04.03.22

Khattar launches self-employment scheme for needy

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Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday launched the Mukhyamantri Shato Udyami Sarathi Yojana to help youth become self-employed.

Under the scheme, five experienced persons of the Society will be appointed as guides for 100 families and will make them aware of the benefits and take them forward. The guides with the spirit of social work will be known as sarthis (mentors). People wishing to serve the society will have to register themselves on the Samarpan portal, the CM said while addressing a gathering at the Mukhyamantri Antyodaya Parivar Utthan Mela on the premises of the SDM office in Gharaunda.

Khattar further said no person in the state would live below the monthly income of Rs 15,000 and for this, melas were being organised in all districts. He said 11 lakh such families were identified whose annual income is less than Rs 1.80 lakh and 160 such melas were organised in December last year. So far, 3.5 lakh people had benefitted from the scheme so far. Now, the second phase of these melas has started from March 2. At least, 250 melas will be organised till March 17.

Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur presents Rs 51,365-crore budget

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Himachal chief ministerJai Ram Thakuron Friday presented an Rs 51,365-crore budget for the financial year 2022-23.

In the election year, the chief minister has tried to woo every section of Society by making some announcements for them.

The budget for 2022-23 does not propose new taxes.
Honorarium of , village panchayats, zila parishad, panchayat samitis, anganwari workers and asha workers has been increased.

The social security pension amount has been increased and old age pension age limit has been decreased to 60 years. The budget includes 30,000 new jobs in 2022-23.

He said according to budget estimates, the total Revenue Receipts are expected to be Rs 36,375 crore and Revenue Expenditure is estimated at Rs 40,278 crore, with Revenue Deficit estimated to be Rs 3,903 crore.
The Fiscal Deficit is expected to be Rs 9,602 crore which is 4.98% of the states GDP.
According to the 2022-23 budget, out of every Rs 100, Rs 26 will be spent on salary, Rs 15 on pension, Rs 10 on interest payments, Rs 11 on loan repayments, Rs 9 for grants for autonomous bodies and remaining Rs 29 will be spent on other activities including capital works.

The CM said the state witnessed weak Health Infrastructure during the pandemic but the government faced all the problems.

He said the states health infrastructure was developed rapidly which helped Himachal Pradesh in fighting second and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the state had only two Oxygen Plants before the pandemic but now it has 48 plants and more than 5,000 oxygen concentrators.

He said it is matter of pride for Himachal Pradesh that Russian vaccine Sputnik is being produced commercially in the state.

He said the State Government has written a development story in the last four years despite many challenges.

The CM said that his government has tried to help each section of society through Ujjwala, PM Kisan Samman, Ayushman Bharat, Himcare, Sahara, Janmanch and many other schemes.
Thakur said that the Centre gave Rs 600 crore extra help to the state during 2021-22 for capital Investment and the Money is being spent to complete important projects.
The increase in capital investment has not only strengthened the state financially but also created many jobs.

He said the GDP in 2021-22 is expected to be 9.2% while the state had witnessed a negative Growth of 7.3% in 2020-21.

The Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture has witnessed growth of 3.9%, Industry 11.8% and service sector by 8.2% in 2021-22.

The economy of the state is expected to have a growth of 8.3per cent in 2021-22. He said such a growth despite pandemic is an achievement of the government.

The GSDP in the year 2021-22 is estimated at 1,75,173 crore and per capita income at is estimated at 2,01,854 which is more than the estimated national per capita income by Rs 51,528.

The CM said there is a provision of opening a single nodal agency account for all the Centre-funded projects so that all funds are released to the concerned departments accounts. All 91 projects of the Centre in Himachal are brought under purview of this scheme.
He said that Rs 12,921 crore outlay has been proposed for 2022-23, of which state development budget outlay will be Rs 9,534 crore and Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC development outlay will be Rs 2,400 crore, Rs 865 crore and Rs 152 crore respectively.

State needs special status to accelerate growth: Energy min

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State energy ministerBijendra Prasad Yadavon Thursday said in the legislative council that sincehas totally ignored the incremental improvement inBihar, it further increased the states claim for special status. He said Resources required for development would be easily available if special category status was accorded to the state.

