27.04.21

Thikri Pehra: Haryana invokes Raj-era law for vigil in villages

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With the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in rural areas ofHaryana, the Khattar government has invoked the provisions of British Raj-era law, The Punjab Small Town Patrol Act, 1918 that empowers people in villages to guard themselves through Thikri Pehra (closevigil). The villagers have been told to control the gathering of people and to enforce compliance of Covid-19 protocol in their villages.

As per the orders passed under Section-3 of thePunjab Villagesand Small Town Patrol Act, 1918 by DCs of various districts, all the village panchayats in the state have been directed to perform patrol duty throughout the day and night and to ensure there is no gathering of people.

Rs 10 lakh for Punjab villages with 100% vaccination cover: Chief minister Amarinder Singh

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To incentivise villagers to give up vaccine hesitancy,Punjabchief ministerAmarinder Singhon Tuesday announced a special development grant of Rs 10 lakh for every village that achieves 100%vaccinationtarget under the state governments Corona Mukt Pind Abhiyan.

Interacting virtually with village panchayats represented by more than 2,000 heads/members across over 4,000 live locations in the state through LED screens, the chief minister informed them that his government had already sanctioned permission for sarpanches to utilize up to Rs 5,000 per day from panchayat funds for emergency Covid-19 treatment, up to a maximum of Rs 50,000.

FCI buys 30 pc more wheat in Himachal this year

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The wheat procurement in the state has surpassed the last years level by 30 per cent. Four new centres have been opened to purchase wheat from farmers after strict restrictions were announced by Punjab and Haryana in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Around 4,500 MT of wheat has been procured against the total of 3,100 MT last year. The procurement will continue for one month.

The (Fci) has procured wheat for Rs 1,975 per quintal, benefiting 1,124 farmers.

As the total production of wheat during 2021-22 is expected around 6.72 lakh MT, eight procurement centres have been opened.

The centres are opened in Paonta Sahib and Kala Amb (Sirmaur), Kanger and Takrala (Una), Fatehpur and Thakurdwara (Kangra) Nalagarh (Solan) and Patta (Bilaspur) from farmers, who were unable to sell their produce in the neighbouring states.

Wheat produced in the Paonta valley is known for its quality but the farmers were either dependent on middlemen or travelled to the markets in Punjab and Haryana to sell their produce at throwaway prices.

Uttarakhand to give Rs 2k/month to caretaker of every orphan

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In the wake of an increasing number ofchildrenbeing orphaned by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state department of Women and child development (WCD) has made it mandatory for Covidpositive patients to fill in the details of their children and the guardians to whom they should be handed over in the event of death of both parents. The details have to be filled up at the time of hospital admission. The state will also give Rs 2,000 per child per month to their caretakers along with the other facilities,Rekha Arya, state minister for women and child development said.

Agra Metro aims to recharge 10 lakh litres of groundwater every yea

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As part of conservation efforts,AgraMetro Project authorities aim to recharge 10 lakh litres of groundwater every year. Work has started to construct 300 recharge pits along the 29-km-long metro rail alignment for the purpose. Besides, rainwater harvesting systems will also be developed at half a dozen other locations to maximize the collection of rainwater.

Along these lines, Agra Metro Project is also making elaborate arrangements for groundwater recharge and rainwater harvesting. This metro project will be the first of its kind in Agra to take such extensive steps for groundwater recharge.

The Agra Metro rail project is likely to be completed by 2025.

NTPC Coal Mining Projects extends support to fight against Covid

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Amid Covid-19 pandemic NTPC Kerendari Coal Mining Project, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand has provided 350 Isolation Kit to SDM, Hazaribag.

The same shall be distributed to patients under Home isolation treatment with moderate or mild symptoms, the kit consisted of essential medicines for the Covid patients.

The initiative taken by NTPC was appreciated by the local administration.

Under CSR-CD ,Pakri Barwadih Coal Mining Project,Hazaribag placed into service of Ambulance-cum- Multipurpose vehicle for a period of 6 Months at CHC,Kerendari.

Service of this vehicle has been provided to assist CHC, Kerendari to deal with the present Covid Pandemic. On this occasion, Dr K.Padhan CMO I/C ,PBCMP handed over the Ambulance to Dr Kumar Sanjeev, MO I/C , CHC, Kerendari who thanked NTPC Management for extending support for combating Covid-19.

NTPC Coal Mining projects located in the State of Jharkhand are rendering a helping hand by providing Covid relief through various initiatives e,g installation of Oxygen piping system at RIMS and provision of centralised Oxygen system for critical care at Sheikh Bhikari Medical College, Hazaribagh which included providing oxygen jumbo cylinders.

Bihar to suffer Rs 6,222-crore financial loss due to Covid

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Rajya Sabha member and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday said Bihar would have to suffer financial losses worth Rs 6,222 crore due to disruptions in economic activities caused by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the combined losses suffered by all states will be to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakh crore, as computed by the chief economic adviser of https://exam.pscnotes.com/state-bank-of-india”>State Bank Of India (SBI) Saumya Kanti Ghosh. This includes the share of loss to be tune of Rs 6,222 crore to be suffered by Bihar.

He said the governments decision to provide free vaccination to 5.47 crore people in Bihar in the age-group of 18-44 years of age will alone cause an additional burden of Rs 4,500 crore. It includes the expenditure to be borne on transportation and maintenance of the Vaccines, which the companies have priced at Rs 400 per dose. Every person has to be given two doses of the vaccine.

CGST Raipur collects 9612 cr this fiscal yr

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ChhattisgarhGoods and Services Tax (CGST),RaipurCommissionerate has collected a total of Rs 9,612 croreGSTrevenue in the financial year 2020-21 registering a Growth of 2% as compared from GST revenue of Rs 9,422 crore in the financial year 2019-20.

Overall GST collection for the state of Chhattisgarh stood at Rs 24,293 crore in the financial year 2020-21 as compared to Rs 24,100 crore for financial year 2019-20 registering growth of 1%. This includes the GST revenue collected by the State GST Department.

In comparison to above the all India domestic GST (Excluding import IGST) revenue growth has shown a downfall of 8.5%. In FY 2020-21 the collection is Rs 8.64 lakhs crore as compared to Rs.9.44 lakhs crore in 2019-20. In the above all India scenario Chhattisgarh has shown a positive growth of 2%.

Gujarat Technological University makes vaccination mandatory for students

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Gujarat Technological University(GTU) has made it mandatory for allstudentsof 18 years and above age to get Covid-19vaccinationbefore filling up of Winter 2021 exam forms.

The Centres vaccination drive will continue as before, providing free vaccination for essential and priority populations as defined earlier i.e healthcare workers, frontline workers and Population above 45 years of age. GTU recently announced that it will hold online exams for undergraduate and postgraduate students this year as well.

Rajasthan: Gem & jewellery industry frets over new tax by US on exports

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The proposal of theUnited States Trade Representative(USTR) to impose retaliatory tariffs on 41 Indian products including 17 items in thegemand jewellery category has worried the exporters who are yet to recover fully from the Covid blows.
The representatives in the state said if the proposals go unchallenged and get implemented, the gem and jewellery industry will have a crippling impact as the US has proposed to levy tariffs up to 25% on the products.

Last year, India levied an equalisation tax on ecommerce companies that have no physical operation in the country. The 2% digital service tax (DST) on purchases through these companies came into effect from April 2020. The Indian government is currently examining the USTR proposals and may knock the doors of the WTO if it is levied. The USTR list includes other products like shrimps, basmati rice, bamboo items, wood furniture, and cigarette paper, etc.