13.04.23

Haryana to get 270 new PM-Shri schools by next year

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Under the Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India (PM-Shri) scheme, launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 270 PM-Shri schools will be opened in 135 blocks Haryana by the next year. Stating this, the states School Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar on Sunday said that the zero drop out policy is being worked out in the State to connect every child with the mainstream through education.

There will be no dropout in the State by next year. For this, about 48 lakh children in the age group of six to 18 years are being tracked to know the status of their education, he added.

The Minister informed that the new National Education Policy will be implemented in Haryana by 2025.

The National Education Policy has been prepared to impart education among children by imbibing values in them. Which was targeted to be implemented across the country by 2030 but Haryana is moving forward with the vision to implement it by 2025.

Punjab industries need green push: Report

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In a report prepared on the findings of the IHD and shared by Patiala-based forum Economists for Public Interest, Prof Lakhwinder said the increase in the states debt from Rs 1,009 crore in 1980-81 to Rs 3, 05, 361 crore in 2022-23, coupled with slow pace of development, heavy dependence on Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Industrial Sector, lack of public policy and evaluative institutions has impacted the economy.

He said the state, which stood at the first position in year 2000 in terms of per capita income, now ranks 10th. Its 4.7 per cent Growth rate of gross state domestic product (GSDP) during the period 2015-16 and 2022-23 shows that it has been growing at a slow pace. Consequently, the per capita income of Punjab is progressing slower than the national Average, he pointed out.

The states economy has over relied on agriculture. It urgently needs to harness new technologies. Punjab should focus on research and development (R&D) for a green industrial push, he said.

Will promote state as all-season tourist destination, says Sukhu

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Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today said that efforts would be made to promote and develop Himachal as an all-season tourist destination and Kangra as the tourism capital of the state.

Kangra district has beautiful Dhauladhar Mountains, famous shrines and scopefor adventure activities

There is a proposal to construct an international standard golf course at Pragpur village and beautification of Palampur

There is also a plan for a high-end resort, 24-hour tourism village, modern roller skating rink and a wellness centre

180 hectares identified at Bankhandi for a modern zoo to be built at a cost of Rs 300 crore

Under the Nai Rahein Nai Manzilein scheme, works worth Rs 20.59 crore being carried out in Kangra

Adventure tourism to be promoted at Pong Dam by introducing houseboats, cruises, yachts and water Sports

At almost 185% occupancy, UP, Uttarakhand jails ‘worst in country’: Report

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The prisoner occupancy ratio in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh jails is the worst in the country’, according to the India Report (IJR)-2022, released a few days ago by Tata Trusts. While Uttarakhand has a prison occupancy of 185% against capacity in its 11 jails, UP’s is at 184.8% and Madhya Pradesh at 164.1%, the report points out.
As per the report, which surveyed prisons in 18 large and mid-sized states of the country, southern states fare much better in terms of prison occupancy. Tamil Nadu is ranked best among all the states surveyed, with a prison occupancy of 76.4%, followed by Kerala (89.8%) and Andhra Pradesh (90.7%).

Uttarakhand, ranked at the bottom of the list, has a capacity of 3,741 in its 11 jails including the central jail, with 6,921 inmates lodged in them, as of December 2021, when the data was collected. The state’s prison occupancy was categorised as severe (150-185%) along with other states/UTs like MP, UP and Delhi.

Similarly, there were six states mentioned in the category of very high prison occupancy (120-150%) that include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand. Of the total 1,314 jails in India, 391 jails –30% — had a prison occupancy of over 150%, the report said.
In terms of the number of jails with over 150% occupancy, UP topped the list with 57 out of 74 jails, followed by MP with 40 (out of 131 jails) and West Bengal 36 (out of 60 jails).

The report also ranked Uttarakhand as ‘last’ in the category of availability of medical officers in jails. The Himalayan state has only one doctor for 6,921 inmates against the sanctioned positions of 10 doctors. Andhra Pradesh fared as ‘best’ in this regard with one doctor for every 418 inmates. Uttarakhand also had maximum vacancies (77.1%) for prison officers among all the 18 states. Kerala had the least vacancies with 6.9%.

Over 50% of ruralfamilies in 22 UPdistricts get tap water

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In a significant achievement, the Uttar Pradesh government has provided tap water connections to more than 50 per cent of rural families in 22 districts across the state under Har Ghar Nal Yojana.

These districts, among others, include Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Gorakhpur, the hometown of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Besides, seven districts from Bundelkhand region are incorporated in the list.

Under Har Ghar Nal Yojana, tap water connections were provided to 99,16,379 families in UP until Tuesday. The government aims to provide tap connections to 2,65,46,370 rural households by 2024.

The Namami Gange and Rural Water Supply department has also expedited the process to finish the task of providing tap water to every household in the remaining 53 districts in order to meet the target.

In terms of the number of tap water connections provided, Uttar Pradesh currently ranks third in the country, with 22 districts of the state having achieved more than 50 per cent of the target.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modis parliamentary constituency Varanasi, 50.79 per cent rural households whereas in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths Home district Gorakhpur, 58.57 percent households have started getting pure tap water.

