21.06.23

Severe erosion in Brahmaputra wreaking havoc in Biswanath; AAMSU demands solution

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Residents of Biswanath, Chatia and Jamugurihat of Biswanath Chariali in Assam have expressed serious concern over the erosion of Brahmaputra following the first wave of floods in the State. The All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU) demanded a permanent solution to the annual deluge as the present situation is leading to a catastrophe in the district.

The AAMSU central president further stated that while the government has released crores of rupees to prevent erosion, the contractors and departmental authorities have not used the money properly, this is threatening lives and properties of the people.

Bauxite mining doesnt destroy forest

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A national seminar on Sustainable Environment 2023: Solution to Plastic Pollution was inaugurated by Minister, Department of Forest, Environment & Climate Change, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Paradeep Kumar Amat.

The programme was organised by the Institute of Quality and Environment Management Services (IQEMS) in association with the Odisha State Pollution Control Board and the State Productivity Council.

Aerospace park on cards at Sipcot

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The State Industries Promotion Corporation ofTamil Nadu(Sipcot) has earmarked about 125 acres of land at its Manapparai industrial park in Trichy for setting up an aerospace park to promote investments in the sector as well as in defence manufacturing. Trichy is one of the five nodal cities of the Tamil Nadu defence industrial corridor. About 131 acres has also been allotted to Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation (Sidco) for promoting the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) will be the nodal agency for promoting the aerospace park. Meanwhile, Sidco has paid the cost of the 131 acres of land in Manapparai, and the process of making layouts to create industrial plots for MSMEs is progressing. A minimum of 20 cents and a maximum of 1 acre of industrial land will be allocated to individual MSMEs for launching production units. Sidco said that MSMEs in the food and engineering fabrication business will benefit from the new small-scale industrial park. Apart from these allocations and reservations, officials said that a major conglomerate is in talks with Sipcot for booking more than 300 acres of land in Manapparai for an electric vehicle manufacturing unit.

Manickal bags second place at National Water Awards

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Manickal panchayat wins second place in the best panchayat category at the fourth edition of National Water Awards instituted by the Jal Shakti ministry. On behalf of the panchayat, president Kuthirakulam Jayan received the trophy, a cash prize and a citation during an event held at Vigyan Bhavan.

The panchayat was awarded the honour for the water conservation practices taken up by it under the Puzhayozhukum Manickal project since 2022. This was an integrated project which brought together related schemes of different departments like HarithaKeralaMission, central ground water board, agriculture, ministry of rural employment, and department of drinking water and sanitation and irrigation department. Under the guidance of department officials, the panchayat cleaned four ponds, took up various water conservation methods such as groundwater rejuvenation, explored ways to increase the income of farmers through sustainable agriculture methods like paddy and lotus cultivation, fish farming conducted sensitisation programmes in all wards and even made drinking water accessible to places like Thampuran Para.

While Jagannadhapuram panchayat inTelanganawon first place, Manickal shared the second position with Kadavur panchayat in Tamil Nadu. The first edition ofthe NationalWater Awards was introduced by the department of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in 2018. For the fourth edition, a total of 868 applications were received by 31 October 2022. Among them, 41 applicants emerged to be winners under the 11 categories of the event.

Karnataka budget 2023-24: CM Siddaramaiah looks to ride high on tax buoyancy

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Chief minister Siddaramaiah is expected to enhance the outlay of the state budget to Rs 3. 2 lakh crore and is banking heavily on robust growth in tax collection, especially commercial taxes.

Siddaramaiah, who will present the budget on July 7, held a pre-budget meeting with all revenueearning departments, including commercial taxes, excise, transport, and stamps and registration. The focus was on mobilisation of resources to fund the governing partys five guarantee schemes.

In a boost for the government, all revenue heads, which exceeded targets in 2022-23, are showing a bullish trend for the current fiscal. This will give Siddaramaiah ample headroom to enhance targets.

