Sunil Kumar Bansal takes over as new Odisha DGP

Sunil Kumar Bansal, a 1987 batch Ips officer, on Friday took over as the new director general of Police, replacing Abhay, and highlighted that Corruption-free and people-friendly policing will be his focus areas in 2022.
Bansal, who returned toOdishaafter nearly 27 years on central deputation, said he will work hard to uphold the dignity ofOdisha Policeand its moto, we serve and protect.

Bansal said he would ensure proper implementation of the governments Mo Sarkar and 5T initiatives.

Paddy on 20,000 acres damaged by rain in Tamil Nadu: Officials

The rain that lashed delta districts in the last two days has flattened and damaged harvest-ready sambapaddycrop on thousands of acres in Thanjavur, according to farmers and Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agricultureofficials.

Besides this, 50,000 tonnes of paddy that was procured and stacked in an open stockyard of NaduCivil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) at Sannapram near Kumbakonam got drenched in the rain.
Farmers said about 1,000 acres of samba paddy crop ripe for harvest has been submerged in Orathanadu, Pattukottai, Peravurani and Thanjavur taluks.

SilverLine project: Kerala govt sanctions Rs 20.5 crore for land acquisition process

Despite strong objections against theSilverLine projectfrom various corners, the government is completing the formalities for the project at a quick pace.
In the latest development, the government sanctioned Rs 20.5 crore towards establishment and contingency charges for the land acquisition of SilverLine project.

A high-power committee meeting on major development projects (MIDP) in the state, that was held on November 17, considered the proposal from K-Rail and approved it, and recommended the finance department to provide additional funds since the existing allocation under the MIDP has been committed already. The state had earmarked Rs 473.03 crore for undertaking various infrastructure projects in the state for the ongoing financial year. The amount for SilverLine project will be in addition to this allocation.

Panel seeks feedback from students on youth policy

The has formed a panel headed byR Balasubramaniam, the founder ofSwami Vivekananda Youth Movement, which will lay out a policy for the youth ofKarnatakaafter getting their feedback on 43 questions, many of which are related to Covid-19.

The Department of Collegiate Education (DCE) through a circular dated January 1, 2022, has asked college principals to ensure that students participate in the survey in which youth up to the age of 29 can participate.

Girish N Gowda, a para Olympian, said: The new policy should give more Stress towards building a healthy Society and enable the youth to be independent. It should cover all critical areas of Human Development, including physical and mental Health, quality education, Sports, etc. It should be implemented in a timebound manner.

Centre to review management of river boards

Expressing displeasure over the delay in implementation of gazette notification of management ofriver boards, theCentrehas decided to take stock of the situation with AP and.

Union Ministry for Jal Shakti secretary, Pankaj Kumar, will conduct areviewvia video-conference with chief secretaries of AP and Telangana on Tuesday. In a Communication sent to the chief secretary, Dr Sameer Sharma, Pankaj Kumar said the progress of the implementation of the provisions in gazette notification was not satisfactory. He said no state has deposited seed Money of Rs 200 crore each to theKrishnaRiver Management Board (KRMB) andGodavariRiver Management Board (GRMB) even after lapse of five months.

The State Government had argued that inclusion of projects which do not share common interest between AP and Telangana would complicate the implementation of the gazette notification.

Andhra CM releases 1,570 crore for enhanced pension

Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the distribution of enhanced social security pension of 2,500 per month under ‘YSR Pension Kanuka’ at Prathipadu town in Guntur district on Saturday. The chief minister released 1,570 crore from the exchequer to be paid to the beneficiaries under the pension scheme.

Andhra Pradesh is the only state in the country to come up with such an initiative. On YSR Pension Kanuka alone, the government has spent over 45,000 crore since the scheme’s inception without any cuttings or any Corruption besides adding over 18.44 lakh fresh beneficiaries.

Revival of industries pushes Goas GST collections to 73 per cent year-on-year

Driven by a strong resurgence in tourism andrevivalin manufacturing activity, the gross goods and Services tax (GST) revenue collection in Goa continues to remain positive, with December registering a73%jump inyear-on-yearcollections. The Growth, which is a 14% increase over November, is also significantly higher than the 13% growth seen at the national level.

According to the Union finance ministry, Rs 592 crore was collected as central GST, state GST, integrated GST and cess in December as against Rs 518 crore in November. In December 2020, the total GST mop-up in Goa stood at Rs 342 crore.

Nationally, the gross GST revenue stood at Rs 1,29,780 crore, of which CGST is Rs 22,578 crore, SGST is Rs 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore and cess is Rs 9,389 crore.
The state governments annual GST collections has shown a steady increase every financial year, growing from Rs 3,651.8 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 4,689 crore in 2020-21. Till July, Goas GST revenue stood at Rs 1,346.6 crore.

Maharashtra to target 60 lakh in 15-18 age group, 29L in comorbid category

The states target beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group and the comorbid category is 60.63 lakh and 29.09 lakh, respectively, according to the projected Population listed by the Centre on Tuesday.

Of the total 7.4 crore beneficiaries in the age group of 15-18 years in the country, the states target is second highest after Uttar Pradesh. The state immunisation officials claimed that it would take at least six months to cover this population. TheCovid-19vaccination of this age group would commence from January 3.

According to theHealth departmentsNational Family HealthSurvey-5, about 73.5% of the population is above 18 years and 22.8% under 15. Thus, around 3.7% of the population is in the 15-18 age group.

Punjab Government to reimburse Rs 4.5 crore to workers’ fund

The will reimburse around Rs 4.58 crore which was spent on the vaccination of registered construction workers and their family members to the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

It has been learnt the Labour Department has already asked the Finance Department to take steps in this regard in the recent 28th meeting of the board. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister himself, wherein the Labour Department asked officials to reimburse the Money citing the free supply of vaccination to the entire Population by the central government.

The Tribune had been highlighting the paid vaccination of construction workers while others were being jabbed for free. The Labour Department had to transfer around Rs 7.04 crore to the Health Department for the vaccination of registered construction workers and their family members. Ironically, other beneficiaries of the state were being jabbed free of cost.