27.07.21

The Mizoram government, in an official letter to the Centre, has called out the Assam government as the aggressor who unleashed violence against Mizoram Police and unarmed civilians on July 26 and added that the situation could have been averted had the CRPF jawans performed their assigned duties.

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In a missive to the Union home ministry’s additional secretary (Northeast) sent recently.Mizoram home secretary Lalbiaksangi said the CRPF personnel on duty had allowed the movement of a large contingent of armed Assam Police personnel without challenging or questioning why it was crossing the duty post towards Mizoram.

She wrote that about 200 Assam Police personnel led by Assam inspector-general of police Anurag Agarwal had come to the Mizoram police duty post at autorickshaw stand, Kawngthar Veng, Vairengte, after crossing the camp of the 225 battalion CRPF, located just below the Mizoram Police duty post around 11.30am on Monday. Around a section of Mizoram police personnel were stationed at the duty post at that time.

nly 70% work on the Rs 316-crore mega piped drinking water supply project has been completed till date though it was supposed to be commissioned by August 2020.Work on the project started in April 2018 to ensure round-the- clock supply of safe drinking water to around 2.75 lakh villagers in 52 panchayats underJeypore, Borigumma andKotpadblocks.

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He said under the project the surface water ofMurandam in Borigumma block will be filtered and supplied to the villagers for drinking replacing digging of borewells for water.
Official sources said as the ground water level is depleting with each passing year, the use of surface water will be very helpful in providing safe piped water supply in rural areas.

The prestigiousinstitution of national importance(INI) status has been conferred on the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT),Thanjavur. TheIIFPTis a national research and educational institute functioning under theUnion ministry of food processing industries.

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Considering the significance of the IIFPT in the development of the food processing sector, the institute has been granted the INI status for improving the research standard further.

TheParliamenton July 26 unanimously passed the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) Bill, 2021 to declare IIFPT as an INI.

IIFPT director Dr C Anandharamakrishnan said the development would the pave way for the institutes functional autonomy for administrative policy decisions and establishing new departments to meet the requirement of skilled manpower. The INI status will also enable the institute to start new innovative courses and research in food technology.

In Kerala, almost 80% of patients had to pay out of their own pocket for Covid treatment in private hospitals. Only 8% availed the benefits of government insurance schemes and another 12% had private insurance.

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Till June 30, 2021, almost 8.2% of the total population (29,24,166 people) had Covid infection and of that an estimated 4,38,625 required hospitalization with many requiring ICU and ventilator support. During the initial phase of the first Covid wave, Covid treatment was limited to government hospitals. However, from October, private hospitals were roped in for treatment and now 50% of Covid hospital admissions, mostly category C patients (mainly critical patients), are treated in private hospitals.

An analysis of hospitalization trends in southern states by Project Jeevan Raksha, a public-private partnership initiative involvingPublic Health Foundation of India(PHFI), that has been submitted to central and state governments shows that in Kerala, till June 15, only 34,755 had sought treatment in private hospitals under government schemes and another 51,102 made claims under individual health insurance schemes.

The department of public instruction has launched a campaign in Udupi district to collect old or spare smartphones from well-off residents and distribute them among poor students. The initiative follows a survey, which revealed that 2,688 children in the district are unable to access online classes because of the digital divide.

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Officials found that many children, especially those in rural areas, dont have a mobile or a television in their homes.

Several huts and small units in villages dont have electricity connections. The department is providing solar lamps to class 10 students living in such households. We have taken up a campaign to distribute solar lamps with the help of individual donors and organisations. We have already received 25 solar lamp sets.

Online or digital education has gained widespread adoption following the pandemic. While it has helped ease learning disruptions in urban areas, children in many rural areas have been left out. A number of studies and ground reports have shown how lack of devices and internet connection is hampering learning in rural or remote pockets. Officials and organisations are making efforts to solve the problem.

Political and diplomatic efforts seem to have fetched theUnescoWorld Heritage Site tag for the historicRamappa templein Telangana. The dossier prepared by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Department of HeritageTelangana(DHT) and the Kakatiya Heritage Trust (KHT), however, failed to convince the Unesco experts on the uniqueness and grandeur of the 13th century temple complex.

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If the report of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) submitted to the ongoing extended 44th session of theWorld Heritage Committee of Unescois any indication, the experts involved in the preparation of the dossier did not come up with a foolproof plan.

ICOMOS in its report pinpointed the loopholes in the dossier and explained how the state party failed to come up with clinching scientific evidence in support of the claims made for the heritage status.

To repair badly damaged roads in the state, the government has decided to secure Rs 2,200 croreloanfrom nationalized banks.

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The state government is gearing up to launch strengthening and maintenance works for 9,000 km roads after securing the bank loan. The government is making special arrangements to clear bills of contractors through banks to avoid delay.

Krishnababu also said that they would be shortly launching the works proposed with New Development Bank (NDB) loan of Rs 6,480 crore. He said that all the roads from district headquarter city to the mandal headquarter town would be converted intotwo-lanewith new alignments and facilities.
He said that they would begin the first phase works with Rs 2,970 crore in a couple of months. He said that the chief minister had also agreed to open a separate bank account to handle the loan amount to be released by the NDB as per the advice of the Centre.

While urging the state government to compensate flood-affected families and farmers immediately,Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry(GCCI) asked chief ministerPramod Sawantto form a task force to find out the reason for the yearly floods.

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In a letter to Sawant, GCCI said that it is willing to support and collaborate with the government in the relief efforts. The industry body has identified short-term measures as well as long-term measures to prevent similar instances from recurring.

GCCI has also urged the state government to set up local disaster management cells across all red zones. The cells should comprise members who can actively monitor climactic changes and the resultant impact along Goas riverfront and rainwater catchment areas around dams.

Even as the Centre on Tuesday sanctioned over Rs 700 crore as compensation against the Rs3,700 crore sought by the state towards the rainfall-related losses inMaharashtralast year, the preliminary estimate of this years losses has been pegged at Rs4,000 crore till now, with damages to government infrastructure making up for a large chunk.

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As thetollrose to 209, the state cabinet is likely to announce a special compensation package for Konkan and Western Maharashtra region that were worst hit. The compensation will be on the lines of that announced during the Nisarg and Tauktae cyclones.

The state governments compensation proposal to the Centre for rain-related losses last year was over Rs 3,721 crore. The state government had sanctioned Rs 4,375 crore from its coffers for the affected districts. The central norms for compensation were drafted in 2015. The state has been hiking the norms and giving compensation, therefore a large burden falls on the state.

Taking State Governments vision of groundwater development and management a step further, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday approved the engagement of District Implementation Partners (DIPs) for six clusters to support the successful implementation of Atal Bhujal Yojana.

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After the approval, DIPs will prepare the village water security plans and facilitate the implementation of Atal Jal at the gram panchayat level. They will also facilitate community engagement and social behavioural transition.

The Chief Minister was further apprised that Atal Bhujal Yojana is a Participatory Groundwater Management scheme supported by the Central Government and World Bank and implemented by the Haryana Government. The major objective of this scheme is to create the hydrogeological data network of groundwater resources and further building community institutions to manage the groundwater resources in Haryana.

As a part of the programme, community mobilisation and awareness activities, as well as capacity building of stakeholders, will take place. Initially, the water security plan of each village will be prepared and the same will be implemented over the next four years.