Mahoba of Bundelkhand has topped among the districts providing tap water connections to more than 84.65 per cent of the rural households and 1,13,034 out of 1,33,529 families have been provided with tap water. It is followed by Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand where 73.03 per cent of the Population has been provided with clean tap water. Baghpat comes at third spot with 72.37 per cent of households getting tap water, followed by Mirzapur at number four with 71.84 per cent of households having received tap water connections.

All seven districts of Bundelkhand have been provided with more than 50 per cent of its tap water connection needs. In Jhansi, 71.21 per cent of households now have access to tap water. Chitrakoot (67.33 per cent) is fifth among districts providing maximum tap connections while Banda ranks sixth with 64.82 per cent of households getting tap water.

Jharkhand tops in desertification, land erosion in country, says ISRO

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Jharkhandis on top of the list of and land erosion in the country, according to theIndian Space and Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas (2015). It said Jharkhand has the highest area – 68.98% – under desertification and land degradation with respect to its total geographical area of 79, 716 km.

To counter the environmental loss, the space research organisation has said degraded forest and parched areas are to be covered withgreeneryalong with the implementation of Soil-moisture preservation measures.

As part of the corrective measures, the Gumla forest division is planning to undertake more plantation and silvicultural activities in the degraded and denuded forest patches apart from other activities.

Performance of Bihar’s VTR falls to good category

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The rating of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the latest tiger census report released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday plunged from very good to good category in management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) system.

VTR, the only tiger reserve inBihar, has scored 77.97% in the MEE, putting it at 38th position among the 51 assessed in the latest census report, titled Status of Tigers 2022.

The VTR is among only the three tiger reserves in the country whose performance has gone down. The other two tiger reserves include Nameri in Assam and Udanti-Sitanadi in Chhattisgarh. Altogether 14 tiger reserves have found place in good category under theMEE system.

Under the MEE system, all tiger reserves were assessed on a total 31 parameters, including integration of the tiger reserves in a larger landscape, compliance of statutory requirements, presence of a tiger conservation plan, mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts and assessment of threats.

This was the fifth cycle of MEE under the nationwide tiger estimation exercise in India. Altogether 28 tiger reserves were assessed in the first cycle in 2006, 39 in 2010, 43 in 2014, 50 in 2018 and 51 in 2022.

Skoch Award to Angana Ma Shiksha programme

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The Angana Ma Shiksha programme, started at the initiative of female teachers during lockdown in Chhattisgarh, has received the Skoch Award from the Indian government.

A core team of female teachers has been formed to create and administer the programme to provide it in every village in Chhattisgarh.

The fair has various counters where mothers can have their children tested and learn about the process of TEACHING and Learning at Home.

Walking on zigzag lines, colouring pictures, folding paper to make different shapes, identifying objects and arranging them in sequence, telling a story, describing a picture, counting, verbal addition, and subtraction are some of the planned activities.

Madhya Pradesh has lion’s share of central India’s tiger count jump

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Madhya Pradeshis at the heart of the rise of tiger numbers in the latest census released by PM Narendra Modi. The statewide figures may be released in July, but officers estimate MP’s tiger Population around 650-700.

If it turns out to be true, it means MP will retain its ‘Tiger State’ stripes. It already has the highest number of leopards and the only cheetah population in the wild.

The latest census shows a rise of 200 in the tiger count in the four years since the last census, and the central landscape has contributed significantly to this rise.

Despite natural deaths and “non-targeted killings” of tigers by traps and electrocution, forest officers in MP are confident of counting up to 700 tigers, an inspiring rise from 526 the 2018 census.

Madhya Pradesh is known as a ‘Tiger State’, a ‘Leopard State’, and now a ‘Cheetah State’ due to its forests, which must be conserved at any cost. The letter emphasizes that the repeated attacks on forest staff are not just against individuals but an attack on the state itself.

Gujarat govt set to announce policy to boost exports

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The Gujarat government has taken up an exercise to formulate a policy to boostexportsfrom the state. The state policy, which will adopt features of the Union Government‘s recently announced Policy (FTP), will among other things, incentivize goods and products which have export potential.

A state-level Export Promotion authority will shortly be formed, whose functioning will be monitored by a high-level committee headed by thechief secretary.

Similarly, export promotion committees will also be formed in each of the districts of Gujarat.

The FT of the Union government has laid Stress on developing districts as export hubs by setting up district export promotion committees and drawing up district export action plans for every district.

The Union government policy also has asked states and Union territories to set up state-level export promotion committees and ensure online monitoring of all district-level export action plans.

The most exported goods from Gujarat include petroleum products, organic and inorganic chemicals, gems and jewellery, engineering goods and the like.

Under the “Districts as Export Hubs Initiative” (DEH), products and Services with export potential, including agricultural and industrial products, have been identified in all 33 districts of Gujarat.