He said that tea and petroleum used to reach the Chittagong and Kolkata (then Calcutta) ports through the Brahmaputra-Padma-Meghna riverine waterway routes, as well as through railway lines passing through the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
22.12.21
Odisha to prepare long-term energy action plan by ’24
To assess the future scenario of different power consuming sectors, the state energy department has decided to prepare a long-term action plan for the next two decades.
Officials said German development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft far Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), which has been implementing the Indo-German energy programme in the country, has signed an agreement with the state energy department for the development of the action plan for Odisha.
The GIZ will provide technical assistance for the same, while state utility Gridco will coordinate with the German agency on behalf of the Odisha government. The plan is expected to be ready by 2024.
Some of the key objectives of the plan are optimisation of generation, transmission and distribution of assets, revenue maximisation and optimisation of power procurement, efficiency improvement and long-term planning, disaster-resilient transmission and distribution infrastructure, overall energy security, improved access to finances and scaling up of distributed renewable energy models.
Mere 67 CCTVs installed in prisons in Tamil Nadu: NCRB
The Union law and justice ministry has launched a new system, ‘Fast and secured transmission of electronic records’ (Faster) to enable transmission of electronic copies of interim orders, stay orders, bail orders and proceedings of high courts and district courts to the prison authorities through a secured electronic communication channel, said Union law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju.
Furnishing a written reply to a query posed by Villupuram MP D Ravikumar, the minister said the ministry launched the system following orders from Supreme Court in July and September this year.
The minister rolled out statistics furnished by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to a query on the number of CCTVs installed in prisons in various states.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of CCTVs (2,757) installed in the prisons in the state followed by Gujarat (2,314), Chhattisgarh (1,612), Maharashtra (1,580),Rajasthan(1,529) and Odisha (1,520). Only five other states have installed more than 1,000 CCTVs in the prisons in their states.
Tamil Naduis one of the 14 states that have installed less than 100 CCTVs in the prisons in their states.MizoramandLakshadweephave not installed even a single CCTV in the prisons.
Police to launch Operation Kaaval to curb organized crime in Kerala
Police have formulated a new programme titled Operation Kaaval for nabbing those behind the smuggling of drugs, illegal sand mining and attacks by gangs in the state.
State police chief Anil Kant issued guidelines for successfully undertaking the new programme. The district police chiefs would form special teams to nab those hiding after committing serious crimes. The state special branch will prepare a list of those indulging in anti-social activities, and they will be put under constant watch. It will be examined if the persons released on bail are violating the bail conditions. If they are doing so, steps will be taken to cancel their bail and remand them back to custody. The special branch has been asked to conduct secret surveillance on such persons.
Those involved in criminal cases and those who are suspects will be under surveillance, and if required, searches will be conducted at their regular hideouts. A database will also be prepared on district-basis of those having previous history of involvement in violence and criminal activities. If required, they will be arrested by chargingKeralaAnti-social Activities Prevention Act (KAPA). Those against whom cases have been already registered for various criminal activities will be arrested soon, and police will seize vehicles that have been used for such activities.
Karnataka govt resolves to increase time for legislature sessions
Even as the legislators and Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri admitted that there has been a drop in the quality of debate, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said the government will try to increase the number of days for each of the legislative sessions in 2022.
As decorum within the house went haywire, Speaker Kageri expressed his anguish over members not refraining themselves from speaking out of turn and wasting time, while repeating the same issues time and again.
Telangana to come up with own policy for Omicron cases
In view of the increasing number ofOmicroncases, the state is set to break away from current central guidelines of 15 days of compulsory quarantine for all patients and come up with its own policy.
State health authorities are in favour of allowing asymptomatic patients to remain at home while field surveys will be taken up to trace symptomatic cases. Terming the Centres policy unfeasible, the health department stated that since 95 to 97 per cent cases of Omicron are expected to be asymptomatic, putting everyone in quarantine centres will be a waste of resources.
Substantiating the decision, the director of public health said that all 20 patients detected with the Omicron variant and admitted at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) are asymptomatic.
