UTTARAKHAND

Union minister of DEFENCERajnath Singhinaugurated the newly developed Shaurya Sthal war memorial in Cheedhbagh area of Dehradun cantonment.

Singh was accompanied byUttarakhandchief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan while laying wreath at the war memorial, which is a tribute to the valour of over 2,330 armed forces personnel hailing from Uttarakhand who made the supreme sacrifice for the country. It was initially developed by Uttarakhand War Memorial Trust which under an MoU handed over its control to the Army last December.

Releasing its report on Dehraduns poor performance inClimate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF), the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundationhasappealed to all to include the issue of sustainable Urbanisation in their manifestos ahead of the 2022 assembly Elections fora Climate-sensitive approach to urban planning and development in thestate.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) developed CSCAF in association with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to provide a roadmap for cities towards mainstreaming climate actions within existing and future projects and policies. A total of 126 cities including 100 Smart Cities, capital cities and other cities were part of the assessment and Dehradun was the only city from Uttarakhand. The cities were given star ratings on the basis of the evaluation based on five parameters including 28 indicators- Urban Planning, Green Cover and Biodiversity, Mobility and Air Quality, Water Management, Energy and Green Buildings and Waste Management. Dehradun received one star in the first three parameters, two stars in the fourth one and three stars in the waste management category.

According to the SDCs report, not a single city out of 126 cities got an overall five-star ranking inthis assessment. Only nine cities includingAhmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Visakhapatnam and Indore got the four-star ranking while 22 cities got a three-star ranking. Dehradun and the other 63 cities got only a two-star ranking while the remaining 31 cities attained only a one-star ranking.

The Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) Minister, Rekha Arya has transferred `3,000 to the bank account of each newly marked beneficiary in the third phase of Mukhyamantri Vatsalya Yojana (MVY). Arya informed that in the first two phases, the department started providing the benefits under the scheme to a total of 1,418 eligible beneficiaries of the State besides providing them with the monetary help of `3,000 each. In the third phase of MVY, Arya informed that a total of 149 beneficiaries were marked in five districts in which 72 beneficiaries are from Tehri, 48 from Nainital, 20 from Haridwar, eight from Rudraprayag and one from Pithoragarh.

The move comes after the was urged to look into the possibility of introducing aPopulation Control Actduring a recent coordination meeting held inDehradun, which was attended byBJP’s national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh and senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders.

The Uttarakhand government is also considering bringing a strict law, demand for which has been growing among residents. Earlier this month, several youngsters had taken to Social Media to demand land laws and protesters had also gathered outside the state assembly on July 18.
In 2003, an amendment was made to the UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reform Act 1950 by the ND Tiwari government to prevent outsiders from buying more than 500 square metres of agricultural land in Uttarakhand.

After initiating a Scholarship scheme for the students of the government schools of the State, the Pushkar Singh Dhami government has come up with a scholarship plan for the students of the government colleges of the State.

Under the scheme, the students securing first, second and third ranks in their respective colleges and streams at undergraduate level would be given a scholarship of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1500 per month respectively. In the Post Graduate (PG) level the scholarship would be Rs 5000 per month for the student securing first rank, Rs 3000 per month for second rank holder and Rs 2000 per month for the student holding third rank. The students would have to secure at least 60 per cent marks and should have more than 75 per cent of attendance to be eligible for scholarship.

To promote the integration of orphans with mainstream children, 850-plus identified orphans will be admitted in 13 hostels exclusively made for them.

The hostels would cater the educational, Health and moral needs of these children, who do not have any guardian to look after them in the crucial growing age.

Uttarakhand‘s chief secretaryS S Sandhuheld a detailed discussion on the future possibilities in the tourism sector with the departmental officials.

“Along with the Char Dham yatra, other tourist places have been playing an important role in boosting the economy and EMPLOYMENT in the state. Maximum number of tourists come from Delhi-NCR throughout the year, especially on weekends, and after the construction of Delhi-Dehradun expressway, the number is expected to increase. So, we have to start preparations from now itself,” Sandhu said.

Instructions were given to prepare two categories of tourism activities according to the geographical and natural condition of the state. Activities in category ‘A’ would be the ones which can be started immediately and category ‘B’ would have activities which require some work before launch.

The Vice Chancellor (VC) of HNB Garhwal University, Annpurna Nautiyal has said that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is focused on Skill development through integration for self-reliance. She was presiding over the inaugural session of a training program on Strategies for Implementation of NEP-2020 on Tuesday.

The training programme is being organised by the Faculty Development Centre (FDC) , established under Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission for Teachers and TEACHING, Department of Higher Education, at the university.

The VC of Himalayiya University J P Pachauri, said that Indianness, universalisation of education, value inculcation and education in mother tongue are the four pillars of the NEP 2020 which aimed at and Social Change by creating a knowledge Society. For this purpose, the commitment of teachers and connectivity with the students is a must for quality education and research outcomes.

Theeducation departmenthas decided to merge schools having less than five students in the hills and less than 10 in the plains with the nearest larger ones across the state from the 2023-24 academic session to better utilise Resources and resolvestaff crunch.

Officials said block Education officers in every district have been tasked with identifying such primary and high schools and a final list will be compiled by January 2023. While the exact number of such schools was yet to be determined, the officials said, adding the figure could be around 3,000. According to theRTE rules, a primary school should exist at every km, a middle school every 3 km, high school every 5 km and intermediate at every 7 km.

Uttarakhand has around 16,500 schools, where over 11.5 lakh students are enrolled. The student teacher ratio is 16:1 that officials said they were working to improve.

After the establishment of the incubator, the administration can promote AI and Robotics culture in the state. Banerjee also said that ARTPARK aims to establish not just a good product but a technology that can help the Indian army in resolving the problems causing due to the challenges faced in the current global scenario.