09.03.21

Environmentalists suggest Himachal Pradesh government to initiate steps to prevent global warming

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Following theUttarakhand glacier burst, the environmentalists in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh (HP) have brought government’s attention towards finding clean sources of energy, solvingglobal warmingissues, and dispelling myths about propagating hydropower projects as a clean Source Of Energy before it was too late.

The anaerobic decomposition of muck or the biological matter which deposits in the dam impoundments with flood water leads to the generation of methane gas which further contributes to , he said.

He said in Chamba district alone there were as many as five hydropower projects including Baira Siul, Chamera,1,2, 3, and Holi project.

The regional transport office (RTO) of Dehradun is planning to initiate a mega project to digitise all the data of the paper documents stored in its premises. The RTO presently has about 12 lakh files stored in various rooms of its building and as per the officials, the digitisation would make the data more accessible to the users and officials concerned besides making more space available in the office building. According to the assistant regional transport officer (ARTO), Dwarika Prasad, there are about 12 lakhs files of paper documents in the regional transport office which sometimes poses challenges in storing and retrieving these documents. The digitisation would make it easy to access the document of a particular file and would also help in making the RTO paper-free, asserted Prasad.

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He further informed that after a meeting with senior officials of the transport department next week, the RTO will plan the digitisation project. Moreover, the officials also informed that RTO has started an auto-approval facility for the drivers of the commercial vehicles with up to 10 seats through online mode for the forthcoming Char Dham Yatra as a part of digital Services in the transport office.

The transport office of Dehradun was set up in the year 1964 and files related to the vehicles, licenses, transport permits, fitness of vehicles are stored in it. Most of these files are stored in a big hall situated at the centre of the RTO building which is located on the Rajpur road. Hundreds of iron racks are placed in this huge store room in which these files stockpiled. Due to the space constraint in the store room many of these racks are placed in the galleries and other rooms of the office.

The Jharkhand Government will soon start issuing unique numbers for land holdings as part of an exercise to bring transparency and end dubious land ownerships.

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Chief Minister Hemant Soren made this revelation on Thursday during the ongoing budget session saying that the is working on a system under which plot of land will have a unique identification number. The CM said the problem, which is arising out over land receipt will be sorted out soon. The CM reiterated that by next Assembly session it will be sorted out.

Soren, while making a reply to the query made by BJP Khunti legislator Neel Kanth Singh Munda, said that unique identification number of land holdings will curtail illegal sale and purchase of land. Earlier, Munda raised the issue through Calling Attention Motion.

The CM said that illegal sale and purchase of around 300-400 acres of land by the land mafia will be checked.

Two new schemes to boost entrepreneurship among youth, women from April 1: Minister

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State industries ministerSyed Shahnawaz Hussainon Tuesday said to boost among Women and youths, Mukhyamantri Mahila Udyami Yojana and Mukhyamantri Yuva Udyami Yojana will be implemented from April 1 this year.

Talking about the upcoming scheme for women and youths, he said a maximum of Rs five lakh will be given as a loan and up to Rs five lakh as a grant. While women will not have to pay any interest on the loan, youth belonging to the general category will have to pay 1% interest. He further said there is a provision of a Rs 25,000 stipend for training purposes.

On the eligibility to get the benefit under this scheme, Shahnawaz said the beneficiary must be a resident ofBiharand should have a minimum qualification of intermediate, ITI, polytechnic diploma or equivalent. The minimum age is 18 years, and the upper age limit is 50 years. The unit should be either a proprietorship firm,PARTNERSHIP firm, limited liability partnership (LLP) firm or private limited company.

Centre to support MP healthcare expansion

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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the central government will provide full support for the expansion of health facilities in Madhya Pradesh. In a discussion held at the Chief Ministers residence this morning, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan assured the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that he will leave no stone unturned in the support extended by the Government of India in the expansion of health facilities in Madhya Pradesh.

Chouhan told Harsh Vardhan that 75 percent contribution from the central government should be given to the Cancer Institute of Jabalpur in the state. Currently this contribution is 60 percent, which should be increased.

The Chief Minister requested for an increase in the amount of central grant for the Cancer Institute of Jabalpur. Along with this, the Chief Minister urged for formal approval and cooperation for starting 3 new medical colleges in Damoh, Seoni and Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh. Chief Minister Chouhan told Harsh Vardhan that he had taken the initiative for opening new medical colleges several times in his previous tenures. After 1964, new colleges were not opened for a long time. The series started with the new medical college at Sagar. A provision has been made to start nine new medical colleges in the current budget.

