19-20.09.21

Karbi Anglong DIET receives influential award

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The District Institute of Education & Training, Karbi Anglong has been given the celebrated award of ‘District Green Champion Certificate for 2020-21’ by Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education Government of India. The acknowledgement was made for accomplishing the ‘Beat COVID Campaign’ commenced by MGNCRE, Hyderabad.

The institution has also received appreciation from MGNCRE, Ministry of Education, Government of India, for encouraging occupational schooling and empirical education and community engagement in teacher’s education. Bobby Ronghangpi and Junaka Rongpharpi implicated the student volunteer teams as nodal officers of MGNCRE, and performed as mentors of the sanitation & hygiene team.

Assam CM to help Centre end stalemate in Naga peace talks

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Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is likely to meet NSCN (IM) supremo Th Muivah at Dimapur in Nagaland on Tuesday to try and break the deadlock with the group over its two demands a separate Naga flag and constitution and set the ground for concluding the 24-year-old peace process with a settlement.

Though the MHA has so far not spelt out Sarmas role, this is a fresh attempt to get Muivah on board through a political functionary (Sarma), who is the convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), ahead of next years assembly election in Manipur where Nagas are the biggest block of voters in 20 of the 60 seats.

The State Government has sought scaling up of allocation from the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to the extent of Rs 10,000 crore to boost rural infrastructure.

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Finance Principal Secretary Vishal Dev is coordinating such an effort as NABARD is allocating funding under various programs such as Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), Rural Infrastructure Assistance to State Governments (RIAS) Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF) and Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF).

Out of Rs 10,000 crore, breakup is Rs 5,000 crore from RIDF, Rs 4,500 crore from RAIS and Rs 500 crore from LTIF programmes. Recently, Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra has also written to the NABARD Chairman to hike the RIDF allocation. During 2021-22, Odisha got allocation of Rs 3,000 crore under RIDF and received sanction of Rs 1,287 crore.

However, looking at the demand for more rural infrastructures, the State Government has intimated the NABARD to allocate Rs 5,000 crore under the RIDF programme.

TheTamil NaduandKeralagovernments on Friday agreed to set up technical sub-committees to assess the Nirar-Nallar multipurpose straight-cut scheme to avoid a long circuitous route and convey water from Upper Nirar to river Nallar. The discussions included building a new dam under Pandiyar-Punnampuzha project to divert water to Noyyal and Bhavani basin in Tamil Nadu. This was one of the decisions taken during a bilateral talk between the secretaries of water resources of both states through video-conference. The meeting was very positive.

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Kerala government officials suggested having next round of talks between ministers or chief ministers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu PWD secretary SandeepSaxenasaid. The Kerala government on Friday gave in-principle approval to divert 2.5tmcft of water from Anamalayar, which formed part of the original Parambikulam-Aliyar Project, and the long-pending demand of the Tamil Nadu government. The proposed technical sub-committee will look into the Anamalayar project as well.

The Tamil Nadu government had suggested a new location for the construction of dam under Pandiyar-Punnampuzha project. This will control floods to a certain extent in river Chaliyar of Kerala. Kerala has given in-principle nod to the project, Saxena said. Both sides are interested in generating power from the project.

Kerala has raised the issue of safety of Mullaperiyar dam to which the TN government replied that the state was taking all steps as perSupreme Courtorder. Kerala wanted a new dam as there was fear among those in downstream areas. On the TN governments request to remove 23 trees downstream of Baby dam in Mullaperiyar dam, which is part of the strengthening work as per the court orders, the principal secretary of environment and forests and principal conservator of forests, Kerala, said the process was on to get the clearance from state wildlife board.

The state government will look into the demand of reducing stamp duty on all types of properties irrespective of their price band, revenue minister R Ashoka told the assembly.

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The bill seeks to reduce stamp duty from 5 per cent to 3 per cent for flats priced between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 45 lakh on the firsttime registration. The assembly passed the measure after several members from across parties requested the government to extend the benefit to all kinds of housing units.

