18.10.22

Haryana sets up ‘green war room’ to fight bad air

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TheHaryanaState Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has set up a ‘green war room’ for monitoring compliance of dust mitigation measures at construction sites and overall steps taken to mitigate Air Pollution.

The war room will operate 24×7 to monitor the state’s air quality throughout the winter.

HSPCB will periodically review compliance of the dust mitigation measures at construction and demolition sites.

The Graded Response Action plan (GRAP) for NCR has now been classified under four different stages of adverse air quality in Delhi reflected through the air quality index (AQI). Stage 1 is when AQI is ‘poor’ (201-300), Stage 2 when it is ‘very poor’ (301-400), Stage 3 ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450) and Stage 4 ‘severe plus’ (AQI over 450). Actions under Stages 2, 3 and 4 shall be invoked at least three days in advance of the AQI reaching to the projected levels of that stage, based on the dynamic model and meteorological forecast.

Punjab to come out with new affordable housing policy

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Punjab minister Aman Arora said the will come out with a new affordable housing policy whose draft has been uploaded on official website for seeking suggestions from the public.

The AAP government will not leave any stone unturned to fulfill the common man’s aspirations to own a dream house, said Arora, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister. The draft of ‘Punjab Affordable Housing Policy-2022’ has been uploaded on the official website for seeking suggestions from the public, he said.

In the new policy, the minimum area for a plotted colony has been fixed at five acres and for a group housing project at two acres, the minister said. The saleable area has been increased to 65 per cent as compared to 55 per cent in normal colonies to provide plots at affordable rates to common man, he said. The change of land use, external development charges and other charges have also been reduced to 50 per cent. Maximum plot size has been fixed at 150 square yards and maximum size of the flat will be 90 square metres, it said. Relaxation is being provided for parking norms to reduce the cost of construction, the minister said. He also said this policy will not be applicable in New Chandigarh (Mullanpur) area. To enable speedy clearances and other approvals, Arora said a single competent authority has been designated at local level irrespective of the size of the colony. All powers for approvals have been delegated to the chief administrators of the concerned urban development authorities, he said. The policy will also encourage promoters to get their colonies approved in hassle-free manner and will curb mushrooming of unauthorized colonies, he added.

Himachal polls on November 12; no dates for Gujarat as Election Commission goes by 2017 convention

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The Assembly poll in Himachal Pradesh would be conducted on November 12 while the counting of votes would take place on December 8, the of India (ECI) announced today. The poll panel, however, refrained from announcing the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha Elections, usually declared simultaneously with the hill state.

The term of the 68-member Himachal Assembly ends on January 8, 2023, and that of the Gujarat House on February 18 next year. In 2017, the commission had announced the Himachal elections on October 12 and in Gujarat on October 25. The counting was conducted on December 18.

NEP 2020 launched for higher education in Uttarakhand

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The Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami launched the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in higher education in Uttarakhand for the 2022-23 academic session.

Under the NEP 2020 children are being connected to formal education from the age of three years. After Learning in Bal Vatika for three years, the child will enter class I aged six years. For better and quality education to children from adolescence to the age of 21-22 years, Uttarakhand will have to move forward with a target of 40 lakh children. The State already has facilities for 35 lakh capacity in school education, higher education, technical education, medical-paramedical and other spheres. At a time when the nation is moving towards becoming Digital India, the higher education policy being made in Uttarakhand is a major step towards achieving this.

Nod to Uttar Pradesh Biofuel Policy-2022

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The Cabinet cleared two important policies aimed at taking the state’s economy to USD 1 trillion. As part of that, a nod was given to the UP Biofuel Policy-2022 and to the new MSME policy.

Urban development minister AK Sharma said that the biofuel policy would help in reducing pollution by preventing burning of municipal waste, agricultural and mandi waste and that from sugar mills. All this could be processed into biofuel, reducing the dependency on imported gas and oil and increasing farmers’ incomes.

The policy will be in place for five years and is expected to bring in of Rs 5,500 crore. It will include production of compressed biogas, biocoal, bioethanol and biodiesel. The incentive will mainly be provided on production,

For compressed biogas a subsidy of Rs 75 lakh per ton, up to a maximum of Rs 20 crore while on biocoal a subsidy of Rs 75,000 per ton up to a maximum of Rs 20 crore will be given. For Plants with an investment of Rs 50 crore or more, the government will pay for five km of the approach road.

Jharkhand: Right to property important for empowering women

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The is an important tool for empowering Women, especially in developing countries, saidSupreme Courtjudge JusticeB V Nagarathna. He also said despite reforms in laws to ensure equal rights to women in this regard, disparity still exists in Society.

She was delivering a speech on the topic The Evolution of Womens Right to Property in India: A facet of Empowerment during a state-level conference on Womens Right to Property, Road to Empowerment at the Judicial Academy.

Justice Nagarathna also said India is a land of diversity where property rights are governed by personal laws based on different religions. She stressed that even though the government has implemented legal reforms, the disparity in the inheritance of property is huge, particularly in rural areas.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar asks officials to assess crop damages, help affected farmers

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Chief ministerNitish Kumar asked the officials concerned to get an assessment of crop damage caused by scanty/excess rainfalls in the state and provide instant financial support to the affected farmers.

The chief minister issued the instruction after conducting a review of the situation with the officials of the departments concerned. We have always been helping the farmers in distress and this year as well, we are committed to provide them succor, the chief minister said, adding he had received information about the crop damage in many districts due to excessive rainfalls in the current month.

The department concerned received a total of 11,22,797 applications from farmers for availing diesel subsidy out of which Rs96.31 crores have been transferred to the bank accounts of 6,67,042 farmers.

Chhattisgarh govt approves draft policy for higher educational institutions in PPP mode

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TheChhattisgarh government approved the draft of a policy to set uphigher educational institutionsunder public-private PARTNERSHIP (PPP) mode to provide quality Education to youth from backward areas.

The cabinet has approved the proposed policy draft for setting up higher educational institutions underpublic-private partnership modeto increase the state’s gross admission ratio in the higher and to provide quality education facilities to the youth from backward and extremely backward areas.

Besides, the quantity of rice entitled under the ration cards (except APL cards) under the state scheme would be distributed free to beneficiaries in November and December.
The policy of paddy and maize procurement on support price in the Kharif Marketing year 2022-23 was also approved.

DefExpo: UP eyes 14 MoUs to bag 564cr investments

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To showcase its strength in the aerospace and DEFENCE sector, the has planned a series of events at the Def Expo 2022 to be inaugurated at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Tuesday. The nodal agency of the government, UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is expecting to secure investments worth Rs 564 crore by signing 14 memorandum of understanding agreements.

The biggest attraction to be offered by UPEIDA is the potential of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC), an aspirational project aimed at reducing foreign dependency of the Indian aerospace and defence sector.

Govt notifies rules to set up foreign varsity campuses in Gujarat’s GIFT City

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Paving the way for setting up foreign universities and Education institutions in theGIFTCity,Gandhinagarand Ahmedabad, the Centre has notified the regulations, allowing international branch campuses (IBC) and offshore educational centre (OEC) to “offer any programme identical in all respects with the course or programme conducted by the parent entity in its Home jurisdiction” and award identical degree, diploma or certificate.

As per the eligibility conditions put in place, aforeign universityshould have secured a position within Top 500 in global overall ranking and/or subject ranking in the latest QS World Universities ranking and in the case of foreign educational institution, it should be a reputed institution in its home jurisdiction.