For instance, the commercial taxes department mopped up over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23 as against the original target of Rs 72,000 crore. Signs of phenomenal growth began showing as early as in thesecond quarter. Then chief ministerBasavaraj Bommai, who held the finance portfolio had revised the target to Rs 84,000 crore. But the department exceeded even that, despite the Centre endingGSTcompensation (Rs 16,277 crore) in June 2022.

This has enthused Siddaramaiah who is said to be mulling hiking revenue targets for commercial taxes, which includes GST (goods and services tax),KST(Karnataka sales tax) on petrol and diesel, and professionaltax, to Rs 1. 1 lakh crore. This means the department will have to mop up about Rs 23,851 crore more than what it collected in 2022-23.

State vies for 2nd Unesco heritage tag

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TheTelanganaHeritage Department has signed anMoUwith Deccan Heritage Academy to conserve and document Mudumal Menhirs to pitch it for Unesco World Heritage list.

As per the MoU, the two organisations will work towards building a dossier for recognition of the ancient archaeological structure with astronomical significance. Previously Ramappa temple was recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site after painstaking efforts to prepare a detailed dossier about its significance.

There are many structures in Telangana that deserve Unesco recognition as they are testimony to states ancient history. Previously, historical archaeological structures in Telangana region were neglected

APTA plans to expand its horizon, services

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American Progressive Telugu Association (APTA) will conduct a three-day national conference in Atlanta, Georgia from September 1 to 3 on the occasion of it completing 15 years of existence. The APTA team, which has been on a tour to various cities of two Telugu states, invited several noted personalities in different fields from AP andTelanganafor the convention.

Convention convenerVijayGudiseva, APTA past president Gopal Gudapati, and media chair Chandrasekhar Polisetty explained the initiatives of the APTA that are being done for last 15 years on various fronts. Apart from being a premier socio-cultural organisation for Telugus, ourprime focushas been set on education as we strongly believe that education can only bring people out of the clutches of poverty and other social oppressions, said Vijay Gudiseva, Gopal Gudapati, and Chandrasekhar Polisetty.

We currently have Telugus as members from AP, Telangana, and Pondicherry settled in the USA. We want to extend our membership to immigrants fromTamil Naduand Karnataka as these two states have a huge chunk of Telugu people, they added.

One village from eachVid district picked forboosting agri income

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Akola-based Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) has identified 11 model villages in each of the 11 districts of Vidarbha where integrated farming system (IFS) as well as agriculture and allied services would be implemented to increase the farmers income.

As part of the plan, a village-level agricultural technology information centre was inaugurated by PDKV vice-chancellor Sharad Gadakh last week at Kidangipar underGondiaKrishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). This is one of the first villages where the model plan will run.

As per the plan, collaboration of all departments will be achieved to increase farmer trainings, availing scheme, and setting up processing units. This is a three-year plan. Later, it will be taken up at taluka level and then block level. The project aims to curb farmer suicide due to crop failure. We are encouraging them to opt for diverse sources of income, he said.

Micro irrigation project to come up in Morni

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To provide better irrigation facilities to the farmers of the Morni area of Panchkula situated on the Shivalik mountain ranges, the Haryana Government has decided to set up a major micro-irrigation project in Morni. The project, which would come up at a cost of Rs 20 crore is expected to cover approximately 1280 acres of land.

A decision to this effect was taken in the High Powered Purchase Committee (HPPC) meeting held here in Chandigarh under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Apart from this, purchases and contracts worth more than Rs 87 crore were also approved in the meeting.

A total of 4 agendas of Irrigation, Public Health Engineering Department and MICADA were taken up in the meeting and were approved. An amount of Rs. 1.41 crore has been saved after negotiations with various companies.

The Chief Minister said that the implementation of the Solar Powered Integrated Micro Irrigation Project for villages Tapariya, Kandaiwala, Kaimbwala, Kherwali Parwala and Lashkariwala in the Morni area will not only provide irrigation facilities but also help in increasing agriculture produce in the area. After the success of this pilot project, such projects will be set up at other places in the state.