The cabinet had cleared the amendment for the stamp duty reduction last month and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai reportedly asked officials to bring the bill to the House on priority.
The proposal was announced in the 2021-22 budget when BS Yediyurappa was the chief minister. It is a continuation of the governments policy to support the affordable housing segment.

Kitex Group, which accused theKeralagovernment of hounding it out of the state, has decided to ramp up itsinvestmentcommittent inTelangana.

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From an initial announcement of Rs 1,000 crore in one apparel facility, the company has decided to invest Rs 2,400 crore in setting up two integrated fibre-to-apparel manufacturing clusters in Telangana. This will create 22,000 directjobsand close to 18,000 indirect jobs.
The two clusters, which will come up at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park in Warangal and Sitarampur in Rangareddy district, will ship three million pieces per year of apparel for kids in the 0-24 months age group to the US. The details were given out on Saturday after Kitex Group chairman and managing director Sabu M Jacob signed an MoU with the Telangana government.

The second largest manufacturer of apparel for infants currently manufactures 1 million pieces of infant apparel at its facilities in Kerala for exports to the US. The company is looking at acquiring about 375-400 acres for the two units. The first one at KMTP is slated to begin commercial operations from November 2022, Jacob said on the sidelines of the MoU signing ceremony.

The state government will soon launch a web portal for sale ofmovie tickets. Information and public relations, cinematography minister Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani), held discussions with producers, distributors and to resolve grievances of theTelugufilm industry.

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the minister said the decision to sell movie tickets through a government portal was taken after consultation with the film industry representatives. He said no one from the industry opposed the move during the meeting. The decision to launch a portal for sale of movie tickets was taken at the behest of the industry. Chief ministerY S Jagan Mohan Reddyhas never refused a suggestion or proposal that could benefit a larger section of people, said the minister.

He said they would finalise ticket prices in consultation with the industry stakeholders. He said ticket prices will be fixed at such a level that movie goers should not feel the pinch. The minister said they discussed issues raised by industry and the government would resolve them to the extent possible. He said theTollywooddelegation would shortly meet the chief minister to discuss key issues.

IIT-Bombayhas submitted its final draft report on the source appropriation study to pinpoint the cause ofair pollutioninVasco.The Goa state pollution control board (GSPCB) will deliberate on the findings towards the end of this month.The board’s member secretary said that the IIT’s report is being examined, that that a special meeting will be called in the last week of September to deliberate on it.

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The IIT had been tasked with conducting a source appropriation study following allegations of coal pollution in the port town.
The first phase report stated that coal is not the only mineral behind air pollution in the town.

Themedical education departmentled by Congresss Amit Deshmukh has approved Rs 121 crore to procure equipment to treat Covid, reports Prafulla Marpakwar. Of it, Rs 15 crore will be used exclusively for facilities to treat mucormycosis, a deadly fungal infection that many got afterCovidtreatment.

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The equipment will be distributed among the 19 government-run medical colleges across the state according to requirement, said the official order. This is the highest-ever sanction for procurement of equipment and machinery exclusively for the treatment of Covid-19 and mucormycosis

Among the equipment to be procured are paediatric and neonatal ventilators, suction machines, syringe infusion pumps, ECG machines, defibrillators,motorised PICU bedsand separate equipment for mucormycosis.

In a bid to boost revenue of civic bodies in the state, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has decided to chalk out a comprehensive plan of revenue generating projects for municipalities.

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For this, the State Government will rope in a consultancy firm which will prepare an integrated plan for utilization of all vacant lands in municipal councils and municipal committees.

The municipalities have been under focus of the State Government during the COVID-19 crisis as they are struggling to increase revenues while facing budget shortfalls. There are 11 municipal corporations, 19 municipal councils and 58 municipal committees in Haryana, as on January 2021.