23-24.04.23

TheShiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee(SGPC) has taken strict note after a place of worship linked toGuru Nanak Dev in Mechukha,Arunachal Pradesh, was allegedly converted into aBuddhist shrine.

by

Notably, on April 8, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu posted on his Facebook page “Guru Padmasambhava, a symbol of peace, spiritual perfection, knowledge & wisdom. Blessed to have visited Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang near Mechukha, a Buddhist pilgrimage site where Guru Padmasambhava meditated. Offered prayers and sought blessings for all.”

Stating that converting a religious place into another community’s religious place was a violation of Section 25(Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Indian Constitution, Dhami sought immediate intervention of the President of India, Prime Minister, Home Minister and the National Minority Commission.

Assam tea planters red-flag toxic insecticide

by

Plagued with tea mosquito bugs, the tea industrys plan to stop increasing pest attacks with the hazardous dimethoate has raised safety concerns among planters inAssam.

Central Insecticides Boards (CIB) recent approval to use the pesticide in tea gardens may lead to compromise safety standards of Assam tea, cautioned a section of leading tea planters of the state. Even those planters who are not opposing the move said maximum residue level (MRL) must be maintained. The Centres Banning of Insecticides Order, 2020 stated the pesticide is an organophosphorus compound and highly toxic and said its alternatives were available for use. Dimethoate was banned in 31 countries and the ban was in force in EU, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Suriname to name a few.

According to the minutes of the 446th meeting of the Registration Committee (RC) OF CIB, held on April 12 and published on Friday, ad-hoc approval for the use of dimethoate against tea mosquito bug in tea plantations has been accorded for a period of one year. The committee also directed the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) and Kannan Devan Tea to submit the residue data as per the guidelines of CIB&RC expeditiously and the same will be examined by the concerned technical experts and SPPR,FSSAIand the final reports will be placed to RC for a final view.

Dimethoate is definitely a toxic compound but the crop needs a safe interval between spraying and plucking.

Odisha to sponsor natl hockey teams for next 10 yrs

by

The Odisha Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik extended the sponsorship of Indian men’s and Women‘s national hockey teams for another 10 years.

The Odisha Government has been the official sponsor of the national mens and womens teams since 2018.

The Cabinet decided to continue with the sponsorship of the teams (both senior and junior) from 2023 to 2033. A sum of Rs 434.12 crore (excluding applicable taxes) will be released by the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) to the Hockey India during the period from February 1, 2023 to January 31, 2033.

The OMC had earlier entered into an agreement with the Hockey India, after due Government approval, for sponsorship of all Indian hockey teams for a period of five years from 2018 to 2023.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal of the SC and ST Welfare Department for incorporation of Odishas 22 Socially, Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) in the State SEBC list.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said these 22 SEBC communities, though were in the Central list, did not figure in the State list.

Chennai to handle biodegradable waste better this year; 2,500 tonnes to be processed

by

The handling of biodegradable waste in the city is set to improve this year. An additional 1,200 tonnes of biodegradable and recyclable waste may not be sent to landfills as it will be processed, used to generate bio-CNG and also sold to private firms buying recyclable material. A feasibility study is being prepared.

This will take the total quantity of biodegradable waste that will be processed instead of being set to the designated landfills to 2,500 tonnes.
While bigger projects are worth several hundred crores of rupees and will take a year to take off, the authorities are looking for immediate solutions like tying up with more recyclers that conservancy workers can sell to and also increase the production of compost.

Govt to lift 64,000 families out of poverty: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

by

As part of government’s declared initiative of alleviating extreme POVERTY, 64,006 such families will hereafter come under the government’s care, said chief ministerPinarayi Vijayanin his Facebook post.

Vijayan said the government aims to totally eradicate extreme poverty in the next five years and those found to be living in extreme poverty will be located and brought to mainstream Society. Of the total number of families living in extreme poverty, 11.4% are in Thiruvananthapuram while 13.4% are in Malappuram. At the same time, Kottayam is the district with the least number of families living in extreme poverty. No families living in such conditions have been identified in the Kumarapuram panchayat in Alappuzha and Kallar panchayat in Kasaragod.

