26-27.03.23

Centre to reduce ‘disturbed areas’ tag under AFSPA from many northeast districts

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The Centre has decided to decrease the jurisdiction of “disturbed areas” declared under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur from April.
For the last six months, AFSPA has been in force in eight districts and one sub-division of Assam and in most of Manipur, except 15 Police station areas in six districts of the state.
AFSPA was earlier in force in all nine districts of Nagaland, but it has now been reduced to eight. The entire Zunheboto district will no longer be treated as a “disturbed” area.

The “disturbed areas” notification was applicable in the whole of Nagaland from since 1995 but it was withdrawn from 15 police stations of seven districts with effect from April 1, last year. It is further being withdrawn from three other police stations with effect from April 1.

In Arunachal Pradesh however, one more police station (PS) area, under Chowkham PS, has been declared a “disturbed area” under AFSPA for another six months. Three more districts figure in the “disturbed area” list.


The World Bank’s executive board of directors has approved a USD 108 million loan for Assam to improve disaster preparedness and enhance flood forecasting. TheWorld Banksaid the project will benefit around six million people and is part of a larger USD 500 million investment programme for Assam.

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The USD 108 million loan from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), administered by the , has a maturity of 11.5 years and a grace period of four years.

The Assam Integrated River Basin Management Project will help the state reduce vulnerability to floods and river erosion by building green Infrastructure in the Beki and Buridehing river basins, protecting around 100,000 people,” World Bank said in a statement sent to TOI on Saturday. It added that the project will also help strengthen the state’s response to disasters through improved flood forecasting and accurate early warning systems, including through mobile alerts.
The project will further provide safer evacuation and shelter facilities, including access to Climate-resilient flood shelters, to at least 10,000 people, read the statement, adding that the project will also help government agencies to respond faster during crisis with upgraded state and district emergency operational centers.

CM asks Centre to evacuate surplus rice

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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday wrote to Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal for evacuation of surplus rice from Odisha.

Patnaik stated that during this Kharif season, a record 14,94,320 farmers have sold paddy to the Government at MSP. The paddy procurement for Kharif season (KMS 2022-23) is going to be closed by March 31. About 65.23 LMT of paddy equivalent to 44.23 LMT Kharif CMR has been procured as on March 22.

In the ensuing Rabi (2022-23), it is expected that about 10 lakh MT of CMR would be procured in the State. Thus, total 54 lakh MT CMR is likely to be procured during 2022-23. Odishas own consumption would be 24 lakh MT of rice under NFSA, SFSS and other welfare schemes.

So, the State would be left with approximately 20 lakh MT of surplus rice. Non-evacuation of above quantity of surplus rice from the State would severely affect the States paddy procurement operations in the coming seasons as well as it would adversely impact the livelihood of lakhs of famers, Patnaik stated.

Let Tamil Nadu have own education system: K Ponmudy

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States should be given more freedom to follow their own Education system, higher education ministerK Ponmudysaid on Friday even as he expressed readiness to adopt good ideas from theNational Education Policy(NEP).

The NEP includes a common exam for Classes 3, 5, and 8 and we are opposing it as it may lead to dropouts,” he said, adding that entrance tests for all undergraduate programmes are also not acceptable.

Highlighting the budget announcements including upgrading polytechnic colleges, using factories as Skill development centres and training institute for advanced technology at Ambattur at a cost of 120 crore, the minister said that it shows how keen the chief minister is on improving the EMPLOYMENT opportunities of students.

Kerala to mark 100th year of satyagraha against untouchability

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A century ago, Alummoottil Govindan Channar, an avarna (lower-caste person), was one of the few car owners in the erstwhile Travancore kingdom and also its biggest taxpayer. However, as an untouchable he was not allowed to drive past temples in his car. He had to get out and walk to the other side where his upper-caste driver would pick him up.Untouchabilitywas so deep-rooted in Travancore and other parts of Kerala those days thatSwami Vivekanandahad once called the state a lunatic asylum.

On March 30, 1924, two untouchables a Pulaya named Kunjappi and an Ezhava named Bahuleyan along with Govinda Panikkar from the upper-caste Nair community, took the road around the Vaikom Shiva temple that was closed to the polluting castes. They were arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment.

