Principal secretary Puneet Kumar Goel is the new chief secretary of Goa.
He took charge on Tuesday following the retirement of Parimal Rai.
Goel, a 1991 cadre officer has held important portfolios finance included since his posting in Goa two years ago.
He will hold portfolios that were held by Rai such as Home, personnel, general administration.
The order appointing Goel as chief secretary was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs last month.
In a crucial exercise, the will be carrying out the reassessment of replenishable groundwater sources acrossMaharashtra. A special panel has been formed to carry out the task, which is expected to submit its report by February 2023.
While the reassessment will be done in accordance with the directives received from the Centres Ministry of Jalshakti,Resources“>Water Resources,River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, the National Water Policy, 2012, has also recommended that the groundwater resources of the country should be reassessed periodically.
The aforementioned panel formed has 16 members from different government departments and state agencies and is headed by a secretary-level official from the Water supply and sanitation department. Besides reassessing the annual replenishable groundwater resources, the panel will also estimate the status of utilisation of the annual replenishable groundwater resource.
Haryana Government has constituted an internal grievance redressal committee for employees belonging to Scheduled Caste community in the state.
In pursuance of recommendation of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), an internal grievance redressal committee for employees belonging to SC community is constituted for Haryana Civil Secretariat.
The committee shall examine the complaints from SC employees in service matters including non-maintenance of reservation roster and not filling up of reserved vacancies, discrimination in promotion, seniority, ACP, non-appointment on compassionate grounds, downgrading of APARs or ACRs, discrimination in transfer or posting, denial of pensionary benefits and disbursement of pay arrears etc.
The Budget has left a bitter taste in the mouth of apple growers. With their profits sliding year after year due to a volatile market, sharp increase in input costs, and heavy import of apple from other countries, the growers feel the Budget has failed to address any of their concerns.
The biggest disappointment is the unchanged import duty on apple, which continues to be 50 per cent. We have been demanding for long that the duty be raised to 100 per cent. The unchanged duty will continue to hurt the domestic apple market, said Lokinder Bisht, president of the Progressive Growers Association.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had also requested the Centre to increase the import duty on apple to 100 per cent during his meetings for consultation on the Union Budget in Delhi last month. Thakur had even made the suggestion that apple be excluded from the list of fruits and other commodities brought under the Open General License.
The Micro, Small and Medium enterprises ofJharkhand said they will seek Centres intervention for ensuring unhindered power supply by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) in its command areas in the state.
The Jharkhand Small Industries Association (JSIA), the umbrella organization of the MSME units in the state, said they will write to Union power ministerR K Singhand seek the Centres intervention in ironing out the differences between the DVC and the over the amassing dues of the state-run discom Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL).
The JSIA has expressed concern over the shortage of power in DVCs command areas such as districts like Hazaribag, Koderma, Chatra, Giridih andRamgarh, which is Home to several MSME production units.
DVC has curtailed its daily power supply to the state by 50% since November last year after citing that the state failed to come up with a set pattern of repayment, which led to the dues piling up to Rs 2,173 crore.
TheBihargovernment has directed the teachers of government schools to keep an eye on the consumption of liquor, manufacturing units, smuggling, and provide information to the officials on the toll free numbers.
As per the directive, the principals, teachers, contract teachers and teachers of Madrasas to collect the information about consumption of liquor, manufacturing units, smuggling, transportation and other operations of mafias and informed on toll free numbers.
As per the cabinets decision, under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, only local residents of Bastar and Sarguja divisions would be eligible for recruitment on the vacancies ofGrade-IIIand Grade-IV posts and this decision will be enforced till December 31, 2023. The state cabinet has also decided to increase the rebate on guideline rates of the properties of municipal corporations and their areas by 10 % which means, now 40 % rebate would be provided on guideline rates instead of 30 %.
To encourage plantation in Chhattisgarh, draft concerning the amendment in previous rules for felling of trees in private sector under Chief Minister Plantation Promotion Scheme was approved.
Chief ministerShivraj Singh Chouhansaid that SantRavidas Jayantiwill be celebrated across the state on February 16. For the development and welfare of the Scheduled Caste community, new schemes will be made if necessary.Chouhanwas addressing a felicitation ceremony organised by Ahirwar Samaj atShahganjin Sehore.
Chouhan further said that the is providing free books, scholarships and hostel facilities to the children of scheduled caste, tribes and poor families, besides paying the medical, engineering college fee of the meritorious children. He said that the government is providing houses under the “Pradhan MantriAwas” scheme to the poor, so that they can also live with dignity. The chief minister said that free ration is being provided under “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan” and “Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojna”, so that poor families do not face any difficulty in their livelihood.
At present, the government is in the process of selecting agencies that will provide trained doctors for telemedicine consultation and distribute free medicine to citizens on the basis of e-prescriptions. This system will prove to be a game changer for senior citizens and those who find it difficult to visit a doctor and even for those who cannot afford medicines from pharmacies. Initially, the government will roll out the consultation service.
The eSanjeevani OPD and medicine supply Services will also be in sync with nearby government hospitals for treatment of citizens like further diagnosis and operations etc.
The office of commissioner for persons with disabilities (PwDs) has directed the states department to consider nominating specially-abled persons as members in the panchayati raj bodies on a similar pattern asChhattisgarh.
The disability court made these remarks after the panchayati raj department gave a reply to it that there is no provision in the panchayati raj act to nominate specially-abled persons as members
In Rajasthan, the State Government had already nominated specially-abled persons in the Urban Local Bodies, but it is yet to take a decision on panchayati raj institutions. The state government had amended the Rajasthan Municipal Act last year to introduce this provision of nominating PwDs to the ULBs as members, making it the first in the country.
After amendments in the Rajasthan Municipal Act, now it has become mandatory to keep one post vacant for PwDs in an urban local body.