04.02.23

10% Gross Budgetary Support for North Eastern Region

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Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) monitors and keeps track of expenditure by all non-exempted Central Ministries / Departments (currently 55) mandated to spend at least 10% of their Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes for NE Region.

This is to ensure a quantum jump in budgetary resource flows to the region to fill the backlog and gaps in basic minimum services and infrastructure. About Rs.3.64 lakh crore have been spent in NER since 2014-15 (upto 30.09.2022) under 10% GBS. The increase in expenditure under 10% GBS in NER is of around 186%, from Rs.24,819 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 70,874 crore in 2021-22. The BE allocation for the year 2022-23 for NER under 10% GBS is Rs 76,040 crore.

During 2021-22, the expenditure tracking was meticulously done, by grouping the Ministries / Departments into three broadly functional categories and upgraded reporting through PFMS.Resultantly, the expenditure increased by Rs. 22,311 crore (46%) over the 2020-21 level ; and exceeded the target (104%) for the first time ever.

Ministry of DoNER has also been delegated the powers to recommend reallocation of resources to those Ministries who have higher absorptive capacity for 10% GBS expenditure in NER to enable fuller utilization of allocated resources. Under re-appropriation mechanism, the requests received for seeking additional funds for North Eastern Region from 2 Ministries/Departments, namely Ministry of Civil Aviation and NIPER, Department of Pharmaceuticals respectively were sent to Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance during 2021-22.

Assam: ’32 of every 100 girls in 20-24 age group were married before 18′

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Assamis reeling under a rise in the number ofchild marriagesdespite aprohibition lawso much so that 32 girls among every 100 in the state in the 20-24 age bracket were under 18 years at the time of their marriages and 12 among every 100 such child brides were either pregnant or have already become mothers, as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) for 2019-21.

According to NFHS-5, West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list of child marriages with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18. Five other states – Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana saw more than 30% child marriages in the said period.

The percentage of child brides in the same age cohort in the state as recorded in NFHS-4 for 2015-16 was one per cent lower, but the percentage of child brides who were pregnant or mothers was one per cent higher than that recorded in the last survey.

While child marriages are on the rise in Assam, nationally this social menace has reduced from 47 in 2005-06 to 26 in 2015-16, registering a decline of 21% points during the decade. During 2019-21, it declined further by 3% points to reach 23%, against Assam’s 32%.

Percentage of women in the country aged 20 to 24 years, who were married before 18 years of age, was 48 among the Hindus in 2005-06, which was one per cent higher than Muslims. But during 2019-21, the percentage was three notches higher for the Muslims (26) than the Hindus. The percentage for Christians declined from 26 in 2006-06 to 15 in 2019-21.

The Centre, in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha in 2020 said the practice of child marriages is largely due to the prevailing social customs, tradition, illiteracy, poverty, low status of women in society and lack of awareness.

Over 5k unauthorised religious structures in Odisha: Govt to HC

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The state government informed theOrissahigh court that the state still has 5,268 unauthorised constructions of religious nature on public land.
The high court had registered a suo motu case with the title ‘removal of unauthorised religious structures on public land’ on February 24, 2020, following aSupreme Courtorder. Accordingly, the high court was taking stock of the current status of the matter inOdisha. The government had filed an affidavit indicating the status of unauthorised religious structures on public land on the basis of reports received from the districts by November 30, 2022.

The state government had since framed a policy under which committees had been constituted at the district level to take a call on which structure needs to be removed or relocated or which ones can be regularised.

Vaazhndhu Kaattuvom project work inspected

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A team from the World Bank visited Trichy and reviewed the performance of women groups functioning from Manapparai, Thiruchendurai and Nagamangalam under the ‘Vaazhndhu Kaattuvom’ project in Trichy district.

This is an innovative World Bank-assisted project that aims at rural transformation through strategies that look beyond poverty alleviation by building sustainability and prosperity of rural communities through rural enterprise promotion, access to finance and employment opportunities in selected blocks of Tamil Nadu. The project is being operational in 135 village panchayats spread across blocks like Musiri, Anthanallur, Manapparai, Manikandam, and Thuraiyur.

Villages marked as forest in Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary satellite survey, ESZ in map

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Confusion prevails over eco sensitive zones in the forest fringes of Wayanad even after the publication of the map submitted by the state forest department to the Centre.

Many enclosure villages located inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) under Noolpuzha panchayat are demarcated as eco sensitive zone (ESZ) in the map published on Thursday. Adding to the confusion, many of these enclosure villages are designated as forest areas in the satellite survey.

