29.05.21

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday launched the Haryana Engineering Works (HEW) portal to facilitate ease of access and doing business with the government for contractors in the state.

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The contractors desiring to work in various projects of three primary engineering departments of the state namely Public Works Department, Irrigation-and-water”>Irrigation and water Resources Department and Public Health Engineering Department will benefit from this portal.

The portal will enable the contractors desirous of participating in various tenders of these departments to register themselves for the purpose. Every contractor will have to create a profile on it and they would be exempted from bearing Earnest Deposit (EMD) if they provide certain essential details for registration on the portal.

Khattar also directed that startups and new entrepreneurs should also be facilitated through this portal and expressed his hope that the portal would prove as a game-changer in providing an accessible and simple platform for the contractors which would also be a single-point reference for providing necessary information to the prospective bidders of the departments.

Punjabi University to work on operating system based on Linux

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Punjabi University will now work on Linux-based operating system. The University Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Arvind, said they would develop an operating system that worked in Punjabi.

The VC made the announcement on the concluding day of the 50th seven-day workshop organised by the Department of Punjabi Computer Help Centre.

Such programmes organised by the department for university students and outsiders would also be started for foreign apprentices, the VC added.

Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday thanked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing relief to farmers of the country and state by increasing the subsidy on Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizers by 140 percent.

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The Chief Minister said that the farmers will now get the subsidy of Rs 1200 per bag on DAP from the existing Rs 500 per bag. Despite the international price hike, the farmers would get the Fertilizers at old rates of Rs 1200 per bag, he said.

Thakur said that DAP is the second most commonly used fertilizer in India. The annual consumption of DAP is around 1200 to 1500 MT in Himachal Pradesh.

He said that farmers normally apply this fertilizer in Rabi season in potato and wheat crops just before or at the time of sowing. It is majorly used in Una, Kangra and some parts of Paonta Sahib and Nalagarh in the state. Last year, the actual price of DAP was Rs 1700 per bag in which the Central Government was providing a subsidy of Rs 500 per bag, he added.

The Chief Minister further said that recently, the international prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia etc. used in DAP had gone up by 60 percent to 70 percent, resulting in an increase in price of DAP bag to Rs 2400 per bag.

Uttarakhand: Artificial water sources quenching the thirst of wildlife in forest of Rajaji Tiger Reserve

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Erratic weather patterns have been hitting the natural sources of water in forests for years now, forcing wild animals to move out of their natural habitats in search of water. This would often lead to human-animal conflict incidents inUttarakhand.

To address this issue, the state forest department, sometime ago, started a massive drive to arrange artificial water sources for wild animals in the reserved and protected forest areas, includingRajaji Tiger Reserveand Haridwar forest divisions where the cases of human-animal conflict deaths were going up.

This year, the Rajaji Tiger Reserve has recorded just one human-wildlife conflict incident whereas no such case surfaced in the Haridwar forest divisions.

Notably, Uttarakhand is Home to 2,026 elephants, according to an estimation done by the forest department in 2020. A majority of these jumbos are found in the Shivalik Elephant Reserve, which is spread across more than a dozen forest divisions and protected wildlife areas of Uttarakhand.

Uttar Pradesh: Smart solar shops to empower self-help groups

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The UP government said that it has rolled out the Prerna Ojas project of the state rural livelihoods mission under which Women self-help groups (SHGs) are enabled to makesolar lampsfor children.

The opportunity will lead to economic and Empowerment“>Social Empowerment of rural women folk through Smart Solar Shops and also help in providing solar power for the benefit of children in remote areas.

Earlier, the had distributed over 28 lakh solar lamps made by 4,000 women to school children in 75 blocks of over 30 districts in the state. The initiative is helping children in a great way in pursuing Education, besides making women self-reliant. The women, according to the state government, have been earning a fair amount of Money ranging from Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 per month.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has come to a great help to provide employment opportunities to the rural population of Jharkhand at a time when the economy of the country has been badly affected by Covid-19.

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The ground assessment has confirmed that during the lockdown when Jharkhand witnessed a mass reverse Migration, the job loss on national level; MGNREGA proved crucial to financially sustain the poor rural Population.

