UTTARAKHAND

10,000 active cases of Lumpy Skin Disease across country

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Around 10,000 active cases ofLumpy Skin Disease(LSD) have been detected across four states and a Union territory in the country on Wednesday. Of these, around 2,200 are inUttarakhand.

“At present, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh (union territory) and Uttarakhand have LSD cases,” said an official of the Uttarakhand animal husbandry department, requesting anonymity. He, however, did not share the number of LSD cases in other states.

The disease deforms the skin of cattle, lessens milk yield and, in some cases, leads to deaths.

Last year, around 1.55 lakh bovines died due to LSD. milk production also took a hit. In Uttarakhand, 103 bovines have died due to LSD since May 5 alone.

To control the menace of human-wildlife conflict inUttarakhand, a state where at least 50 persons are killed and 200 brutally injured in wildlife attacks every year on an average, the state’shorticulture departmenthas come up with the idea of “aroma valleys”. Animals like monkeys, bears and elephants, who usually raid crop fields, would find the intense fragrance of plants likeDamask rose, lemongrass orJapanese mintirritating and stay away, according to officials working on the project.

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The aromatic Plants are expected to bring in more profits for farmers as compared to traditional crops like wheat and pulses.

The regional transport office (RTO) of Dehradun is planning to initiate a mega project to digitise all the data of the paper documents stored in its premises. The RTO presently has about 12 lakh files stored in various rooms of its building and as per the officials, the digitisation would make the data more accessible to the users and officials concerned besides making more space available in the office building. According to the assistant regional transport officer (ARTO), Dwarika Prasad, there are about 12 lakhs files of paper documents in the regional transport office which sometimes poses challenges in storing and retrieving these documents. The digitisation would make it easy to access the document of a particular file and would also help in making the RTO paper-free, asserted Prasad.

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He further informed that after a meeting with senior officials of the transport department next week, the RTO will plan the digitisation project. Moreover, the officials also informed that RTO has started an auto-approval facility for the drivers of the commercial vehicles with up to 10 seats through online mode for the forthcoming Char Dham Yatra as a part of digital Services in the transport office.

The transport office of Dehradun was set up in the year 1964 and files related to the vehicles, licenses, transport permits, fitness of vehicles are stored in it. Most of these files are stored in a big hall situated at the centre of the RTO building which is located on the Rajpur road. Hundreds of iron racks are placed in this huge store room in which these files stockpiled. Due to the space constraint in the store room many of these racks are placed in the galleries and other rooms of the office.

Uttarakhand stations to get face lift with 5,000 crore railways allocation

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To strengthen the rail Network in the hill state of Uttarakhand, Rs 5,004 crore has been allocated in the Union Budget. Under the station development scheme, two major stations — Haridwar and Dehradun — will be equipped with world-class facilities and nine other stations will be revamped.

Minister of railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that “Uttarakhand has been allocated a record budget for this financial year, which is higher than many other northern states of the country”.

Vaishnaw had said that during the Congress government at the Centre from 2009 to 2014 the Average allocation for the state in the rail budget was only Rs 187 crore which has now been increased manifold. Stations in the state which will be revamped during the next fiscal include Roorkee, Kotdwar, Harrawala, Kashipur, Lalkuan, Ramnagar, Tanakpur, Kichchha and Kathgodam. Moradabad’s divisional RAILWAY manager (DRM) Ajay Nandan Singh said that with the commencement of long distance trains from Harrawala station, passengers’ load at Dehradun station will reduce by at least 25%.

Install equipment on rivers entering State from China for security: Maharaj

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The States Irrigation minister Satpal Maharaj directed officials that from the security point of view, the equipment being installed under the National Hydrology Project (NHP) should be installed on rivers entering the State from China. He further directed that necessary action should be taken for approval to the Jamrani dam project under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and that further action should be taken at the departmental level on the request made to the Government of India for provision in the Song dam project as a project of national importance.

Necessary action should be taken to get Jamrani dam project approved under PMKSY as the approval is proposed to be granted in the Central government meeting slated to be held in New Delhi on October 18. Further action at the departmental level should be ensured to follow up on the request made to the Centre for Rs 1,774 crore special assistance of State for capital expenditure or Song dam project as a project of national importance. The minister said that all technical departments should organise a seminar for exchanging information on new technologies.

