UTTARAKHAND

All the Health and wellness centres of the will be well-equipped and staffed. Within three months, all the ANMs, Asha workers and medicos will be appointed at these centres to expedite theuniversal health coverageplans, said state health minister Dhan Singh Rawat said at theUniversal Health Coverage conferencein Dehradun.

A two-day programme on health issues at Varanasi on December 10 and 11, which was primarily visioned by the Centre, was replicated inUttarakhandon Monday. “The move will help the state in giving a boost to the concept of universal health coverage. We want to take health facilities till the last village. The paramedical staff are our key people in taking our health facilities to the doorstep of people,” said the health minister.

Under the guidance of Swami Ramdev and Leadership of Acharya Balkrishna along with the efforts of about 150 scientists of Patanjali Research Institute (PRI), a comprehensive plan has been prepared to solve the problems related to Indian farmers and Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture.

This has been presented in the book Nav Harit Kranti-An Agro Vision. A round table discussion was presided over by Balkrishna in which through this compilation, the future plans for solving the basic problems related to agriculture, simplifying agriculture and increasing the income of farmers was considered. Speaking on the occasion, Ramdev said that the Patanjali has future plans to uplift farmers status. Beginning from training to organic fertilisers, high quality seeds and minimum priced fertilisers will be made accessible to the farmers. Now even in the technical field, Patanjali has developed technological interventions in form of apps to help the farmers, for geo-mapping of land, geo-fencing and Weather forecast so that basic essential information will be made easily assessable to all farmers.

The Haridwar district authorities are planning to install the States first gas powered crematorium at the burning Ghat in Khadkhadi. This will reduce the dependence on wood for cremation and the smoke to a great extent. The Haridwar district magistrate Vinay Shankar Pandey has sought a report from officials concerned in this regard during a meeting he chaired on the subject.

The Haridwar municipal commissioner Dayanand Saraswati said that payment of electricity bills is a major problem in the operation of the electric crematorium.He further said that the electric crematorium has to be started 24 hours before the cremation of a body and consumes considerable electricity. Officials present in the meeting opined that a gas-based crematorium would be better than other procedures from the aspects of pollution and fuel consumption.

It is pertinent to mention here that Khadkhadi is the most used cremation Ghat along the Ganga in Haridwar where bodies from various parts of the State are brought for cremation. Considerable quantities of wood are used for the funeral pyres. The of Haridwar is also working on a plan to provide logs made from cow dung for cremation.

Agrass conservatoryspread across 2 acres and having 90species of grass, which theUttarakhandforest department claims to be the first of its kind in the country, was opened in Ranikhet on Sunday for the public.

The germplasm conservation centre built by the research wing of the forest department over three years using compensatory afforestation (CAMPA) funds – displays scientific, ecological, medicinal and cultural information related to all 90grassspecies.

The conservatory, which has segmented grass species into aromatic, medicinal, fodder, ornamental, religiously- important, agricultural and miscellaneous, aims to recognize the role of various types of grasslands in the ecosystem and promote threatened species. Authorities said , the process of vegetation capturing and storing atmospheric carbon, has gone down due to Urbanization, deforestation and intensive mining.

He revealed that this e-Seva Kendra is the first service centre in the state and the next centre will be opened in Almora soon.

Considering the importance of such centres in the present times, more will be established in all the district courts in future, stated Chaturvedi.

The WECD Minister said the Government is committed to taking care of such children who lost their parents or guardians to Covid-19 or any other disease in the past two years. She asserted that protecting such childrens assets and legal rights are also the departments responsibilities under this scheme besides

providing them monthly monetary assistance till they turn 21-year-old.

An amount of Rs 3,000 was transferred to every 1,062 beneficiaries on the first phase of the scheme as the first instalment on August 2 by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, stated Arya.

On the second phase of the scheme, a total of 356 beneficiaries were marked in seven districts under MVY in which 186 beneficiaries are from Dehradun, 76 beneficiaries from Nainital, 40 beneficiaries from Haridwar, 21 beneficiaries from Bageshwar and Almora each, eight beneficiaries from Pithoragarh and four beneficiaries from Tehri Garhwal, informed the WECD Minister.

She said that the department has transferred Rs 3,000 to the bank account of each beneficiary through the online transaction and will continue to provide help to the eligible beneficiaries under the MVY scheme. The has provided financial help of Rs 3,000 to every 1,417 beneficiaries so far under MVY scheme.

Theurban development minister Prem Chand Aggarwalallotted houses to a total of 794 beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) of Kanakpur and Kashipur through the online lotterysystem on Wednesday. Aggarwal said that the department is currently working on the construction of 17,304 houses in 21 projects after getting approval from the central government. He said that various authorities have proposed 3,104 residential units for economically weaker sections (EWS) in five projects while 14,200 houses have been proposed by the housing and development board in a total of 16 projects.

He said that a total of 464 houses have been constructed and made available to the beneficiaries by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) so far. The board is also working on the construction of 14,200houses for EWS. He said that these schemes were approved by the central government but work on the project got delayed due to legal problems, and it started in March last year.He said that in the said projects, land with housing is being made available to the board by the private developer at the rate of Rs Six lakh per house out of which Rs1.50 lakh are being given as a grant by the central government and Rs one lakh as a grant by the .

The remaining amount of Rs 3.5 lakh is given by the beneficiaries. He said that these amounts are released to the developer from time to time according to the progress of the work after checking the quantity and quality of the construction done by him. He said that the government has fixed a target for the completion of the construction works to transfer the houses to the beneficiaries before September 2024. He said that the beneficiaries are being selected with complete transparency through the online lottery after registration in the central governments portal as per the rules.

This helpline number is especially for swift assistance in cases of financial cyber crimes.

Speaking on the occasion, Rawat said that cyber crime is an emerging challenge to fight against which the Uttarakhand Police have made a good effort. Wide publicity should be done to ensure that all citizens know about this helpline number. He also stressed on the need for raising public awareness to check cyber crimes in this digital era.

Speaking on the occasion, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal congratulated Uttarakhand police while also stating that cyber crime is rising at an alarming rate. Stressing on the need for effective measures to tackle cyber crime, he said that Uttarakhand has become the third State to launch a helpline number for this purpose.

It was stated on the occasion that there has been a consistent rise in financial and non-financial cyber crimes in recent years.

Recently the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the cyber helpline number 155260. Uttarakhand is the third Indian state to get permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs to operate the said helpline number.

A citizen can call this helpline to inform about any financial cyber crime. An e-Suraksha control room has also been set up in the cyber crime police station for this purpose.

The government will be able to open the Char Dham Yatra once the situation normalises.

It is pertinent to mention here that apart from the Char Dham Yatra being postponed, various Covid guidelines have to be followed by the limited number of priests allowed in the shrines to conduct the daily ritual worship of the deities in the Char Dham shrines.