So far in fiscal year 2021-2022 corresponding with the second and lethal wave of Covid 19, the Jharkhand government has provided job cards to 33,000 families that will benefit 51,000 people. So far 228 lakh man-days have been created with 13.80 lakh people getting EMPLOYMENT out of different MGNREGA schemes. To locally generate employment opportunities for job seekers under MGNREGA scheme District Administration and rural development department have been asked to start at least five to six construction works at each village.

The has further directed that rural works can be selected under different schemes like Nilambar-Pitambar Jal Samridhi Yojana, Birsa Harti Gram Yojana, Veer Poto Ho Khel Yojana, Didi Badi Yojana and others. Schemes related to water conservation and forestations too have been added under MGNREGA.

So far, 47,242 schemes have been completed and the work is under progress in 9.42 lakh schemes.

Notably, 81 per cent of the total allotted budget has been spent on schemes related to natural resource conservation.

Currently, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture related schemes constitute 94.33 per cent of the total schemes approved under MGNREGA.

In fact the Jharkhand Government realised that during tough times like this MGNREGA can be the life saver if schemes are properly managed. In the previous fiscal year over 14 lakh new job cards were issued when there was a nationwide lockdown. Similarly, 11 crore man-days were created under MGNREGA. The result remained satisfactory as almost all households got jobs for a minimum of 46 days whereas 3.56 per cent of the total households got full 100 days jobs.

Bihar, Jharkhand among countrys lightning hotspots

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An idiom which was perhaps coined in 18th century to denote surprise, has come to stay as a grim reminder of vagaries of nature as lightning strike has become a lurking threat to outdoor activities, particularly for the farming community in the country.

Lightning is the most impressive, commonly experienced geophysical phenomenon, producing the brightest Light and the loudest Sound commonly occurring on the Earth. There are approximately 30 to 100 cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning discharges per second worldwide; that translates roughly to 9 million discharges per day worldwide.

Globally, 85% to 90% of lightning occurs over land because solar radiation heats land faster, causing convection (thunderstorms) to be taller and stronger. This makes entire India venerable to lightning strike, but considering the fact that lightning is essentially a product of thunderstorm, so central and eastern parts of the country, includingBihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and adjoining areas of Bangladesh are the thunderstorm orlightning hotspots.

With an elaborate Network of ground and space-based observations, meteorological agencies are able to identify the areas of potential formation of such thunderstorm. For a wider outreach, these Services have been made available free of cost through mobile apps like DAMINI of ministry of earth sciences and INDRA VAJRA of Bihar government.

Nearly 50% villages in Chhattisgarh are now Corona-free

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The has declared over 9400 Covid-free after no case was reported there for five days in a row. “Out of 20,092 villages, 9,462 have becomeCovidfree. Campaign for containment for Covid infection in rural areas is yielding positive results.

New virology labs andRT-PCRinvestigation facility has been inaugurated in at the medical colleges at Mahasamund, Kanker andKorbaas well as Koriya District’s headquarters Baikunthpur. Increasing the testing labs capacity to 11 inChhattisgarh, because of this the daily sample testing capacity has increased from 22,000 to 70,000 per day. Health Infrastructure from district hospitals to primary health centers has been ramped up. Hospital beds were increased in the hospitals, treatment facilities were expanded to villages through new COVID care centers. Ambulances have been facilitated for taking the critical patients from rural areas to hospitals nearby.

As per the announcement of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the State Government has implemented Mukhya Mantri Covid-19 Anukampa Niyukti Yojana for all the regular/permanent workers/work-charged and contingent-paid/daily salaried/ad-hoc/contract/collector rate/outsourced/honorarium government employees/servants employed by it.

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All regular/permanent workers/work-charged and contingent-paid/daily wage earners/ad-hoc/contract/personnel of the state working on collector rate whose salary/honorarium/remuneration is payable from the States Consolidated Fund. Employees working on outsourced Services taken by the departments under the sanction and prescribed procedure, whose remuneration/honorarium etc. are payable from the State’s Consolidated Fund.

Gujarat: Survey begins to assess the impact of Cyclone Tauktae in devastated areas

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TheGujaratgovernment initiated a comprehensivesurveyto assess the impact of cycloneTauktaeand subsequent loss to life and property, including damage to crops, in the affected districts.

A comprehensive survey to assess the cyclone’s impact and subsequent loss to life and property has been initiated in Bhavnagar district.

The had shifted around 2.5 lakh persons to safer places and approved a daily cash dole of Rs 100 for each adult and Rs 60 for each child (who were shifted), for a period of seven days.