“It is totally confusing.Four of our wards (1, 2, 3 and 12) in Vadakkadad area are entirely missing in the satellite survey as these areas are classified as forest.

But in the map prepared by the forest department, they are shown as ESZ,” panchayat president Sheeja Satheesh said.

Centre’s Rs 48-crore development plans for Karnataka’s Chamundi Hills draw greens’ ire

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The Union tourism ministry is proposing to invest Rs 48 crore under the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) and Rs 100 crore under Swadesh scheme to give a major facelift to the tourism infrastructure in the city.

In 2019, it was first proposed to develop Chamundi Hills under the PRASAD scheme at the total estimated cost of Rs 60 crore.However, the proposal was changed following opposition.Green activists are opposing any development works which affect the sacred and sensitive temple area.

According to available documents, development activities are proposed in six sites atop Chamundi Hills under the PRASAD scheme.This includes works worth Rs 20.65 crore in the Chamundi Temple premises.Rs 5.37 crore will be spent on pilgrimage facilities and Mahishasura plaza, Rs 1.51 crore for the development of Devikere, Rs 4.34 crore for the Nandi statue pavilion development, Rs 4.16 crore for redevelopment of foothills and Rs 1.34 crore for the development of viewpoints.

Irrigation water for 50L acres in 2-3 yrs

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As part of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Raos dream to supply irrigation water to one crore acres in Telangana, water to another 50 lakh acres will be provided in the next 2-3 years.

The government said 73 lakh acres had already been brought under irrigation in the last few years. In Mondaysbudget, the government earmarked 26,880 crore for completing pending irrigation projects in the state.

The government had taken up construction of 1,200 checkdams with an expenditure of 3,825 crore.

Central government will pay 689 crore to Andhra Pradesh towards GST compensation, says Nirmala Sitharaman

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The Central government has accepted that 689 crore is pending to Andhra Pradesh as GST compensation for the period between April and June, 2022 and this will be cleared in the near future.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while responding to a question raised by YSR Congress Party MP Vallabhaneni Balashowry in the Lok Sabha on February 6 (Monday) said, Taking into account the back-to-back loan of 2,311 crore in the 2020-21 financial year and 3,272 crore in 2021-22 fiscal year released to Andhra Pradesh in lieu of GST compensation and the release of bimonthly GST compensation from July 2017 to June 2022, only 689 crore is pending to the State toward GST compensation for the period April and June, 2022.

As per the provision of GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 and taking into account 1.10 lakh crore for FY 2020-21 and 1.59 lakh crore for FY 2021-22 released to States as back-to-back loan in lieu of GST compensation, the entire GST compensation dues of States including Andhra Pradesh has been cleared by the Central government till May 31, 2022.

During the 2022-23 fiscal year, the Central government decided to release full compensation up to May 31, 2022, despite insufficient amount in the Compensation Fund, by meeting the required balance from its own resources to the extent of 62,000 crore in May 2022 and 17,000 crore again in November 2022, to assist the States in managing their resources.

Hundreds of schools and around 40 colleges in Goa will be provided with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 kits, which will include a manual to help teachers to smoothly transition to the new policy.

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The GDP Foundation will be providing the kits in association with the directorate of education and the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT), and funded by Colorcon Asia.

The NEP 2020 kits will consist of the books Together Agile and NEP Agile (teachers edition) authored by Kishore Shah and launched by chief ministerPramod Sawantlast year.

The chief minister had then spoken about the need to make the books available in each and every school in Goa and invited companies to support the cause through CSR sponsorship.

The highlight of this programme is an outreach covering government, aided and unaided schools, besides colleges, across the state.

Policy for 38 Sainiki schools in Maharashtra to boost military enrolment

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The 38SainikiSchools inMaharashtrahave enrolled nearly 11,500 students in secondary sections, but when it came to these students taking admission todefenceinstitutes, the aim in setting up these schools, has not been up to expectations.

The Maharashtra State Council of Education Research and Training (MSCERT) has decided to survey all these schools and find out what has been lacking and frame a new policy. They hope to ensure a maximum number of students to join the defence services.

The schools provide military education but a review by the education department revealed that their performance in the last few years after their establishment was unsatisfactory.

Military schools in the state are residential schools and are fully subsidised from the year of approval.

Last year, the Union government decided to set up 100 new Sainiki schools for girls to join the armed forces and contribute to national security.