21.03.23
Assam cabinet panel to explore ways to rehabilitate child marriage victims
The Assam cabinet gave its go-ahead to the Police to continue the crackdown on child marriages, but decided to form a cabinet sub-committee for exploring ways to rehabilitate the victim girls.
The committee will submit a report, based on which the will take steps on rehabilitation of such victims.
The sub-committee comprises Health minister Keshab Mahanta, Education minister Ranoj Pegu and finance minister Ajanta Neog.
The cabinet has decided to release Rs 150 crore for the ongoing construction works of the seven cancer care hospitals, Mahanta added.
Odias celebrate classic pakhala
Come March 20 every year, Odias across the globe celebrate the popular traditional Odia dish pakhala the fermented water rice. Started as an online campaign,Pakhala Divasemerged as a mass festival with a series ofpakhalaparties and feasts being planned.
The quintessential Odia dish of pakhala is savoured with a platter of vegetarian and non-veg side dishes. Hotels and restaurants across the state geared up for the day, notwithstanding the cloudy weather this year.
According to Health experts, pakhala is probiotic rich due to the presence of lactic acid and helps in digestion, gut-friendly and improves body immunity. After Fermentation the rice becomes rich in nutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
MSMEs hope for more opportunities as Trichy-Nagapattinam agro-industrial corridor gets Rs 1,000 crore
The allocation of 1,000 crore to the Trichy-Nagapattinam agro-industrial corridor in the agriculturebudgettabled has revived the project that was dormant for two years.
While the allocation will be utilised to create and support systems for Growth of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and food industries in five central districts, Sidco too has a separate plan to create new industrial estates in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts with special focus on Food Processing sector.
The corridor will primarily focus on encouraging value-added products from food and Cash Crops and promulgating farmers organisations to make a foray into food processing sector to consider export opportunities. Fetching lucrative procurement prices for farmers and EMPLOYMENT generation are key objectives of the corridor.
The Vandampalai industrial estate and Palayapatti industrial estate in Thanjavur district will play a crucial role in the proposed agro-industrial corridor.
The corridor was first proposed in 2021 for Trichy, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts. Fund allocation has come in the backdrop of FaMe TN (Facilitating MSMEs in Tamil Nadu) completing the detailed project report for the corridor in consultation with MSMEs and stakeholders. The corridor will develop a connectivity map by linking the Trichy international airport and key RAILWAY stations.
Milk testing to be augmented at border: CM
CM Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday that government has decided to strengthen milk testing at the states border. Government is committed to ensure the physical and chemical quality of milk that reaches customers, he said after inaugurating the state-level meet of farmers at Mannuthy.
He said more Money was allocated to augment Infrastructure at the regional milk testing labs inKasaragod,Alathur and Kottayam. The efforts to introduce a Cattle Feed Act to ensure quality cattle feed and regulate its price are in the final stage and government has earmarked Rs 130cr for dairy development, he said, adding thatKeralawas close to becoming self-sufficient in milk production.
In Karnataka, forest department battles to douse fires
With rising temperatures and increasing incidents of forest fires, the forest staff are busy dousing several forest fires in the last 10 days. A majority of them are learnt to be creeping fires.
It is learnt the forest staff, along with locals, were successful in bringing forest fires reported at Ninnikallu, Neriya, and Charmadi in Belthangady taluk under control.
Telangana has 9,000 RTI pleas pending, ranks 10th in country
In terms of of disposal rate ofRTIpleas,Telanganaranks 10th among states with 8,902 pleas pending with thestate Information Commission(SIC) as of June 2022, according to the Report Card of Information Commissions in India (RCICI) published by SatarkNagrik Sangathan(SNS) in December last year. Since August 2022, the SIC has been functioning without a chief commissioner.
Between July 2021 to June 2022, a total of 7,169 complaints and appeals were registered in and 9,267 were settled, including those pending from the previous years. The Average annual disposal rate per commissioner stands at 1,545, placing the state at 11th rank.
The state also lags when it comes to issuing showcase notices and imposing penalties on departments. The state recorded 52 cases where a penalty of 2 lakh was imposed, but gave compensation of 6,000 in only one case to the RTI applicant. The RCICI report also said that the SIC failed to publish even a single annual report since it was established in 2017.
Around 86% of the RTIs filed in the state are by social workers and journalists. But RTI activists said that over the years certain departments have stopped bothering to reply to queries.
CM Jagan launches ragi malt drink for school children
Adding more Nutrition inputs to the Jagananna Goru Muddha, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy formally launched the programme of serving ragi malt drink to students in government and aided schools across AP state, on Tuesday.
Launching the programme in virtual mode in the presence of senior officials at his camp office, the Chief Minister said ragi malt would be served to 37, 63,698 students. This would cost Rs 86 crore a year. Henceforth, ragi malt will be part of the morning menu for students in 44,392 government and aided schools.
The Chief Minister said ragi malt has additional nutrients of calcium and iron, which would help those having problems of anemia. He thanked the Sathya Sai Central Trust for partnering with the government and coming forward to bear Rs 42 crore out of the annual expenditure of Rs 86 crore.
Traffic sentinel scheme to return in Goa, but only for cops
The is set to bring back thetraffic sentinel schemefrom April, but with a twist. Instead of citizen involvement and monetary rewards, only Police personnel will now be allowed to photograph and report violators. Instead of cash rewards, they will be given five-star stay and other gift vouchers provided under corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Violations likely to be reported under the scheme include driving against the flow of traffic, parking on footpaths or zebra crossings, triple-seat riding, improper number plates, driving without seatbelt, riding without helmet, using vehicle with tinted glasses, using phone while riding or driving, red Light jumping, and dangerous driving.
The scheme was introduced in 2017 to reduce traffic violations with the active participation of the citizenry and encourage community policing. “Sentinels” had to enrol on an app and then report violations, which fetched them points. A certain number of points made the sentinel eligible for a cash incentive.
Maharashtra’s peak power demand crosses 28,000MW for second day in a row
For the second day in a row, the peak electricity demand in the state crossed 28,000 MW afternoon while the demand in Mumbai was close to 3,400MW — a demand recorded in May during summer of 2022.
The actual peak demand was 3372 MW in Mumbai and 28133 MW across the state around 3pm.
With the current trend, the peak electricity demand in Maharashtra was likely to touch 30,000 MW and this could include Mumbai demand coming close to 4,000MW during this summer as temperature has been soaring as high as over 39 degrees in the city, said power expert Ashok Pendse.
While BEST has additional 100 MW to fall back on, Adani Electricity will depend on its short and medium term power purchase agreement and open market sources for exigencies, the MSEDCL will have to purchase power from exchange in crisis situations and Tata Power on Tuesday announced a roadmap for tackling any shortfall of electricity during surge in peak demand this summer.