11.11.21

Creation Of New District Named Eastern West Khasi Hills District Approved By Meghalaya

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The proposal to create a new district called Eastern West Khasi Hills has been approved by the Meghalaya Cabinet.

Highlights:

The Mairang civil sub-division was upgraded to create the new district. Mairang will now be part of the West Khasi Hills district as a sub-division.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma will launch the new district on November 10, 2021. This will bring the state’s total number of districts to 12.

The proposal to create a new district called Eastern West Khasi Hills has been approved by the Meghalaya Cabinet.

The Mairang civil sub-division was upgraded to create the new district. Mairang will now be part of the West Khasi Hills district as a sub-division.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma will launch the new district on November 10, 2021. This will bring the state’s total number of districts to 12.

Assam: Subansiri dam to be operational by August next year

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National Hydroelectric Power Corporation(NHPC) has announced that the 2,000-MW Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border will start operation next year by August. It is the largest hydropower project under construction in the country with an annual power generation capacity of 7421.59 Million Units (MU).

Defying the protests relaunched by various organizations, including the AllAssamStudents’ Union, to halt the construction of the mega dam along the seismically active interstate-border zone, NHPC officials said that the all eight units of the dam would be operational by August 2023.

The project triggered a political storm and has been an issue in every election in the state since 2011. The opposition parties have cornered the ruling government, citing threat to life and property in the downstream areas of Assam from the dam. Construction had come to a halt in 2011 following massive protests. As per NHPC sources, due to the prolonged delay, the cost of the project escalated to around Rs 20,000 crore from the earlier estimate of Rs 6,900 crore.

The project is the first cascaded dam on the Subansiri. As per NHPC, it is primarily for with flood cushion and designed to moderate floods with integrated operation of proposed middle and upper projects.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik inaugurates OMFED’s Rs 263 crore milk processing plant

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Chief ministerNaveen Patnaik inaugurated a state-of-the-art and milk processing plant of theOdishaState Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (OMFED) atAriloin Cuttack district where 5 lakh litres of milk will be processed daily.

Set up over 51 acres of land, the automated plant has been developed by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) at an Investment of Rs 263 crore.

The plant will produce 2-lakh litres of milk, 30,000 litres of curd, 10,000 litres of butter milk, 5,000 litres of lassi and other products like butter, cheese, flavoured milk and milk powder.

Following the commissioning of the new plant, the existing plant in the city, which used to employ 550 staff, will now shut down. The new plant can employ 650 people.

The chief minister also reiterated that increasing income of farmers is the key objective of various programmes of his government. The state has been facilitating subsidy of up to Rs 50 lakh to promote establishment of more dairy and milk processing units in the state, said the chief minister, urging the people to take advantage of various government programmes.

Tamil Nadu: TNRERA-registered projects go up

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The number of housing projects registered with theTamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority(TNRERA) till October this year has exceeded the total number of projects that were registered in 2020.

While 765 housing projects were registered with the state’s real estate regulatory Authority between January and October, only 755 projects were registered from January to December in 2020.

A year before, 492 housing projects got registered for the entire 2019. All ongoing housing projects must be registered with the state’s real estate regulatory authority.

Western Ghats destruction noted since 1866

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As early as 1866, the famousBritishgeographer and explorerSir Clements Robert Markhamhad noted the environmental impact of the widespread practice of developingplantationson theWestern GhatsofKerala,KarnatakaandTamil Nadu. Perhaps his account could be one of the earliest critical documentation on the effects of the destruction of nature in Kerala.

The destruction of forests has been one of the chief agents in effecting changes in the earth’s surface, and the best methods of counteracting evils which may be caused by these extensive clearances is one of the most important questions that occupy the attention of physical geographers. This agency is now at work in the Western Ghats of India, those rich and beautiful mountain-districts forming the backbone of the Indian peninsula, and containing the sources of a water-supply, on which the prosperity – indeed, the very existence – of millions depends.

Farmer suicides in Karnataka at 25-year low due to good rain

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The number of farmers dying by suicide inKarnatakais at a 25-year low with copious rain enough for good yield and not too much to cause floods coming to the rescue of farmers in the past couple of years. The government attributes the dip in deaths to complementary farmer-friendly policies by the Centre and state.

From 1997 to 2021, the state has seen 47,871 farmers deaths by suicide. Data from the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department shows that between 1997 and 2019, the number of deaths in a year has been more than 1,000, breaching the 1,400 mark barring one year.

In 2014, the state saw 768 such deaths. In 2020, the state recorded 766 deaths, of which the government has accepted 583 as genuine and some cases are under investigation. Up to October of 2021, there have been 202 deaths with 99 having been accepted and the remaining under investigation.

The government has 65 lakh farmers on its Database. Constant Communication is carried out through SMSes about schemes.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh among top 4 states with higher petrol costs per litre

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The Centre may have decreasedpetrolprices, but the twin states ofAndhra PradeshandTelanganastill stand third and fourth in the country with higher costs per litre because of existing VAT.

There are several other states in the country where price of petrol is still higher than Rs 105. Despite state and central government price cuts, Rajasthan has the highest per litre fuel price in the country at Rs 111.10. The desert state is followed by Maharashtra (Rs 109.98), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 109.05), and Telangana (Rs 108.20).

Apart from these states, the price of petrol in Madhya Pradesh (Rs 107.23), Kerala (Rs 106.36), Bihar (Rs 105.90), and Punjab (Rs 105.02) are higher than Rs 105 per litre.
After the Centre dropped prices, all states and union territories, regardless of their cuts, saw a decrease in price ranging from Rs 6 to Rs 17. Petrol rates in Telangana reduced by Rs 6.29 and in Andhra Pradesh by Rs 6.10.

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala have not reduced their state VAT on petrol prices.

Polavaram project: Andhra Pradesh govt seeks urgent nod to revised cost estimates

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Making a strong case for getting final clearances from the Centre to the revised cost estimates for completion ofPolavaram projecton time, the has urged thePolavaram Project Authorityto play a proactive role in the removal of hurdles. The government also wanted thePPAto place all records before theJal Shakti ministryas well as the finance ministry to include water component in the total project cost.

The ministry of finance, in a Communication, has stated that claims of the state government should be restricted to the price level of 2013-14 only and thePolavaramProject Authority has to regulate the releases component-wise. Accordingly, it has worked out the component-wise eligibility for 2013-14 price level only.

Goa: In a 1st, biodiversity, climate change to be in Class IX, X portion

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In possibly a first in the country, Class IX and X students from 400 highschoolsin the state are set to learn aboutbiodiversityandclimate changeas part of their school curriculum from next academic year.

The Goa StateBiodiversityBoard (GSBB), through the state Environment ministry, and the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education entered into an MoU on Wednesday to promote awareness about and the importance of preserving the environment to human well-being.

The MoU will see awareness about biodiversity being raised among students from 400 high schools and later on, extended to students of 105 higher secondary schools affiliated to the Goa Board. This will mean at least 1 lakh students will be impacted.

Covid-19: Maharashtra weekly positivity rate at 1.35%, Punes WPR less than 3%

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The weekly positivity rate of the state has dropped to 1.35% for the seven-day period ending November 9, with Pune districts rate staying above 2%, said the public Health departments report presented in the cabinet.

Eleven districts in the state have weekly positivity rate (WPR) hovering between 1.50% and 2.50%.

State health officials said they were keeping a close watch in the post-Diwali period. The daily cases in the state are in the range of 800-1,000, with the active cases staying in the range of 12,000-15,000.