But they were acting on an idea that had arisen three years earlier in 1921 when social activist T K Madhavan had met MK Gandhi at Tirunelveli to seek his advice and support for launching an agitation for temple entry. Gandhi had approved of the agitation and suggested civil disobedience and non-violent satyagraha.

Gandhis involvement in the struggle proved crucial as it mobilised the educated upper-caste Hindu opinion in favour of temple entry. Madhavan wisely allied himself with the Congress larger movement, became a member and participated in the partys Kakinada session in 1923 that made untouchability one of its main concerns and authorised the state Congress to take charge of the struggle.

Centre approves nearly Rs 700 cr for NH widening project in Karnataka

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The Centre has approved a sum of Rs 698.08 crore for the widening of the Belur to Hassan section ofNH373, with the addition ofpaved shoulders, inKarnataka, Road Transport and Highways MinisterNitin Gadkarisaid.

“This project, executed under the NH(O) Annual Plan 2022-23 (Package-II), will be carried out in the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) mode,

Telangana’s cyber security unit to be functional within a year: DGP

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Police said the newly-formedTelangana State Cyber Security Bureau(TSCSB), which is being set up at Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) on Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, is designated as a notified police station.

Director general of policeAnjani Kumar visited two floors where TSCSB office is coming up. Officials are planning to inagurate the facility in April. The DGP took stock of the ongoing works. He said the new bureau will be fully functional a year from now.

The bureau will have the helpline, state cyber control room, central monitoring unit, data aggregation and analysis unit, threat intelligence unit, forensic support unit and investigation and prosecution support unit.

Andhra Pradesh plans to set up Mango collecting centers for farmers

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To provide better prices to the farmers for their produce, the has planned to focus on collection centers for the horticultural farmers, especially the mango farmers. As part of it, the state government had planned to set up Mangoes Collection Centres (MCCs), where farmers can collect the produce and store there before selling it to traders.

Initially, mango farmers should take a recognition letter from the Horticultural Department and form a Society with 100 farmers. That center would get one MCC. Mango production of the district is around 3.07 lakh metric tonnes on Average per annum. Vizianagaram mangoes are famous and farmers are exporting the produce to Raipur, Berhampur, Kolkata, and Delhi. Most of the produce would export to Delhi through Kisan special trains.

Of nearly 30,000 MSMEs registered in Goa, 6,000 are owned by women

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Of the 29,769 Goan business enterprises registered with theUnion ministry of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs), 22% or 6,578 are Women-owned entities, stated the data released by the Centre on Thursday. As expected, a significant number of women-owned MSMEs, 6,467, are in the micro category.

What is intriguing is that just 7% of the 111 medium-category enterprises are owned and managed by women entrepreneurs. Medium-category enterprises are businesses that have an annual turnover of up to Rs 100 crore, and in Goa just eight medium business houses have women at their helm.

The Centre has taken a number of steps to support MSMEs, particularly women-owned enterprises, and has launched special drives for the registration of women-owned MSMEs under theUdyamRegistration portal.

India has 28 lakh women-owned MSMEs registered and classified under Udyam since July 2020, of which 98% fall under the micro category.

The Union ministry implements the Prime Ministers EMPLOYMENT Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy initiative aimed at generating self-employment opportunities, and of the total PMEGP beneficiaries, 39% are women.

To widen the scope of MSMEs, retail and wholesale traders have been included in theMSMEcategory.

In a ‘1st’, Maharashtra passes law for public medical purchases

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Maharashtrahas likely become the first state in India to pass a law for procuring medical supplies for public hospitals and medical colleges. The Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority Act, 2023-passed on Friday after the governor’s assent-seeks to streamline the procurement process by creating a dedicated branch that will solely handle the purchase of medical devices and medicines.

There has been a longstanding demand for a dedicated procurement authority in Maharashtra, especially after the decision to centralise purchases underHaffkine Biopharmaceuticalin 2017 turned out to be a complete catastrophe. The new law will facilitate its creation with financial Resources and manpower to make the government’s medical purchases more swift, efficient, cost-effective and transparent. The medical Education and public Health department jointly make purchases to the tune of Rs 1,800-2,000 crore annually.