Child labour in Telangana cotton fields is almost eradicated

by

After three years of consistent advocacy-cum-awareness campaigns for Child Labour elimination organised jointly by International Labour Organization’s (ILO) ‘Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in Supply Chain’ Project and Telangana, results have shown that engagement of child labour in this supply chain has disappeared.

According to State Government officials, multiple reports have also indicated positive results about child labour not visible in the cotton fields.

Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan,Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana are major cotton growing states and Telangana alone accounts for approximately 15% of the country’s total cotton growing area.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2018-19 data, there are primarily three types of workers/labour – own cultivation, family labour and casual labour (which accounts for majority of the state’s workforce at 46 per cent) – in cotton cultivation in Telangana.

KIMS Saveera of Anantapur wins CAHO award

by

Anantapur-based KIMS Saveera Hospital has won the The Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO) Award for Awareness-Compliance-Excellence (ACE) Quality Improvement Programme for Central Sterile Supply Department CSSD 2022 in the Medium Healthcare Organization category. The award was presented to the hospitals managing director Kishore Reddy in the CAHOCON – 7th international conference of Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations at Hyderabad.

On basis of the physical audit scores, hospitals upon meeting minimum of 80% compliance are given the ACE certificate. KIMS Saveera topped in the audit by scoring 95% and winning the award for the south region and is among the five hospitals all over India in this category

With clean power on mind, Panaji to sport solar trees

by

The state capital city may soon welcome visitors with a one-of-its-kind solar trees with the deciding to install 16solar treesacross various locations. The solar tree resembles a tree but has Metal branches to hold the solar panels.

In the first phase, the Goa Energy Development Authority (GEDA) is planning to install 10 solar trees at specific locations to power nearby equipment such as streetlights, advertisement boards etc.

Locations will cover the parking area at GIDC, Patto; the department of Art and Culture, Kala Academy, Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), Goa Science Centre at Miramar, Joggers park at Altinho and the Panjim Gymkhana at Campal among other places.

IGEN Access-II programme will support the development of Bhubaneswar and Panaji as solar cities. For technical assistance GIZ has on-boarded Ernst & Young (EY) along with its consortium partners. The officer said that within the next two years the state capital will generate 80MW of solar power.

Shaniwar & Sadashiv peths use maximum groundwater: Study

by

Pune has permanently lost at least three million cubic metre or three billion litre of groundwater storage capacity due to construction of buildings and their foundations over the upper portions of shallow and weathered basalt aquifers, revealed a recent report on aquifers by the Advanced Centre for Resources“>Water Resources Development and Management.

The findings revealed that nearly half of the recharge area (46%) is covered by housing societies, like apartment blocks that are typically multi-storied and often with more than one building.”

If collected, three million cubic metre, or one TMC, of groundwater could fill up nearly half of the Khadakwasla dam that has the capacity to store 1.97 TMC of water.

Aquifers are natural underground layers of rock, sand, or gravel that contain water and can supply wells and springs with water. They act as storage units for groundwater.

Nipun Haryana: Gurgaon falls 2 spots in 1 month, ranks 9th

by

The city slipped back to the ninth position on the Nipun Haryana district dashboard in March, a month after climbing two places, with officials saying this decline may be because mentors for primary school teachers couldn’t complete classroom observations.

The assistant block resource coordinators (ABRCs) could visit 55% of the 363 government-run primary schools located across 65 clusters of Gurgaon.

Rolled out last year, the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (Nipun) Haryana Mission aims to improve foundational Literacy in English and Hindi languages and mathematical skills for students of classes 1 to 3 in government run primary schools. These rankings are a monthly exercise as part of the Mission.

Topping the 22-district list is Charkhi Dadri with a performance score of 98%, followed by Rewari (97%), Faridabad (95%), Panipat (94%) and Palwal (93%).

At the bottom is Sonipat, at 78%, preceded by Panchkula (80%), Rohtak (81%), Jind (83%) and Hisar (83%).

Gurgaon slipped from the 7th spot despite improving its performance . The district had risen two ranks from January to February.

The districts are judged based on the Percentage of target they achieve under six parameters: skill passbook assessment, weekly assessment, availability of print-rich Environment, completion of Hindi workbook, mentors completing classroom observations and review meeting of the district programme implementation unit (DPIU).