09.03.21

MHA: Dont tag Myanmarese entering India as refugees

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The ministry of home affairs (NE Division) has written to the chief secretaries ofNagaland,Arunachal Pradeshand Manipur, which share borders with Myanmar, saying that an illegal influx fromMyanmarhas started and that the three states should not to grant refugee status to any foreigner.

The letter also instructed the three states and the Assam Rifles, the India-Myanmar border guarding force, to stay alert and take appropriate action to prevent a possible influx from the neighbouring country into Indian territory.

The ministry said in 2017instructionswere issued to the chief secretaries of all state governments to sensitise all law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take prompt steps to identify illegal migrants and initiate the deportation processes without delay. MHAs foreigners division had also issued similar instructions to the chief secretaries advising them to restrict illegal migrants to specific locations, capture their biographic and biometric particulars, and cancel fake Indian documents.

Mizoram CM Zoramthanga had earlier said the state government and people of Mizoram would welcome any ethnicMizoor anyone being persecuted for participating in the pro-democratic movement in neighbouring Myanmar.

320 hectares of Assam forest land encroached: Assam forest department

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The Assamforestdepartment has admitted before the Gauhatihigh courtthat 320 hectares of reserved forestlandofLongai Reserved ForestinKarimganjdistrict have beenencroachedby people fromMizoram.

The petitioners advocate said the divisional forest officer in its affidavit stated that about two/three families from Mizoram encroached upon 7.58 hectares of the reserved forest land at Chutobubirbond inside Singla reserved forest along the Assam-Mizoram Border and constructed temporary houses and also raised cash crops during the Covid-19-induced lockdown. However, they were evicted and the area was cleared.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launches Mo College campaign

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Chief minister Naveen Patnaik launched Mo College Campaign to make higher education eco-system more organic and innovative. It will connect Odia alumni across the globe to their alma maters in Odisha.

He launched Mo College web portal on virtual platform and appealed the Odia alumni to help to rebuild their own institutions. He hoped that Mo College will bring a similar response like Mo School.

Tamil Nadu police slip to fifth place in justice delivery

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Tamil Nadu, which in 2019 ranked second in the overall delivery of justice by police after Maharashtra, slipped to fifth place in 2020. The second edition of India Justice Report (IJR), an initiative by the Tata Trust, saw Karnataka topping with a score of 5.71 out of 10, closely followed by Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. TN police scored 5.40 of 10.

The report, which ranks states based on indicators such as structural availability of resources, staff, diversity, budget allocation and vacancy levels, highlights strengths and weaknesses of each pillar in the state, encouraging internal assessments for introducing positive changes.

In terms of gender parity, 18.5% of constables in TN, while it was 24.8% of officers were women. On capacity building, IJR says police personnel per training institute is an indicator to measure adequacy of training institutes and that TNs 23 institutes train an average of about 5,400 personnel each.

BS Yediyurappa may leave tax rates unchanged in new budget

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Chief ministerBS Yediyurappais under pressure to fill a large revenue gap in the states finances, but he is unlikely to raise taxes in the forthcoming budget.

The government, experts say, should instead focus on generating more revenue from non-tax sources such as asset monetisation and leverage an additional borrowing window provided by the Centre.

The government had expected tax revenues of more than Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2020-21, but it is likely to miss the target by at least Rs 5,000 crore because of the economic disruption triggered by the pandemic. Revenue from commercial taxes and duties on liquor sales has improved strongly, but stamp & registration duty and motor vehicle tax collections have lagged.

Karnataka has limited scope to alter taxes in the GST regime. It can propose rates for only commodities such as petroleum products and liquor, apart from property and vehicle registration.

Our Food, Telangana govt to setup 20,000 micro food processing units

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Our Food, a Hyderabad-based agri-tech startup, on Friday announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with theTelanganagovernment to setup over 20,000 micro food processing units atfarm levelacross the state.

As part of this agreement, Our Food will collaborate with the state government to set up these units to cover all the major crops such as rice, pulses, groundnut, millets, turmeric and chilli. The food processing equipment would be manufactured at Our Foods manufacturing facility in Zaheerabad.

According to the startup, these units will generate rural employment and also increase opportunities to improve farmers incomes. The startup has also partnered with financial institutions for this initiative, which will help the rural youth meet their finance requirements.