Chief Minister Chouhan also discussed about better health facilities to the Bhopal gas victims with the Union Minister and requested for additional facilities. He also urged the center’s cooperation in the systematic operation of the hospital being run for the gas victims.

Chouhan informed the Union Health Minister that the plan is to administer the first dose of Covid to all eligible citizens in the next 35 vaccination days in Madhya Pradesh. About 81 lakh first doses will be required for this. So far, the state has received a total of 28 lakh doses of Covishield and 3.84 lakh doses of Covaxin. So far 15 vaccine doses have been applied so far. Around 8 to 10 lakh vaccine doses are required per week from the following week, so that the vaccination work can be completed by the first week of June within the stipulated time. The Union Health Minister said that dosages will be provided to Madhya Pradesh as per requirement.

Since the inauguration in 2018, Kevadia’s “Statue of Unity” in the Narmada region of Gujarat has exceeded 5 million visitors. Highlights:

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Indias first seaplane service from Gujarat began on October 31, 2020. This route connects the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad with the Statue of Unity in Kaivadia.

The Unity Statue was built to commemorate . Sardar Patel owned 560 princely states in India before independence, so the name of the statue was dubbed the “statue of unity”. It opened on October 31, 2018 to commemorate the 143rd birthday of Sardar Patel.

The Unity statue is the tallest statue in the world. Its height is 182 meters, which is 23 meters taller than the Buddha Statue in the Spring Temple in China and almost twice the statue of Liberty (93 meters high) in the United States.

New policy to ensure transfers in a time-bound manner, abolish desire system

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The will be introducing a new transfer policy, under which thetransfersin alldepartmentswill be done in a time-bound manner and it will abolish the desire system.

The Administrative Reforms department (ARD) has sought suggestions from all government departments to prepare a draft of the policy. Once transferred to a new place/department, anemployeecannot seek a transfer for two years.

Under the new transfer policy, transfers will be made time-bound and the entire process will be become online. This is a big policy change that we are going to introduce. It will be a transparent process under which all the departments will list out vacancies in respective departments. The employees working under all departments can apply for transfers up to a certain time-period, mentioning apostingof their choice.

A fixed time-period for transfers will also be worked out, for example, it could be held from April 1 to June 30. In that case, the departments will have to put up the number of vacancies on their websites or notice board by March 15. The employees will have to submit their applications by March 31.

A complaint with regard to a transfer will be resolved within 45 days of submitting an application, provided the employee joins the new post. With one year left of retirement, the person will not be transferred.

The policy is not likely to be applicable to the employees of the secretariat, Governors secretariat, assembly secretariat, Police department, Home DEFENCE and home guard employees with uniform. Presently, transfer policy exists inUttarPradesh,Punjab,Haryana,GujaratandHimachal Pradesh.

Municipal Performance Index by Union Ministry

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Municipal Performance Index 2020 has been released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Highlights:

The 2020 Municipal Performance Index (MPI): MPI reviewed the sectoral performance of 111 cities in five verticals (Delhi was evaluated by NDMC and three municipal companies).

These verticals consist of 20 industries and a total of 100 indicators. The five vertical areas under MPI are service, finance, policy, technology and Governance.

City ranking:

According to the assessment framework of MPI 2020, cities are classified according to their populations of “million+” (cities with a Population of more than one million) and “population of less than one million”.

In the “Millionaire” category: Indore has become the highest-ranked , followed by Surat and Bhopal. In the “less than a million” category: The New Delhi Municipal Council has become the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.

Earliest cotton in Arabia came from India: Study

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For about 600 years, Mleiha was the political centre of southeast Arabia before it was abandoned in the 3rd century CE. And for decades, the emergence of the tropical plant in the arid Arabian peninsula has been aquestion archaeologistshave tried to answer. Oman, they had concluded, was the source of the ancient Arab cotton trade. But now, scientists from the Museum of Natural HISTORY in Paris have found evidence in Mleiha that the earliest cotton in the Arab region came fromnorthwest India.

The irony, however, is that a fire which ravaged one of its most important buildings of Mleiha is also what preserved it for posterity. Within this Unesco World Heritage Site in the United Arab Emirates lies a tableaux frozen in fire. Its a mud brick building with 15 rooms around a central courtyard with signs of a life hastily abandoned in forgotten objects and prized possessions carelessly thrown around, and, the evidence of an ancient Indian trade route, cotton specifically, 31 whole seeds, 79 fragments and 7 raw fibre clusters.