travel agencies.

The concept is that the vehicle can be used bytouristsfor reaching various destinations and at the same time accommodation can be provided when they want to stay at a particular destination or overnight stay.

There is also a plan to convert the boat yard at Thevara into a tourism centre. Unused KSRTC buses will be used for foodie wheels project. The buses will act as restaurants.

Karnataka has to release a prescribed amount of water to Nadu every month in accordance with the monthly quota fixed by theSupreme Court. But this year, the state has not been able to meet the quota due to a shortfall in rain and depleting inflow into its reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.

The statefinance ministerinformed the assembly that the total debt ofKeralastood at Rs 3,32,291 crore; the liability doubled during the 2015-16 period. However, despite the pandemic situation here, the Growth rate was 88.66% in 2020-21 compared to that of 2015-16.
In the absence of finance ministerKN Balagopal, ministerK Radhakrishnangave replies to queries. He said that despite all financial constraints, the did not compromise on development projects and welfare schemes.

The Centre had provided a loan of Rs 1,471 crore during the 2019-20 period and had increased the borrowing limit in the subsequent two financial years. The negative growth during the pandemic was the key reason for the present financial crisis. Earlier, the Centre had cut down the borrowing limit of the state and only during the pandemic a relaxation was given.

During the pandemic, the borrowing limit was increased to 5% from 3% of GSDP. The minister said the unscientific implementation of GST has severely affected the tax revenue of states and the state has been exerting pressure on the Centre to continue the disbursement of GST compensation to all states.

For the first time, the Zika Virus Disease (ZVD) was detected in Kerala.

About Zika Virus:

The Zika virus is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquitos that was discovered in monkeys in Uganda in 1947.
Zika virus was later discovered in humans in Uganda & the United Republic of Tanzania in 1952.
ZVD is caused by a virus that is primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes (AM), specifically Aedes aegypti.
This is the mosquito that spreads dengue, Yellow fever & chikungunya.
Transmission:During pregnancy, from mother to fetus, through sexual contact, transfusion of blood and blood products, and organ transplantation.

With the new academic year set to begin on Thursday,Vimukthi Missionunder the excise department will resume its activities in schools to fight drug abuse among students.Ernakulamexcise division has already started preliminary works for this in the district.

Though the usual awareness activities will be held, Vimukthi Mission aims at more interventional and enforcement-level activities in schools this year.
The plan is to ensure that drugs do not reach schools or their surroundings, prevent drug sales near schools and use of children as carriers and make teachers and students cautious about drug abuse and sales.

It is learnt that the planned activities include a screening of students to identify drug abuse among them and do the needful. For this, teachers’ help will be sought and they will be trained by psychological counsellors of Vimukthi and Health departments.

The draft amendment to the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Viole-nce and Damage to Property) Act, 2012 has proposed increasing the quantum of punishment for attack on healthcare workers and institutions to seven years’ imprisonment and fine up to Rs 1 lakh.

The amendment, prepared by a committee comprising additional chief secretary (Home), principal secretary (Health) and principal secretary (law) in consultation with the chief secretary, has been circulated to the chief minister, health and law ministers for vetting.

The has made theuser feeforHaritha Karma Sena(HKS) mandatory, coming into effect from April 1. As per the order, if anyone defaults on the user fee payments, then it will be collected as arrears along with theirproperty tax.

As per the order, households and establishments are obliged to pay the user fee set by the local bodies to the relevant agencies for waste collection, including plastics. The local body can fix the monthly user fee. However, the order has not given any assurance on any kind of relaxations for the BPL category. But the local body has been given the authority to decide on exempting anyone from the user fee.