UTTARAKHAND

Programme Implementation department becomes powerful in Ukhand

by

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has directed the Programme Implementation department to keep a recordof the visits made by the officers and public representatives in the Chaupals of the Gram Sabhas.

The Uttarakhand government had directed the ministers, public representatives and senior officers to hold night stays in the rural areas and hold Chaupals in the Gram Sabhas. As per the order of CM the hitherto low profile Programme Implementation department will keep a track of these visits. The CM has also directed the district magistrates to regularly hold Chaupals in villages. He said that the DMs should prepare monthly reports of their rural visits, make monthly reports of BDC and Tehsil days and send them to the programme implementation department. The DMs will also send the action taken reports on the grievances received by them in these visits to the department. The order of the CM clearly shows that he intends to make the Programme Implementation department more powerful and wants it to become a monitoring agency of the officers and public representatives.

The Uttarakhand government has setup a four tier system of monitoring and review of the development projects in the State.

After chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat announced the postponement of the Char Dham Yatra amid the rising cases of Covid-19, the government has instructed that other bookings be cancelled and that those who had booked helicopter service should be refunded.

by

Every year thousands of pilgrims visit Uttarakhnd for Char Dham Yatra. Keeping in mind the safety of pilgrims from across India and abroad, the has decided to postpone the Yatra. Directions have been given to Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) to refund the amount for helicopter bookings after excluding the processing fee of Rs 200. The amount will be deposited in the bank accounts of the pilgrims.

Elephant safaris to resume after 5 years in Uttarakhand

by

Jungle safaris atop elephants in Corbett and Rajaji national parks, which were stopped around five years ago when the Nainital (HC) banned commercial use of elephants, are set to begin again.

At the recent meeting ofCorbett Tiger Foundationattended by senior forest officials as well as forest minister,Subodh Uniyal, it was decided to allow jumbo rides in a “regulated manner”. “The interpretation of orders vary from case to case and our state holds significant potential for ecotourism.

The PIL had also red-flagged environmental damage caused to Corbett due to mushrooming hotels, resorts and other commercial properties around it, adding that owners of such properties also conducted elephant safaris in the area.

The Union minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, MN Pandey, Union Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, RK Singh along with chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat and Uttarakhands Skill Development and Entrepreneurship minister Harak Singh Rawat digitally launched the government of Indias Skill India pavilion at the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. Pandey and the CM also interacted with youths participating in the Skill India event, asking them to motivate others too for skill development.

by

The CM stressed on the need for special focus on Skill development of Women and linking the skill development programme with Atmanirbhar Bharat and vocal for local campaign. He appreciated the Skill India mission being undertaken under the Leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed confidence that the event in Haridwar will help spread the message further to facilitate skill development. He said that focus can be laid on Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Processing, tourism- especially adventure tourism and the IT sector under the mission. Skill development programmes should be conducted for these sectors with focus on their monitoring also, he added.

Union Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank appreciated the skill development pavilion as a commendable effort to spread awareness on the subject.

The integrated road accident data (i-RAD) maintained by the traffic police has revealed that 45 of the total 166 police stations inUttarakhandreported more road accidents than others in the past one year.

by

Inspector general Mukhtar Mohsin, director of state traffic directorate, said that among the 45 Police stations, maximum were in four major districts — Haridwar, US Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital. “Haridwar and US Nagar districts had six police stations while Dehradun and Nainital had five each. Those in capital Dehradun included Doiwala, Raipur, Patel Nagar, Nehru Colony and Vikas Nagar,” said Mohsin.
He also informed that out of the 13 districts, five had the minimum number of police stations which reported more accidents.

2 from Ukhand win silver at IndiaSkills 2021 National Competition

by

Participants from Uttarakhand received two silver medals in the IndiaSkills National Competition 2021.In total,185 candidates were declared winners in the competition and Rajesh Aggarwal, secretary, Ministry of Skill development and (MSDE)felicitated themat the Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi.From Uttarakhand, Prashant Saini andAbhinav Verma won silver medals in Cyber Security and 3D Digital Game Art.

The closed-door competition, organised by National Skill Development Corporation under the guidance of MSDE, witnessed participation in 54 skills such as concrete construction work, beauty therapy, car painting, Health and social care, visual merchandising, graphic design technology, wall and floor tiling, welding, among others.

