13.01.22

Punjab assembly polls: Dera Bassi tops with 2.81L voters

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The Dera Bassi constituency tops the state in terms of the total number of voters, male voters, female voters and third gender voters.

Perusal of the final electoral rolls available at the official website of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab, suggests the constituency has the highest number of voters (2,81,864) in the state, while Bholath is at the bottom (1,35,245).

Further, Dera Bassi has the highest number male voters (1,47,998), while Bholath has the least (68,735) in the state.

Dera Bassi also tops with 1,33,840 female voters, while Bholath sits at the bottom with 66,509 voters. Similarly, Dera Bassi has the highest number of third-gender voters (26), while Ghanaur, Raikot, Majitha, Sri Hargobindpur and Bhoa dont have a single voter in the category. The state has a total 2,12,75,066 voters.

SJVN to enter power trading business

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The Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam will enter power trading business as the (CERC) has granted the trading licence to SJVN Limited for inter-state trading of electricity.

The SJVN meets the requirements of the Act and the Trading Licence Regulations for inter-state trading licence, said Chairman and Managing Director, SJVN, Nand Lal Sharma in a release issued.

The trading licence had added another feather to the SJVNs cap, giving a big boost to its business and the SJVN would now trade electricity generated by any companies, he said.

Uttarakhand’s three-cornered contest may spring surprises in 2022 elections

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The 2022 are likely to be a triangular battle inUttarakhand.Congressand BJP are directly pitted on majority of the 70 seats while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expected to throw a challenge in select urban pockets of the state like Dehradun.

While incumbent BJP is depending heavily on the ‘Modi mantra’ to form a government again, the party is also hoping that a youthful CM face in the form ofPushkar Singh Dhamiwould enable it to reach out to voters effectively and blunt anti-incumbency. Accordingly, the party’s poll tagline is that a young state like Uttarakhand, which turned 21 this year, needs a ‘young and energetic’ CM. At the same time, the party is also highlighting central projects like Kedarnath redevelopment, Char Dham all-weather road and Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail project as indicators of the ‘double-engine’ development they have brought about, with the Centre and the state synergising with each other, something which they claim would not have happened if two separate parties were in power.

Digital poll campaign adds a new flavour to UP polls

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The result date of 2022 UP assembly , March 10 or Dus March, has suddenly become the fulcrum of the poll campaign blitz for every major political outfit in the poll-bound state.

Dus March has become the buzzword around which leaders of most parties have launched their campaigns on digital and Social Media adding a new flavour to this edition of the state elections. Digital posters have some themes in common all parties are claiming to form the government on that date and messages are being conveyed in a very creative manner.

The digital posters are shared extensively by Political Parties, their leaders, cadres and supporters on the social media.

Voice to include ‘Mathili’ for jobs in Jharkhand gains momentum

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International Maithili Council (Antarrastriya Maithili Parishad) has demanded from the Jharkhand government to add Mathili language to the list of regional languages that could be opted by candidates for job examinations to do district level posts.With more voices, Maithili speaking people of different constituencies raised their voices to support their demand. They threatened to conduct a strong movement across the state, informed Arun Pathak, a member of the Antarrastriya Maithili Parishad.

Notably, Maithili is the second and has a place in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Over lakhs of Maithili-speaking people are residing in Jharkhand, he said.It was decided that the members of the Parishad would meet the Chief Minister to submit a memorandum soon after the Coronavirus impact diminished.

Air quality in four Bihar cities back to pre-Covid levels: Report

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Most cities in the state recorded a rising trend in annual particulate matter (PM)2.5 level in 2021 after the initial drop in Air Pollution level in 2020 due to Covid-induced lockdown, as per new analysis of regional pollution trends done by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The analysis, released recently, showed that Muzaffarpurs annual Average of PM2.5 had jumped from 74 micrograms per cubic metre (g/m3) in 2020 to 78 in 2021 whilePatnas annual average of PM2.5 rose to 75 in 2021 against 64 g/m3 in 2020. The annual average of PM2.5 level in Hajipur was 60 g/m3 and it was 49 g/m3 inGaya.

The national limit is 40 micrograms while the World Health Organisations recently set annual standard for PM2.5 is 5 micrograms. PM2.5 are tiny particles in the air that reduce visibility and trigger several diseases, including fatal ones like cancer.

Cgarh seeks hike in MNREGS labour budget

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Keeping in view the fast pace of work under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural EMPLOYMENT Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in the state, the Chhattisgarh government has urged the Union Government to increase the labour budget.

On the instruction of Panchayat Minister T.S. Singh Deo, MNREGS Commissioner Kaisar Abdul Haq wrote to MNREGS Director in the Union Rural Development Ministry to increase the labour budget for the state.

Many of the districts in Chhattisgarh have achieved the desired target well before the end of the current financial year, he said.

Some districts have already generated the target employment in December while some are going to complete it in January 2022, the official said. The official demanded an additional sanction of labour budget for 2.39 crore human days. At the beginning of the financial year, a budget of 13.5 crore human days was sanctioned for Chhattisgarh.

With the new allotment, the total employment generation would increase to 15.89 crore human days, he said.

Madhya Pradesh first in Jal Jeevan Mission scheme

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Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the works of providing pure drinking water to the urban and rural Population of the state should be completed within time-limit. According to the targets set in the roadmap prepared for self-reliant Madhya Pradesh, the works of all the tap water schemes in the state should be completed.

The Chief Minister said that engineers should be posted in villages for better maintenance of the schemes. He directed to encourage the concerned agency and officers-employees for timely completion of works in mega project works. Chief Minister Shri Chouhan said that strict steps would be taken against the guilty by fixing the responsibility for the delay in works. After the completion of the work of tap water schemes, special Gram Sabhas will be organised in the villages and the village will be declared as Har Ghar Jal category village. On completion of the construction works of the scheme, the scheme will be transferred to the concerned Panchayat. The officials of the Village Water and Sanitation Committee will also interact with the villagers. Letters of gratitude will also be sent to Prime Minister Shri Modi by the villagers for implementing such an ambitious and useful scheme.

Chief Minister Shri Chouhan was reviewing the activities of Public Health Engineering Department in Mantralaya on Monday. Chouhan said that setting up of pipelines at places where water sources are not successful is an irregularity. Punitive action will be taken in such cases.

Gujarat government nod for coastal highway

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The state cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned a sum of Rs 2,440 crore for developing a coastal highway which will ensure better connectivity to places of tourist interest along the coastline. spokesperson, JituVaghani, said that a new road will be constructed from the Statue of Unity (SoU) toShabri Dhamin South Gujarat at a cost of Rs 1,570 crore.

Providing information, the Education minister, said that the135-kilometre long coastal highway will connect Ubhrat,Tithaand Chorwad. He added that a new link will be set up from Khambhat to Ambli to ease traffic movement between Saurashtra and South Gujarat.

Childline Umeed got 4,000 calls last year

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Umeed helpline, which was launched by thestate child rights commissionin collaboration with NGOs in January last year to helpchildrendeal with mental Health issues, received approximately 4,000 calls in the last 12 months.

The callers included parents as well as children who want to seek help for problems like Stress, anxiety, addiction to mobile phone, etc.

So far, more than 2.5k callers have received counselling.
More than 1,000 children required counselling for academic issues, which had cropped up during the pandemic.

While 44% of the counselled callers were children between 12 and 18 years, 24% parents were among those councelled. The maximum number of callers were from Dungarpur with over 900 calls. Till last year, the helpline worked six days a week but from this year it will be operational between 10am and 7pm on all days.