A new software will be launched within one week for the registration of Bharat (BH) series vehicles in Uttarakhand. Last month, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) introduced a new form of number plates called BH series for those who have to relocate frequently due to their jobs. As per the rules, those who have to transfer to another state have to change the registration number of their vehicle at the new place in their respective transport offices.

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However with the BH series number plates, the vehicle owner will not have to register its vehicle in the new states again and again on his or her transfer. For now, MoRTH has provided this facility to the central and employees, bank employees, DEFENCE personnel and the employees of those private sector companies which have offices in more than three states. According to the official sources, the transport offices of Uttarakhand have also received some applications but this service has not started yet here. The deputy transport commissioner Sanat Kumar Singh said that the central government has launched this new form of number plates last month and trial of the new Software is under process as most of the work will be done online in this system.

Uttarakhand ranks 23rd; shows improvement from previous edition

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Uttarakhandhas ranked 23rd out of 36 states and UTs in Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2021-22 in a study conducted by the Union ministry of Education. The rank is better than the earlier edition’s 35th, though “differences in parameters deem the two reports incomparable”.
The index measures 73 indicators grouped in six domains and scores are calculated out of 1000. The domains have gone up from five in the previous edition with focus on teacher education and training being a new parameter. The index is released for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system in the country.

The ultimate aim of the index is to propel states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions that will bring optimal education outcomes covering all dimensions. The PGI is expected to help to pinpoint the gaps and accordingly prioritise areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level. It also suggests that as a way forward, states and UTs take a pro-active domain specific approach to improve their individual educational system.

Chandigarh (659) and Punjab (647.4) have obtained the highest scores. Uttarakhand has scored 517.9 this year. The score has gone down from last year’s 719 but the rank has improved to 23rd in this edition. The hill state remained in the ninth level of the report out of 10.

Uttarakhand scored 56.4 out of 240 in the Learning outcomes domain, 60.7 out of 80 in access, 60.9 out of 190 in and facilities, 219.3 out of 260 in Equity, 52.5 out of 130 in Governance processes and 68.2 out of 100 in teacher education and training (the new domain added in this index). The first domain requires special focus for the state.

Among Himalayan states, Uttarakhand has come fourth after West Bengal hills (562.7), Sikkim (533.6) and Ladakh (518.8).

Local languages & dialects are our identity: Dhami

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In an attempt to promote the local languages, the Uttarakhand government has decided to honour the upcoming and talented authors in Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari languages every year. Similarly the government would also felicitate the writers of other dialects of Uttarakhand and authors of Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami gave orders regarding the Awards while chairing a meeting of Uttarakhand Bhasha Sansthan (UBS) at the State secretariat on Wednesday.

The CM said that the Uttarakhand Sahitya Gaurav Samman would be provided every year from the year 2023-24. The awards would be given for excellence, literary service and creative literary activities in the field of Garhwali, Kumauni, other dialects, Punjabi and Urdu. He added that upcoming writers in three local languages (Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari) would also be felicitated. In the meeting the CM approved the proposal of providing grants to such creative writers of the State who in absence of are not able to get their books published.

EC to bring disabled to polling booths in palanquins

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In a humanitarian gesture the would send palanquins (Dolis) to transport the persons with disabilities to the polling stations in the upcoming assembly Elections. The chief electoral officer (CEO) of Uttarakhand Sowjanaya said that Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) such as ramp, Light, help desk, proper signage, drinking water and shed would be provided in all the polling booths.

She informed that an extensive drive to find new voters in the family registers ( Parivar registers) was undertaken and the Booth Level Officers (BLO) were provided this data of the prospective voters.

Releasing the integrated draftelectoralrollon Wednesday, the ChiefElectoralOfficer (CEO) of UttarakhandSowjanyasaid that 3,60,686 new voters were added in therolls. The state now has 81,43,922 voters.

Uttarakhand: Schools with fewer students to be merged with big ones

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heeducation 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.