The collaboration is expected to generate direct employment for at least 40,000 rural youth and indirect employment for at least 60,000 people.

New terminal of Vijayawada airport will be completed by March 2023: Aviation minister

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Union minister for civil aviationHardeep Singh Purihas said that the under-construction integrated terminal atVijayawada airportwould be completed by end of March 2023.
The work for the terminal has already begun at the airport at an estimated cost of Rs. 611.80 crore.

As part of the approval, the new terminal building, air traffic control (ATC) tower, apron, link taxiway and other construction works would be taken up.

National Games projects to be ready soon, Rs 150 crore for organisation: Chief minister Pramod Sawant

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Chief ministerPramod Sawanthas assured theNational Gamesorganising committee that there would be no shortage of funds for the conduct of the much-delayed event, as and when it happens.

The 36th edition of National Games in Goa has been delayed since 2016 with no word yet on when the Games can take place. While initially the Games were delayed because theinfrastructurewas not ready, the coronavirus pandemic has made it worse.

The organising committee has drawn up a budget of Rs 202 crore for theorganisationof the Games and remain hopeful that the shortfall would be covered at a later stage.

The organisational costs include accommodation, ceremonies, marketing, technology support, venue operations, transport, administration and volunteer management.

The state government has constructed several sports facilities across the state, first for theLusofonia Games 2014and later the National Games. Most of the infrastructure is out of bounds for regular training with the Sport Authority of Goa (SAG) incurring heavy expenditure on maintenance.

Centres 5-step strategy to curb surge in Maharashtra districts

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At a review meeting conducted by the Centre on Saturday, officials from 25 districts in the state that account for 60% of the Covid-19 cases over the past week in the country were directed to isolate as many asymptomatic patients as possible in institutional facilities.

In a related development, the Centre declined to share results of the genome sequencing of 100 swab samples from Nagpur district, said sources in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The Centre also reportedly stated that there was no need for different standard operating procedures (SOPs) to contain the double mutant variant of the virus. It directed the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and district administration to implement year-old SOPs in an effective manner.

The state task force too gave a slew of suggestions to contain the second wave, from closure of public places like Juhu beach to a limited lockdown in Mumbai. One member suggested reducing train services to discourage travel for any reason apart from work or medical causes.

Punjab lags in maternal healthcare: Economic Survey

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ven as the Captain Amarinder Singh-ledPunjabgovernment has been stressing on improving health facilities, the state has been found lagging behind inmaternal healthcare, a key indicator of healthcare facilities of any state.

Though Punjab is performing at par with thenational averagebut is behind other states in maternal mortality rate (MMR), according to the latest PunjabEconomic Surveyreport.
As per the data, MMR in Punjab stands at 122 per lakh live births, which is at par with the national average. On the other hand, Kerala has a mortality rate of 42 per lakh live birth, lowest in the country. It is followed by Maharashtra with MMR of 55 per lakh live birth, 63 in Tamil Nadu, 74 in Andhra Pradesh, 87 in Gujarat and 98 in Haryana.

In Punjab, 30.7% of all expecting mothers received all types of recommended antenatal care against the national average of 20.9%. In Kerala, as high as 61.2% of expecting mother received antenatal care, 45% in Tamil Nadu, 43.9% in Andhra Pradesh and 32.4% in Maharashtra.

To strengthening maternal healthcare, the state government in the budget allocated Rs 65 crore for the construction of eight new maternal and child health wings at sub-divisional hospitals of Talwandi Sabo, Nabha, Patti and Derabassi and district hospitals of Muktsar and Gurdaspur, and community health centres of Bhawanigarh and Raikot. Besides, Rs 57 crore has been given for the completion of the construction work of the nine maternal and child health wings proposed in the budget for the year 2020-21.

The state fares much better than the national average and other states in terms of expenditure incurred on delivery in public health facilities. The average out of pocket expenditure per delivery in Punjab stands at Rs 1,890 against the national average of Rs 3,197. Whereas in Kerala the expenditure stands at Rs 6,901 per delivery, Rs 3,578 in Maharashtra, Rs 2,322 in Andhra Pradesh and Rs 2,136 in Gujarat.