The development index of different states varies at different levels. The Growth that Bihar has achieved in different sectors had not been taken into account by NITI Aayog. In 2004-05, 54.4% of the Population in Bihar was below POVERTY level and the number came down to 33.7% in 2011.

He added for Multidimensional Poverty Index, only two criteria in Education-sector”>Education sector had been taken into account. However, Bihar has made progress in different categories in this sector. In 2005, 5.6 lakh students had appeared for the Matriculation examination and the number increased to over 16 lakh in 2011. In the same time period, the number of students who appeared for Intermediate examination increased from 3.5 lakh to 13.51 lakh. Various schemes like cycle yojana and kanya protsahan yojana have led to huge jump in enrolment of girl students.

Govt to give 20k to first two daughters of labourers

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TheChhattisgarhgovernment has decided to give financial assistance of Rs 20,000 each to the first two daughters of labourer families for their Education, EMPLOYMENT and marriage.

Chief ministerBhupesh Baghelhad announced the scheme on Republic Day. To apply under Noni Sashaktikaran Sahayata Yojana, a labourer must be a permanent resident of Chhattisgarh and registered with the Chhattisgarh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. Only adult, unmarried daughters of labourers can avail of the scheme.

Besides, one or both parents of the girl should be registered with the labour board for at least a year. The dependent daughter, for whom the application will be filed, should not be registered as a beneficiary with any other department or BOC board, said officials.

The can be used for education of daughters, employment, skill upgrade, self-employment, and marriage.

The scheme is a step towards making Women self-reliant, said officials of the labour department. The financial assistance will be deposited directly in the bank accounts of the daughters.

Madhya Pradesh to launch drive to bring dropout girls back to school

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With the aim of re-regulating girls Education in the state, the Women and Child Development Department will launch ‘Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav’campaignfrom March 7.

The mainobjectiveof the campaign is to identify and ensure re-admission of the girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years, said the officials. It is a part of theBeti Bachao-Beti Padhaocampaign.
The goal of the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign launched in the year 2015 is to celebrate the birth of the girl child and to enable her by educating her. There is also a provision to provide protein, calorie-rich take-Home ration to school-aged adolescent girls for 300 days by the Women and Child Development Department.

The survey ofAnganwadicentres is conducted every year by the department in April through which information is collected about girls in the age group of 11- 14 years, who have left school, have not taken admission in school, have taken admission once but are not going to school, or have stopped going toschoolfor some time. Take-home ration is given to such girls.

Medical university bill to be tabled in Gujarat assembly

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In a move to usher in uniformity in medical Education in the state, theGujaratgovernment is set to introduce in the state assembly the Medical University Of Gujarat bill, which proposes to bring 400-odd medical and allied colleges under one university, which will exclusively oversee the functioning of medical colleges.

The move will bring drastic changes to medical education as it proposes that all MBBS, dental, physiotherapy, ayurveda, homoeopathy and Nursing colleges have common syllabi, academic calendar, examination and most importantly, a uniform pattern of processes and assessment.

If the proposed bill is ratified in the budget session of the Gujarat assembly, students who secure admission in the first year of medical, paramedical, ayurveda, homeopathy and nursing courses in the 2022-23 academic year will be inducted into the new medical university.
The proposed new medical university will follow the same procedure as the Gujarat Technological University (GTU).

100-day drive in Rajasthan to check use of tobacco products

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A 100-day action plan with 38 points will be implemented in the state for discouraging use of tobacco products in the state. It will be a major campaign run by the Health department along with NGOs to be implemented across the state from urban areas to rural areas.
A workshop was organised for implementation of the 100-day action plan at the State Institute of Health & Family Welfare(SIHFW).

One of the 38 points of the 100-day action plan was enforcement of provisions of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act 2003. On April 30, the health department will launch a drive for enforcement of COTPA-2003 to prevent its violation. Soni said action would be taken for violating the provisions of COTPA.

Besides, the health authorities will ensure that school campuses would be declared tobacco-free. The focus of the action plan for discouraging tobacco products will be on schools and children. In the state, children start chewing tobacco much earlier in comparison to smoking. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS)-4 released recently showed that the Median age of initiation of smokeless tobacco among 13 to 15-year-old is 7.6 years and for cigarettes it is 13.4 years. Besides, 9.3% of children are exposed to second-hand smoking in the state. Now, the health department will organize various competitions at village, block and district level for school students focusing on discouraging use of tobacco products.

