11.08.21

Mizoram among states with best quality of life for elderly: ReportMizoram, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh are among the top states and union territories in terms of quality of life of their elderly population, as per a report. The report titled ‘Quality of Life for Elderly Index’, prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness, categorises states as ‘aged’ — with an elderly population of more than 5 million — and ‘relatively aged’ (elderly population of less than 5 million).

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Himachal Pradesh led the relatively aged list, while Uttarakhand and Haryana were ranked second and third, respectively. Chandigarh and Mizoram were the top scorers in union territory and north-east states categories. On the other hand, Telangana and Gujarat scored the least in the aged and relatively aged states categories. Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were placed at the bottom in union territory and north-east states segments.

It also includes eight sub-pillars — economic empowerment, educational attainment and employment, social status, physical security, basic health, psychological well being, social security and enabling environment.

The government has not taken any decision on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) for the whole country, Union minister Nityanand Rai said inParliament. He, however, said the government has decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) under the Citizenship Act, 1955, along with the first phase of Census 2021.

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“Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at national level,” Rai said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

So far, theNRChas been updated only inAssam. When the final list of the NRC was published in 2019, a total of 19.06 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were excluded, triggering a huge political row.

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.
The NPR is a register of the usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (village and sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national levels under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

Buoyed by its successful association with Indian hockey, theOdishagovernment on Monday decided to build 89 multi-purpose indoor stadiums within 18 months at an estimated cost of Rs 693.35 crore.

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The disaster-prone coastalstatehas decided to construct the stadiums in such a way that these can also be used as cyclone and flood shelters if needed.

For health emergency, the sports facilities can also be converted into 50 to 100-bed field hospitals, the need of which was felt during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Government sources said two models would be followed while building the stadiums. For smaller townships or notified area councils (NACs), the structures will be comparatively smaller, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 6.40 crore each.

For municipal towns and cities, these would be bigger and cost around Rs 10.15 crore each.

Against the backdrop of continuous shortfalls in GST collections and its reimbursement to the state, coupled with a stand that the One Nation One Tax snatched away states autonomy, theTamil Nadugovernment hinted at changes after June 2022, when the Centre will stop compensating the state government for shortages in tax collections.

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When the GST kicked in in 2017, the Centre promised to compensate states that faced a shortfall in tax collections for five years. The dues for TN as of March 2021 were Rs 20,033.02 crore.

Keralawill have to treat theIPCC reportonclimate changereleased on Monday with due importance as what has been mentioned in the report is a reality here. The report talks of sea level rise as already happening across the world and also warns that climate change has set in. TheNASAreport on sea level rise includes cities likeKochiwhere the projected rise is about 1-3 ft by the end of the century. Experts said that coastal states will feel the impact not only by sea intrusions but also increasingsalinityingroundwatersystems.

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A one-degree rise in temperature could trigger an increase in average rainfall events by 7%. Kerala is more urbanized than many cities in the country and hence development should now be keeping in mind that climate change has already set in.

HC to Karnataka govt: Place on record orders passed on lawmakers

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The high court directed the state government to place on record orders passed regarding withdrawal of cases against MPs and MLAs after September 16, 2020.

This comes a day after theSupreme Courtorder stipulating that no case against an MP orMLAcould be withdrawn without the consent of high courts.

A division bench headed by chief justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka pointed out that as per directions of the apex court, legality of the actions taken by the state government after September 16, 2020 for withdrawal of prosecution against a sitting or formerMP/MLAwill have to be considered and for facilitating the same, the state is required to furnish details.

Sweeping changes are expected in the next round of auctions forliquorshops, including licenses for 200 more stores.

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Auctions for the next two years will be held in October this year, and the excise department is currently working on a newpolicy.

The excise department intends to develop a new policy by the end of next month. More than 80 new bars were permitted after the formation of the state, but none of them opened for various reasons.

As the number of licenses for liquor shops have remained constant since the states inception, officials are proposing a change this time by adding licenses for 200 more stores.
These shops will primarily be located in new mandals, municipalities, and areas, where more melas and festivities are held on a regular basis.

The Centre on Tuesday made it clear that there will not be any increase in the number of seats to legislative assemblies ofAndhra Pradeshand Telangana till 2026. This in other words means that the next elections to the state assemblies of Telangana (2023) and Andhra Pradesh (2024) will be held as per the existing number of seats.

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This is despite the promise made toTelugustates in Section 26(1) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, that the number of seats in bifurcated AP will be increased to 225 from the present 175 and in Telangana to 153 against 119.

Telugu states anticipated that the seats would be increased before the first general election post-bifurcation. However, it did not happen and is not going to be a reality even for the second and third general elections too. The minister said that as per Article 170(3) of the Constitution, the total number of seats in the Assembly of each state will be readjusted after the first census is published post the year 2026.

As the next delimitation of the Assembly andParliamentseats is scheduled for 2026, the central government had decided to ignore Section 26(1) of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, he said.

Marred by delay in allocation of funds and faulty prioritisation of projects, the Centres ambitiousSmart City Missionappears to have floundered in Goa. Five years afterPanajiwas put on the fast track to smartness on the basis of a Rs 608.4 crore planned outlay, theUnion ministry of housing and urban affairs(MoHUA) said that just Rs 16.2 crore has been spent till date on 10 projects, most of them being beautification works.

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The Centre also said that seven big ticket projects worth Rs 330 crore are about to be awarded to contractors while two projects worth Rs 40 crore are likely to be tendered in the coming weeks. The information was given by the minister of state Kaushal Kishore in a written reply inRajya Sabha.

The Rs 63 crore underground power cabling project in Ribandar began at a good pace, but has been stagnant since former chief executive officer Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri was dropped from the post.

One of the prominent reasons for the delay in executing projects was the lethargy by the state government in transferring funds toIPSCDL, which is the special purpose vehicle that is executing the Smart City Mission in Goa.

As per the MoHUA website, Goa has transferred Rs 113 crore to IPSCDL till date as its share towards the Smart City Mission.

TheMaharashtragovt has initiated discussions with Air India to purchase its iconic building located in the Nariman Point area of the city.

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The debt-ridden AI had floated tenders for the sale of the 23-storey building in 2018, which stands on stategovernmentland, but failed to evoke a good response. AI officials toldKuntethat their internal valuation of the building was more than Rs 2,000 crore to which Kunte asked them to share it with the state govt, official sources said. An official said that the govt had written to AI, quoting a price of Rs 1,450 crore. The actual price would have been around Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,200 crore since the govt dues from AI are around Rs 300 crore.