ODISHA

Giving a big push to the Mission Shakti movement for womens Empowerment in the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced that (SHGs) will get interest free loans of Rs 50,000 crore during the next five years.

Mission Shakti has made a provision to provide interest subvention benefits of Rs 1,200 crore on the loans. He disbursed interest subvention benefits of Rs 125 crore for the first two quarters of 2022-23 to more than 2.5 lakh SHGs. This was done through technology platform directly to the SHG accounts.

The State Government has taken a step ahead by deciding to transform SHGs into small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In order to nurture Entrepreneurship among Women, during the Make-in-Odisha Conclave 2022, the chief minister had announced a revolving fund of Rs 1 crore for all district level federations, revolving fund of Rs 50 lakh for block level federations, office building with market complex for all gram panchayat level federations and establishment of micro and mini industrial parks in all 30 districts of the state.

Sunil Kumar Bansal, a 1987 batch Ips officer, on Friday took over as the new director general of Police, replacing Abhay, and highlighted that Corruption-free and people-friendly policing will be his focus areas in 2022.
Bansal, who returned toOdishaafter nearly 27 years on central deputation, said he will work hard to uphold the dignity ofOdisha Policeand its moto, we serve and protect.

Bansal said he would ensure proper implementation of the governments Mo Sarkar and 5T initiatives.

As per provision of the policy, the offers purchase incentive of around 15% on different categories of EVs which will be up to Rs 5,000 for two wheelers, Rs 12,000 for three wheelers and up to Rs 1lakhfor four wheelers.

The state government would also provide 100% interest-free loan to the state government employees for purchase of EVs. Similarly, government departments, offices, Public Sector Undertakings will now give preference to hire and purchase EVs for official use.

The policy said that the state government will provide appropriate incentives and other support to ensure that pure electric buses constitute at least 50% of all new stage carriages procured for the city buses in the next five years.

As availability of charging Infrastructure is key for adoption of EVs, the state government assures to provide Environment to enable for establishment of private as well as public charging infrastructure.

Bhubaneswar has become the first Indian city to accomplish 100% COVID-19 vaccination. The Bhubaneswar (BMC) had dispatched a gigantic vaccination drive against Covid-19.

Highlights:

This achievement is credited to the BMC running 55 focuses consistently for immunizations. BMC has a record of around nine lakh individuals who are over 18 years old in the city. Which incorporates around 31 thousand medical care labourers, 33 thousand cutting edge labourers. 5 lakh 17 thousand individuals are in the age gathering of 18 to 44 years. Three lakh 25 thousand individuals are over 45 years old.

The State Cabinet has approved tenders for execution of eight rural drinking water supply projects worth Rs 2,312.11 crore in Ganjam, Balangir and Gajapati districts.

On the occasion of completion of the fourth year of the fifth term of his Government, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik chaired a State Cabinet meeting, in which 18 important proposals including the tenders for the drinking water supply projects were approved.

Accordingly, the State Cabinet has approved the lowest tender amounting to Rs 1,509.91 crore for execution of a mega piped water supply project to provide Safe drinking water in Ganjam district out of JJM (Jal Jeevan Mission) funding. By execution of the project, around 9,92,368 people of 770 villages under 228 GPs of 12 blocks of the district would be benefited, he said.

Similarly, the Cabinet also approved a tender worth Rs 379.17 crore for execution of two rural drinking water supply projects in Gajapati district to benefit more than 1.31 lakh residents of 346 villages.
The Government also cleared two tenders of Rs 423. crore for execution of five drinking water projects in Balangir district. All the drinking water projects would be completed in two years, Jena said.

The Cabinet also decided to spend Rs 364.40 crore in three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) for implementation of the State Plan scheme Sustainable Harnessing of Ground Water in Water Deficit Areas.
The Cabinet also approved allocation of Rs 330.17 crore for establishment of an Odisha University of Health Sciences.

It approved a tender worth Rs 209.73 crore for Konark Temple Complex. Konark Heritage Area Development Plan (KHADP) under Integrated Development of Heritage & Monuments and Tourist Destination scheme will transform the physical in and around the temple complex and upgrade the visitors experience, he said.

According to the study, parts of the State are yet to achieve the recommended daily drinking water target of 40 liter per capita per day (LPCD). While about 17 districts in the State have issues with saline groundwater, in many districts, the concentration of fluoride, nitrate, iron and chromium (hexavalent) are found to be above the permissible limits. Besides, there is huge wastage of water in the domestic sector. Due to a lack of adequate and metering, around 54% of unaccounted water losses were observed within the system.

The availability of water by the year 2051 was assessed, and the result shows that the surface water availability from its own drainage boundary remains more or less fixed but the inflow of surface water from neighbouring States will be reduced from 37.556 billion cubic metres (BCM) to 25.272 BCM.

The study indicated that by the year 2051 the total water requirement may go up to 85 BCM from the present requirement of 55 BCM, and the State may face a severe water scarcity situation in 2051.

The has reduced land acquisition contingency from 20 per cent to seven per cent of cost of acquisition for facilitating smooth transfer of land for industrial projects under Make-in-Odisha initiative.

As per the new provision, five per cent of the estimated cost of land acquired directly will go to government account while two per cent will be retained in the bank account of the district collector or special land acquisition officer. Of the two per cent, 0.10 per cent will be transferred to Revenue and Disaster Management department and 0.20 per cent to the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) concerned.

In case of land acquired through IDCO, 3.5 per cent of the cost will be retained by the state Psu while two per cent will be transferred to the account of collector and 1.5 per cent to government treasury.

Covid-induced lockdown and weekend shutdown didnt help contain crimes as rape, robbery, burglary, theft and swindling cases went up in the capital city during January-November this year than the corresponding 11 months in 2020. Suicide cases too saw an upward trend during the period.

As per the statistics shared by the commissionerate Police, rape cases increased by about 1.8%, robbery cases soared by 65%, burglary rose by 33.5%, theft cases increased by 12% and swindling cases witnessed a rise by 80% during the first 11 months this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.

The data showed around 21% rise in suicide cases in the capital city during January-November as compared to the corresponding period during the last year. While 229 persons had committed suicide during the time in 2020, the figure has climbed to 277 (190 male, 87 female) this year.

The city has been ranked bottom in quality Education in the Goals Urban Index 2020-21 recently released by the NITI Aayog contrary to its increasing popularity as an education hub.

The Odisha capital has scored 50 out of 100 in quality education while Thiruvananthapuram tops the list with 96 points. The survey was conducted for Percentage of school Internet, schools with computer available, schools with functional electricity and drinking water, pupil-teacher ratio and percentage of trained teachers at secondary level in schools in 56 cities.

The survey revealed only 25.10% schools in the state capital have internet facilities while 57% have computers. Among the cities that have failed in providing internet Services to schools, Agra tops the list followed by Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

Among the top three cities in quality education are Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Chandigarh with 96, 93 and 88 marks out of 100 while the bottom three cities are Agra, Bhopal, and Bhubaneswar with 54, 54 and 50 marks.

Odisha on the other hand has improved its ranking in quality education from 40 marks in 2019 to 45 in 2020. It is ranked 21 among the states in quality education in the index.

One classroom of each department ofUtkal Universitywill be converted into a smart classroom, higher Education minister Arun KumarSahoosaid at the institutes 51st convocation.

He added that the premier institute can take any initiative for the betterment of its and students. The minister assured that there will be no problem in terms of funds.

On development of research ecosystem, Sahoo said, The new generation scholars should be guided and motivated for better research and publication of world-class articles. The State Government has already taken steps in terms of development of research as per the provisions of the National Education Policy.