UTTARAKHAND

Chief ministerPushkar Singh Dhamisaid, a day after the Union budget, that the contribution ofUttarakhandtowards thecentral taxeshas gone up by 25%.
The contribution of the state to the central taxes this fiscal was Rs 9,000 crore, and it has gone up to Rs 11,420 crore for the next financial year. Terming it as a major contribution of Uttarakhand towards nation building, Dhami said, “In the long run, it would help in the development of the state as well.”

Similarly, the centre’s decision in the Union budget to continue with the 50-year-interest-free loans to the state governments for one more year, would benefit the Himalayan state by Rs 1,000 crore, the CM added. Under the proposed construction and upgradation of , Dhami said that the two airports of Uttarakhand – Dehradun and Pantnagar – would be taken up under the scheme. He claimed that with the thrust on air connectivity, the state is expected to benefit more from the project for construction and upgradation of 50 new airports and heliports.

In a major decision aimed to strengthen ties between India and Nepal, the , headed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed between the two countries for a bridge on the Mahakali river at Dharchula in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

The work on the bridge is expected to be completed in three years. Public works department had sent a detailed project report to IIT-Delhi for Soil testing and hydrology analysis of the 110-m two-laned bridge between Charchhum in Dharchula and Dhap in Nepal.

The Kumaon commissioner Deepak Rawat said that hydroponicvegetable cultivation will be taken up as a pilot project in Nainital district and depending on the results this technique for vegetable cultivation will be promoted in other parts of Kumaon. He said this while conducting an inspection of Uttarakhands first hydroponic polyhouse in Kotabagh block of Nainital district on Tuesday. Various vegetables are being cultivated in the polyhouse through the hydroponic technique without the use of and it takes less time in the production of vegetables than the usual methods of farming.

The Nainital District Administration is also considering promoting this practice among farmers to increase the production and supply of vegetables across the State and nearby States. A budget has been fixed in Nainital districts plan to promote this project among farmers and start it in the district as a pilot project. The administration will take further actions in other districts of the division on the basis of the outcome of the pilot project, said the commissioner.During his visit to the hydroponic polyhouse, the commissioner also observed various vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes and cabbage grown in the polyhouse. Rawat said that cultivation through hydroponic technique is based on aquaculture in which waste generated by fish is used as manure for vegetables Growth and no chemical fertilisers are used for any purpose as done in the usual Farming practices. Besides this, the growth period of vegetables produced through hydroponic technique is much faster than the usual growth time of vegetables. We observed in the polyhouse that tomatoes were ready in 75 days and lettuce was ready in just four weeks which is quite less time than the time taken during normal farming. All vegetables grown through this technique are of good quality, said the commissioner.

He said that considering the benefits of growing vegetables as per hydroponic practice, it will be promoted in mountainous areas of Kumaon division. The State also has potential markets for the vegetable supplies like Delhi which can be explored through the hydroponic technique.

A team of researchers from IIT-R has won a competition arranged for developing an innovative system in public road transportation area. IIT’s innovators have developed a mobile app which provides the crowding level of public transportation system to the user.

The Union ministry of housing and Urban Affairs had organised the competition in different categories last month. Around 80 teams from various technical institutions had participated in the competition and IIT-R came first among the winners and bagged a prize of Rs 20 lakh.

In a step towards making the Ayushman Yojana more transparent the State Health Agency (SHA) has decided to provide the information regarding the expenses incurred in the treatment of the beneficiaries of the scheme. The beneficiaries would also give feedback on their treatment. The SHA has issued a directive to all the hospitals in this regard.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the recent programme organised to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Ayushman Yojana, the Health minister Dhan Singh Rawat had directed the officers of the SHA to make the scheme more transparent and effective for public welfare.

The SHA has asked the hospitals to submit a proof that they have done free treatment of the patient under the scheme and no was taken from the patient for tests, surgery and medicines during his stay in the hospital. The patients would be informed about the money remaining out of the five lakh per year in their card.