1,350 projects worth Rs.15867.01 crore sanctioned for developmental schemes/packages in the North-Eastern Region during 2014-22.

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Several development projects have been taken up by the concerned Ministries and Departments of the Central Government in North Eastern Region (NER), which, inter-alia, include:

Road connectivity:Major ongoing Capital Road Connectivity projects in NER include 4Laning of Dimapur-Kohima Road (62.9 km) in Nagaland; 4 laning of Nagaon bypass to Holongi (167 km) in Arunachal Pradesh; Alternate two-lane Highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) (152 km) in Sikkim; 2 laning of Aizawl Tuipang NH-54 (351 km) in Mizoram; 4 laning of Imphal Moreh section of NH-39 (20 km) and 2-laning of 75.4 km in Manipur. A total of 4121 km of road projects have been completed by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in NER in the last 7 years (including 2021-22, upto December2022). Projects of length 7545 Km amounting to Rs.1,05,518 crore are ongoing.
Air connectivity:In the North Eastern Region 17 Airports have been made operational.

Recently Donyi Polo Airport (erstwhile Holongi Airport) has been inaugurated in Arunachal Pradesh. The development of new Greenfield Airports at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh; Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Silchar Airports in Assam; Imphal Airport in Manipur; Barapani Airport in Meghalaya and Agartala Airport in Tripura, etc are ongoing.

Rail connectivity:New projects of length 864.7 km amounting to Rs.19855 crore have been sanctioned in NER since 2014-15 till date. Presently, 20 projects, for new lines as well as doubling, costing Rs.74,485 crore for 2,011 km length falling fully/partly in North Eastern Region are at different stages of planning/ approval/ execution. Out of which 321 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs.26,874 crore has been incurred.

Waterway connectivity: River Brahmaputra from Dhubri (Bangladesh Border) to Sadiya (891km) was declared as National Waterway-2(NW-2) in 1988. The waterway is being developed with fairway of required depth and width, day and night Navigation aids and terminals. The facilities created and planned would cost Rs.461 crore during 5 years (2020-2025). River Barak was declared as National Waterway-16 (NW -16) in the year 2016. It connects Silchar, Karimganj and Badarpur in Cachar valley of Assam with Haldia and Kolkata Ports through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) Route. The facilities created and planned would cost Rs.145 crore during 5 years (2020-2025).

Telecom connectivity: Department of Telecommunications has also undertaken several projects in the North Eastern States for strengthening telecom connectivity in the region, which,interalia, include (i) Mobile Services in uncovered villages in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh (National Highways only) and seamless coverage along National Highway; (ii) Mobile connectivity in Meghalaya and along National Highways on 4G Technology; (iii) Mobile connectivity in Arunachal Pradesh and 2 Districts of Assam; (iv) Bharat Net and Wi-Fi Connectivity for Village Panchayats in North Eastern Region; and (v) Hiring of 10 Gbps International Bandwidth for Internet Connectivity to Agartala from BSCCL, Bangladesh via Cox Bazar. In the North Eastern States, 1,358 towers covering 1,246 villages have been installed and providing services.

34% decline in maternal deaths in Assam: NHM

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Assam has seen a steep (34% ) decline in maternal deaths compared to last year, while child deaths in the state have gone down by 13%, theAssam National Health Mission(NHM) said.

The number of maternal death cases in 2022-23 (May-February) was 448 against 680 in the corresponding period of 2021-22, showing a decline of 232 deaths. The number of child death cases in 2022-23 (May-February) has been reported as 5,805, while the corresponding figure was 6,721 in 2021-22 (May-February), a decline of 916 deaths or 13.6%.

According to the Registrar General of India’s ‘Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality’ for the period 2018 to 2020 released last year, Assam recorded 195 deaths per lakh live births, though it was an improvement from the previous figure of 215 in the period 2016 to 2018. Nationally, there has been a significant decline in theMMRfrom 130 in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20. In 2005, Assam’s MMR was 480 per one lakh live births.
Assam’s infant mortality rate (IMR) was 36 deaths per 1,000 live births as against the national Average of 28, as per theSample Registration System Statistical Report2020 published last year.