Andhra Pradesh tops e-transaction list of 8 years in country, Gujarat second
Andhra Pradeshhas topped the chart in the country in terms of volume of e-transactions. As per the data obtained from the Union ministry of electronics and information technologys eTaal platform, Andhra Pradesh recorded 710 croree-transactionssince 2013, the highest among all the states in the country.
Gujarat occupies the second place with 509 crore transactions and Telangana stands in the third place with about 470 crore transactions. These three are followed by Kerala (440 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (332 crore)
These transactions include online tax payments, services delivered under the public distribution system, utility bill payments, banking transactions, commercial taxes, scholarship distribution, police services, etc.
The ministry of electronics and information technology launched the platform in 2014 to aggregate the number of e-services being delivered across different states and levels of government.
The unprecedented growth in the e-transactions in the country can be gauged from the fact the volume has increased to 8,583 crore transactions in 2021 from just 241 crore in 2013.
Likewise, Andhra Pradesh recorded a manifold growth from 43 crore transactions in 2013 to 188 crore in 2018. But it has been on a downward spiral in the last three years with it recording only 92 crore transactions in 2019, 74 crore in 2020 and 48 crore in 2021. However, the state still commands the top place among all the states in the country in terms of transactions since 2013.
The top-10 e-services that have propelled the e-transaction growth in Andhra Pradesh include utility payments, rural development, public distribution system, land revenue, commercial taxes, health, education, etc.
According to the officials, Andhra Pradesh is providing a huge number of online services to its people, thereby contributing to the increase in the number of online transactions.
The eTaal has been in nation-wide operation since January 2013 and 4,013 eServices from tens of Central ministries, and all the states and Union Territories have been linked to the dashboard. It has so far recorded over 8,583 crore e-transactions in 2021. This reflects the government-wide acceptability of the initiative in terms of its utility and importance.
Goas connect with Portugal: Passport and football
Under Portuguese law, those born in their colonies before liberation in Goas case, December 19, 1961 continue to be Portuguese, provided their births are registered in Portugal. Their descendants, up to the third generation, are also eligible for Portuguese passports.
The state has several football enthusiasts who root for Portugal during major competitions like the World Cup and the Euro. The holy trinity of Portuguese football Sporting Lisbon, SL Benfica and FC Porto all have their backers in this part of the world.
While old-timers grew up listening to Portuguese football league commentary and idolised stars like Eusebio sensational at the World Cup in 1966 when Portugal finished third on debut the modern generation found their hero in Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of five Ballon d’Ors, awarded to the best player in the world.
Grape production likely to drop by 20% in Nashik
Thegrape productionin the district is likely to reduce by 20% to 9.5 lakh tonne due to the unseasonal rain, which has affected the ready-to-harvest vineyards and those which were in the flowering stages.
According toMaharashtraRajya Draksha Bagayatdar Sangh (MRDBS), an association of grape growers, the grape production ofNashikdistrict was 12 lakh tonne during the last grape season and around 1.29 lakh tonnes were exported to various European and non-European countries.
But the recent unseasonal rain has badly hit some of the vineyards in the district and the grape production is expected to reduce by 20%. The grape plantation in the district is estimated to be on around 1.50 lakh acre.
Of the 1.50 lakh acre, the plantation under wine grape varieties is 6,000 acre, while the remaining all plantations are under table grape varieties.
No shortage of fertilizers in State, claims Haryana Agri Min
Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, JP Dalal on Tuesday came under the severe criticism of opposition after his claims that there is no shortage of fertilizers in the State.
Dalal, while replying to the calling attention motion on the issue of shortage of DAP/Urea in the state said that adequate stock of various fertilisers is available in the state.
The Agriculture Minister informed the House that till now about 6.93 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of urea, 2.82 lakh metric tonnes of DAP, more than 1 lakh tonnes of SSP, more than 41,000 NPK is available, out of which 6.24 lakh metric tonnes of urea, 2.60 lakh metric tonnes of DAP, 79,000 metric tonnes of SSP, 38,661 metric tonnes of NPK have been provided to the farmers in the State.