The step is likely to increase the revenue collection of property tax by two to four times and the details of all the properties will be available online from the year 2023

The collected data will also be used to generate a unique property identification number in order to provide necessary facilities to the locals of a certain area. An App has also been developed to update all the information collected through the surveys in all the selected ULBs in the first phase, stated the urban planner.

The report states that one of the possible reasons for the lower count than earlier could be the full moon and local weather, considering which a recommendation has been made to the global organisers of National Moth Week that the event be held around new moon in the future. In addition, adverse weather conditions in 2021, in the form of persistent rain, possibly reduced the number of moths coming to the moth screen. Sondhi said, At Lacchiwala and Kaduapani in 2020, we kept the screens on longer, on account of Covid travel restrictions as we spent the night at the forest rest house. In 2021, we observed moths till 1030 pm, consistent with the past years.

The National Moth Week is a global citizen science event organised in the last week of July throughout the world. National Moth Week partners with organizations around the world that focus on moth ECOLOGY, distribution and . Moths are among the most diverse and successful organisms on earth. Scientists estimate there are 1,50,000 to more than 5,00,000 moth species. Their colors and patterns are either dazzling or so cryptic that they define camouflage. Shapes and sizes span the gamut from as small as a pinhead to as large as an adults hand. Moths can be important bioindicators- a species or taxon that tells us about the Health of an ecosystem. A greater diversity of moths typically means there is a greater diversity of plant species, which leads to a greater diversity of other species as well. They play a crucial role in pollination and are food for many creatures such as bats.

The Uttarakhand Forest department used National Moth Week in 2017 to launch a mechanism to monitor moth diversity annually in different landscapes in and around Dehradun. In 2021, with the restrictions of Covid-19 in place, awareness activities were not conducted, but monitoring activities continued at Lacchiwala reserved forest, Malsi reserved forest and Kaduapani reserved forest. Malsi displayed the maximum diversity with 53 species being identified, with 36 and 26 species being identified at Lacchiwala and Kaduapani respectively.

The higher Education minister Dhan Singh Rawat has said that the Vidhya Sameeksha Kendra (VSK) would also be opened for the higher education department in Uttarakhand. He directed the department to initiate the process of appointment of the Principals in the vacant posts in the colleges of the State. He gave the orders in a recent meeting with the officers of the department. Rawat said 11 posts of Post Graduate (PG) College Principals and seven posts of Undergraduate (UG) Principals are lying vacant in the government colleges of the State and soon appointments would be made on these positions. He disclosed that the process of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for the posts of Principals has been completed. The Minister added that the 391 vacant posts of ministerial cadre would be through the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission while 150 posts of class IV employees would be filled by an outsource agency.

The VSK would help in improving the quality of education by regular monitoring and assessment. He added that a separate block for the VSK would be constructed in the education directorate and its cost would be borne by both school education and higher education departments.

The Uttarakhand forest department has decided to amend theUttar Pradesh Tree Protection Actof 1976, said state forest ministerSubodh Uniyalon Monday. The minister added that easing the provisions of the Act would help state residents plant new varieties of trees and fell the old ones as and when required.

As perScheduleI of the UP Tree Protection Act, an individual is required to obtain permission before felling 2 types of timber trees, including deodar, khair, sandal, chir and walnut.

Similarly,Schedule IIof the Act makes it mandatory to seek permission before felling 13 fruit trees like litchi, mango, pomegranate and plum, among others. However, the Act does not apply to trees situated in reserved, protected, cantonment areas and in government gardens, or on the land held by the government.

Due to the Act, state residents who wish to fell or remove trees even for genuine causes are made to secure a slew of clearances from the forest department, said Uniyal. Those who flout the norms of the Act may be fined Rs 1,000 or imprisoned for six months. According to the forest minister, the stringent provisions of the Act make it difficult for state residents to use their private land optimally. The decision to amend the Act has been taken after observing a shift in the land use pattern, said Uniyal while chairing a meeting regarding a proposed plantation drive in July. “There is a reluctance among people towards planting new trees even on their personal property because of this Act.