UTTARAKHAND

The PM made development the central point of his 46 minute long speech and claimed that in the last five years the Union Government has given projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore to Uttarakhand.

He emphatically asserted that it is very hard for the politicians to remind the people about the past promises made by them but he does it regularly. Modi recalled that five years ago he had said the Pahad Ka Pani and Pahad Ki Jawani Pahad Ke Kaam Nahi Aate but in the last five years he has worked to remove this conception.

Launching an attack on the Congress party without naming it the PM said that a total of 288 kilometres of National Highways (NH) was constructed in Uttarakhand in a period of seven years of UPA rule and in the last seven years more than 2,000 kilometres of NH was constructed in Uttarakhand.

He added the UPA Government spent a sum of Rs 600 crore in NH construction in Uttarakhand while in the last seven years a sum of Rs 12,000 crore was spent on NH in Uttarakhand. Modi that two years ago only 1.25 lakh households had water connection but under the Jal Jeevan Mission this number has increased to 7.5 lakh.

The Health minister Dhan Singh Rawat has directed the chief medical officers (CMOs) of all the districts to visit every household to find and treat the tuberculosis patients under the Pradhan Mantri TB eradication programme. On the orders of the minister the department will initiate an active TB case finding campaign in six districts of the State.

Rawat said that the Health department is making a serious effort to make Uttarakhand free from TB by the year 2024. In the first phase, the campaign would be undertaken in Almora, Bageshwar, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar and Uttarkashi districts. Rawat said that the government of India has given the State a target to find 28,000 TB patients in the year 2022. He claimed that the State is performing excellently in the programme and is on the second position on the registration of Nikshay Mitras in the country.

Tourism minister Satpal Maharaj formally inaugurated the Himalaya Darshan helicopter service from the George Everest estate near Mussoorie last week.

Speaking on the occasion the minister said that the is consistently moving ahead towards developing tourism and as part of such efforts the Himalaya Darshan service has been started. He said that tourists will be able to view the high Himalayan peaks and picturesque aspects of Uttarakhand by helicopter using this service. He exhorted domestic and foreign tourists to visit Uttarakhand and enjoy the Himalaya Darshan helicopter service which takes off from Everest estate and lands back at the same site.

This decision comes a day after the Uttarakhand removed the limit on number of pilgrims allowed to undertake the Yatra, following which the State Government had issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the pilgrimage.

A total of 3,707 pilgrims visited the shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Till 4 PM, a total of 1,275 people had visited the Badrinath shrine. With pilgrimage activity picking up following the latest developments, both the pilgrims and locals involved in various activities connected to the pilgrimage were enthusiastic.

In an important announcement, the CM said that in view of the New Education Policy (NEP), a high level committee headed by a renowned educationist would be set up for starting interdisciplinary courses and recommending changes in existing curriculum. He said that PG courses in Home Science and science stream. In his address, the CM said that his government is focussing on SIMPLIFICATION, solution and disposal of work and he has ordered the officers to stick to the principle of no pendency in work. He said that all the officers have been asked to listen to public grievances from 10 am to 12 am on every working day. The CM said that the Government is focusing on generating EMPLOYMENT and linking youth with employment.

InUttarakhand,anaemia among childrenbetween 9 months and 4 years, 11 months has improved by one point as its Percentage fell from 59.8% to 58.8% according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV (2015-16) to NFHS V (2020-2021) respectively. However, the state’s children are significantly anaemic.

The trend of increasing anaemia among children is higher in the hill districts when compared to the plains. The data indicates that over 50% children sampled are anaemic in Uttarkashi (73.6%), Chamoli (65.5%), Haridwar (63.1%), Tehri (61.1%), Udham Singh Nagar (60.8%), Nainital (59.8%), Dehradun (59.5%), Almora (57.7), Pauri (57.2%), Rudraprayag (52.4%), while in Bageshwar it is 43.7%, Champawat (43.1%) and Pithoragarh (36.2%).

The sample size varied as per the districts’ Population. While five districts have shown a rising in anaemia, the health department is concerned about the hill districts in particular, Chamoli (11.9%), Almora (9.1%) and Dehradun (8.9%), where the problem has increased by almost 9 points.

Uttarakhand’s target is to test at least 2.5 lakh tribal population for sickle cell anaemia, an inherited category. This mean some of these children may have inherited the disease genetically. Anaemia obstructs flow of Oxygen to the body’s Tissues due to lack of haemoglobi, which in turns leads to multiple medical issues including tiredness, irregular heartbeat, chest pain and shortness of breath. Among children, it leads to stunting which may impede overall Growth.

A global organisation, Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific (NEDAC), held its first meeting onlivestock cooperativeson June 29. The organisation is headquartered in Thailand.

The meeting, that was held online, had experts from eight countries including Bangladesh, China, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In the meeting,Uttarakhand‘s steps to uplift cooperatives were lauded by experts from different countries, a communique from the State Government said.

Meeting Union Home minister Amit Shah, he requested that the centre-state ratio for reimbursement for posting of central security forces during famous fairs and festivals in Uttarakhand should be 90:10 as with North Easternb and special category states. Stating that Uttarakhand borders with Nepal and China, he said that remote villages in these areas are being abandoned due to lack of economic opportunities. Removal of inner line restrictions will open tourism opportunities and the resulting economic activity will stall Migration. He requested Shah to consider the proposal for removing inner line restriction in the Niti valley in Chamoli district and Nelang valley (Jadung village) in Uttarkashi district.

The chief minister also met the Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Informing him about the states achievements in education, he said that the state was ranked fourth in education in the Sustainable Development goals report 2020-21 and is included in front runner states. He also sought the centres cooperation for establishment of virtual classrooms in schools, smart classrooms, e-tablets for students in aspirational districts, teachers real time attendance monitoring system, spoken English programme, virtual reality lab, digital Literacy and other initiatives.

The will provide maternity leave to pregnant Women of Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) as per the new PRD Act which will be introduced soon after the release of the government order regarding the same by the end of this month. The government has also planned other important arrangements for PRD Jawans including providing financial and government-permissible Services to Jawans, EMPLOYMENT for them up to 60 years of age and making necessary amendments in PRD Act 1948 for which a GO will be released soon too.

Arya said that PRD Act 1948 was in force in the State till now as it did not have its own act but now the State will get a new PRD act after the proposal regarding the same was passed by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in the recent cabinet meeting. She said that the government has introduced several new arrangements in the Act which will be highly beneficial for PRD Jawans once the act is implemented after the release of the GO.

There has been a significant rise in cyber crime cases in the state since last year’s Covid-19 outbreak, according to data ofUttarakhandpolice’sSpecial Task Force(STF).

While there were around 1,800 complaints received and 200 FIRs registered in 2018, the complaints rose to over 3,600 with 261 FIRs in 2019. The cases increased exponentially in 2020 with 6,333 cyber fraud-related complaints received while 420 FIRs were registered.
Significantly, even theUnited Nationsreported a 350% rise in phishing websites during the pandemic.

Moreover, the latest cybersafe report of the Union Home ministry has placed Dehradun fifth in the country in terms of number of victims of such a crime. The report states at least 3,056 in Dehradun district fell prey to cyber crimes from August 1, 2019 to May 31, 2021.