IndiaSkills Competition, which raises the profile and recognition of the youth, brought together over 500 participants from 26 states/ union territories. The skill competitions were held at multiple locations, including Pragati Maidan and offsite locations in the National Capital Region, from January 7 to 9 under Covid-19 guidelines mandated by the authorities.

With the election commission deciding to extend the voting from home facility to the senior citizens who are more than 80 years old and the physically challenged voters the number of the postal ballots would increase in the upcoming assembly polls. Since the increase is expected to be substantial the political parties would surely revisit their election strategies in such a scenario.

by

Traditionally the service voters and the government employees engaged in election duty use the postal ballot method to exercise their franchise. However the addition of physically challenged and 80 plus voters would result in a major increase in the number of postal voters in the upcoming polls.

The integrated draft electoral roll released by the recently mentioned that there are 93911 service voters in Uttarakhand out of which 91378 are male and 2533 female voters. Pauri district has maximum number of service voters (16,163) followed by Pithoragarh (14,545). Chamoli has 10,398, Dehradun 9,805, Almora 7,218, Udham Singh Nagar 5973 and Tehri 5787 service voters.

As per the electoral rolls there are 1,65,113 voters in the state who are above 80 years of age. Interestingly, the number of Women 80 plus voters (93,576) is more than their male counterparts (71,537). Dehradun with 29,619 elderly voters is at the top of the list followed by Haridwar (22,361) and Udham Singh Nagar ( 20,476) 80 plus voters. Similarly the data shows that there are 53,900 specially abled voters in the state out of which 34,832 are males and 19,067 are female voters.

10% of govt school students in each class to get scholarships

by

In a significant decision, thePushkar Singh Dhami cabinet announced a Scholarship scheme for meritorious students from classes 6 to 12 in state-run schools.

A total of 7,953 students will benefit from the scheme, with a provision of Rs 57 crore earmarked for the project. As per the provisions of the scheme, known as the Mukhyamantri Meghavi Chhatra Protshan Chhatravriti Yojna, 10% of the students from each class will be selected at the block level for the scholarship.

To avail of the benefits of the scheme, students need to achieve a minimum of 70% marks and 75% attendance from classes 6 to 10, and over 80% marks in classes 11 and 12. In case the number of students exceeds 10% of the total strength, the top performers will be selected. Class 6 students will receive a monthly scholarship of Rs 600, class 7 students Rs 700, class 8 students Rs 800, class 9 students Rs 900 and class 10 students Rs 1,000. Students of classes 11 and 12 will receive a scholarship of Rs 1,200 per month.

There are 95 blocks in Uttarakhand, and the scheme is expected to benefit 7,953 students. The cabinet also approved a proposal to allow two-year childcare leave (CCL) for single male government employees. According to the amendments in theUttarakhandService Leave rules, unmarried, widower, or legally divorced single male government employees can now avail 730 days of CCL anytime until the child attains the age of 18. In cases where the child has physical disabilities exceeding 40%, the single male parent can avail the CCL at any time without any age criteria.

CS asks DMs to be innovative to tackle waste management issues

by

Chief secretary SS Sandhu said that district magistrates need to be innovative to tackle Waste Management issues in their respective districts. He directed them to prepare a site-specific plan to manage sanitation issues across the district rather than following a single action plan for the whole district.

Sandhu said this while presiding over a meeting at the secretariat with all district magistrates regarding the action plan for Solid Waste Management and preventing the use of single-use plastic across the State. He directed the District Administration to prepare an action plan to tackle waste management issues in forest, rural and urban areas and ensure its 100 per cent implementation. He also directed the officials to consider completely banning single-use plastic products during Char Dham Yatra. The chief secretary further directed the officials to conduct awareness campaigns in villages against single-use plastic and waste management. He said that the officials concerned should also focus on promoting the alternative to plastic to prevent the usage of banned plastic items. He directed them to make plans with self-help groups to promote such alternative products across the state. He also directed the officials to focus on making cleanliness and proper waste management a part of the daily routine of locals rather than presenting it as a special campaign occasionally. He also directed the DMs to coordinate with manufacturers and traders to ensure the compliance of orders for proper collection and disposal of prohibited plastic products.