RAJASTHAN

Human settlements to occupy 16% land of Aravallis by 2029

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The fast-changing land use pattern of Aravallis hill range into human settlements, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and mining is leading to gradual environmental catastrophes.

A research report titled Assessment of Land Use Dynamics of the Aravalli Range by the Central University ofRajasthan(CURAJ) Department of Environment and Earth Sciences (DEES) projected by 2029, 16% of the Aravalli land would be consumed by settlements from 4.5% of the land in 1975. The land under agriculture will shoot up from 18.9% in 1975 to 28% in 2029 causing additional Stress on surface and underwater reserves. The total area under the range is 75572.8 square kilometres.

The study assessed land-use dynamics patterns between 1975 and 2019 using remote sensing and machine Learning-based approaches. It has made the projection on the available data on settlements, forest cover, water bodies, and barren land till 2059 concluding that it will disturb the geo equilibrium of the region from Delhi-Ahmedabad.

70 villages have 100% tap water connections in Jaipur district

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UnderJal Jeevan Mission, 100 per cent tap connection has been made available in 70 villages and 90 per cent tap connection has been provided in 56 villages in Jaipur district, district collectorRajan Vishalwas informed during a review meeting of the mission at the Collectorate on Monday.

Under Jal Jeevan Mission, out of 5.27 lakh families in Jaipur district, 1.80 lakh families have benefited from functional tap connections. He asked the officials concerned to organise meetings of village water and sanitation committee (VWSC) from time to time and workshops should be organised in each block. During the meeting, superintendent engineer (SE) and member secretary of district water and sanitation mission R C Meena said that 100% functional tap connections have been made available in four gram panchayats – Bhankri (Paota), Chobala (Paota),Kudli(Phagi) andMendwas(Phagi) – in Jaipur district.

The remaining households will be provided with tap connections by 2024. Functional tap connections have been made available to more than 10,000 institutions through pipeline, he said.

The state higher education department is coming up with theRajasthan State Education Authority, a body to regulate private colleges, schools and coaching institutes.The aim is to make institutes 100% accountable and provide a cover to parents and students from being cheated.

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The body will ensure that every institute under them follows all rules, pupil-teacher ratio, classroom students ratio, fees and academic quality. The vetting of claims on placements, infrastructure, facilities, distance, affiliations, international and national tie-ups made by the institutes often misleading students.

Rajasthan cabinet approves splitting Jaipur district into 4, Jodhpur into 2; notifications soon

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The state cabinet completed the demarcation of the new districts on Friday evening, deciding to carve out four districts from the present Jaipur district, and said notifications on all the 19 new districts would be issued in the next few days.

After the cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship ofAshok Gehlotat the CM’s residence ended, cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told journalists that the present Jaipur district would be carved out into four districts – Jaipur, Jaipur Rural, Dudu and Kotputli-Behror. The presentJodhpurdistrict will be divided into Jodhpur and Jodhpur Rural.

The cabinet observe that implementation and monitoring of development-related schemes will be more effective and the common people will have greater access to government schemes, facilities and Services.

In another major decision, the cabinet decided to amend the Rajasthan Civil Services (Allotment of Residential Accommodation) Rules, 1958, to provide relief to Women government employees who are transferred during pregnancy. This amendment will allow female government employees who have been allotted government residences to be able to keep them at normal rent till the end of their maternity leaves.

Rajasthan readies plan to auction 46 cancelled mining blocks

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After the amendment to theMinesand Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, about 46 mineral bearing blocks are set to be cancelled and the mines department has issued orders to analyse the status of the each block for either auction or exploration.

If exploration is done as per the rules by the previous title holder, then the blocks can be set aside for auction. If there was no exploration, then the same be carried out up to the level where as per MEMC Rules for giving composite licence.

The blocks pertain to leases where reconnaissance permits or prospecting licences were granted, but mining leases could not be obtained by the block owners due to lack of various approvals.

In a boost tohydrocarbon explorationin the state, land owners can now lease their plot for 15 years without having to go for land conversion. They will have to only inform the tehsildar. Earlier, companies in the hydrocarbon sector had to acquire the land from the owners hampering the speed of exploration.

The norms were changed by therevenue departmentto fast-track exploration of hydrocarbon Resources in the state.

Rajasthancontributes 22% of the crude oil produced in the country while Bombay High accounts for 40%. About 1.22 lakh barrels of oil and 4-5 million cubic metre gas are produced in the state. Agarwal said that 14 petroleum exploration leases and 13 mining leases have been awarded in the state which will add further depth to the sector in the state.

In the financial year 2020-21, the royalty revenue from the petroleum production reached to Rs 1904.79 crore against Rs 3320.10 crore in 2019-20.

Rajasthan govt to take Rs 200 crore loan from Centre to build houses for poor

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After the successful allottees of chief ministerJan Awas Yojanaand affordable housing scheme failed to deposit instalments during the pandemic, the plans to complete the construction work after taking loan from theHousing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd(HUDCO).

The urban housing department had earlier proposed to construct nearly 23,000 houses for economic weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) across the state under public-private and PARTNERSHIP (PPP) model. However, the construction work was stalled after only 10-15% allottees managed to deposit the instalments.

The government had relaxed the conversion of land policy for developers constructing houses for economic weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) under the Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Yojana. However, nothing can give the project a momentum during the pandemic.