States Current Affairs 05.09.17 - Notes - Current Affairs

States Current Affairs 05.09.17

RAJASTHAN

• Raj govt to start free email for communication with residents.

• The Rajasthan government started free e-mail service to its citizens for official communication. The proposed facility is meant for beneficiaries of the Bhamashah scheme under which the state provides various benefits and subsidies to people.

• According to it, whenever a resident gets his or her Bhamashah Card, an electronic kitty consisting of his or her Bhamashah enrolment details (eCard), eVault... and a free e-mail account shall be automatically provisioned by a system and notifications of the same shall be sent to the resident on his or her registered mobile number and/or e-mail.

•  It will be first of its kind service launched by a government in the country.

• The state government expects that the initial deployment will host approximately 25 lakh resident mailboxes and will scale up to 2 crore over three years.

• The required hardware and operating system will be provided by the state-government’s IT arm RajComp Info Services Limited.

GUJARAT

• Gujarat goes lax on Zika surveillance

• Lax approach to sero-surveillance by the state health department in Ahmedabad and other cities in the state is alarming, especially because the virus spreads by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue and chikungunya. The spike in Aedes aegypti numbers comes after the monsoon, whic is now.

• The state health department issued a circular to all cities and districts, asking for blood smear samples to be sent to BJ Medical College only in suspected Zika cases of pregnant women, who had tested negative for dengue and chikungunya. There has been no follow up on that front in all the cities.

MAHARASHTRA

• Docs’ commission set for a Maha cut

• One of the most notorious practices in the medical profession called ‘cut practice’ will soon be illegal in the state, with offenders liable to face maximum imprisonment of up to five years.

• Cut practice refers to unethical methods where patients are referred to specific hospitals, pathology laboratories to undergo tests, examinations, in exchange for a certain commission to the referral physician. There is often a nexus between labs, hospitals and doctors, who indulge in this practice.

• The state’s medical education department drafted a bill, Prevention of Cut Practice in Health Care Services Act, 2017 against this cut practice. It is likely to be tabled in the winter session of the state legislature.

MADHYA PRADESH

• Discom introduces one more option for online payment

• Power consumers opting to pay their electricity bill through online payment mode now have one more option for this facility. Madhya Pradesh Paschim Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Ltd (MPPKVVCL) provides three online payment options for its consumers on its Urjas portal.

• Discom receives around 90 percent of its payment through online payment mode. 

• Discom also provides 0.5 percent rebate on power bills paid online to promote cashless transections. This rebate ranges from Rs.5 to Rs.20 or 0.5 percent of the bill amount for domestic consumers. 

CHHATTISGARH

• C'garh govt handpicks 36 start-ups under promotion programme.

• The Chhattisgarh government has shortlisted 36 promising startups under its ambitious initiative launched last year to foster entrepreneurship and promote innovation.

• Chief Minister Raman Singh  felicitated the startups selected under the first phase of the 'Start-up Chhattisgarh Grand Challenge' during an event organised here by Commerce and Industry department.

• The chief minister also inaugurated "36 inc.", the only incubator in the state sanctioned under Atal Innovation Mission.

• Start up Chhattisgarh' was launched last year with an aim to create an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of start-ups.

• Under the first phase of the programme, booth camps were conducted in all the 27 districts of the state to collect ideas for incubation.

• Out of the total 3,858 ideas submitted, 36 concepts were selected by the screening committee

• Under the '36 inc', the incubates will be mentored and provided support by the incubator in developing their business plan, building a prototype, market testing of the product/service and funding.

BIHAR

• Bihar government to provide land, buildings for cellphone tower.

•  The state  government would allot its land and buildings to mobile phone service providers to install towers in order to solve the call drop and poor connectivity problems in the state.

• The service providers would not install mobile phone towers on government land or buildings within 100 metres of schools, colleges, hospitals and anganwadi centres. The service providers would be allotted government land or its buildings for mobile phone towers through open bidding at the rate of Rs25,000 per tower under municipal corporation areas. They would be charged Rs20,000 per tower in the areas under the jurisdiction of nagar parishads and nagar panchayats. In the rural areas, they would be charged reserve money of Rs15,000.

• The allotment of land or buildings would be made for five years, after that it would be renewed for five years again on the 50% increase in the charges.

JHARKHAND                                                                

• Government connects rural youth with bus service.
•  To provide employment resources to the rural youth, the state government is connecting them with the rural bus service. Bus service will be started in almost all rural areas of the state. Permits will be issued at the level of the transport department for this service, while the banks will provide loans to those who wish to run the bus under the stand-up India scheme.

• The State Government is going to start the operation of 364 marked rural roads.

UTTAR PRADESH

• Employment of women under MNREGA as low as 20% in west UP.

• The Uttar Pradesh government has expressed its displeasure over the fact that only 13% of those given jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA)

in Bareilly district were women. In the rest of west UP, as well, the figure is not higher than 20%. According to MNREGAnorms, at least 33% of the total job card holders should be women and they must be given employment accordingly.

• In the past three years, employment of women in Bareilly, in particular, has not changed substantially. Of the total 2.36 lakh card holders, only 42,482 are women, and they are only hired occasionally, according to data available with the government.

• The government has expressed its disappointment at the situation, issuing several reminders during the past six months. Officials have been instructed to set up help desks and make arrangements for cradles for women labourers' infants at work sites.

UTTARAKHAND

• Uttarakhand school teachers want ‘Transfer Act’ as Teachers’ Day gift
• Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 but, 17 years later, still does not have a 'Transfer Act' for school teachers, who have alleged that the current transfer policy has many loopholes and scope for discrepancies. The best gift this Teachers' Day, they said, would be if the state government comes up with such an act.
• According to this act, it will clearly specify the number of years a government teacher has to serve in hilly or inaccessible areas of the state and leave no chance for alleged wrong methods used by some to get transfers to better locations in the plains.
• Meanwhile, there are teachers posted in remote parts of the state for over 10-15 years and they wished that the act were introduced.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

• Himachal Pradesh earned Rs 3,345 crore by selling power in four years: state government.

• A statement issued by the state government on Sunday stated that it generated Rs 3,345 crore revenue in the last four years by selling electricity. The official statement further mentioned that efforts are being made to involve global players so that identified hydel potential of the state could be exploited more efficiently and effectively.
   
• As of now, the state's hydro power potential has been pegged at of 27,436 MW. Of this, 10,351 MW has already been exploited with the active participation of different agencies working on the field.

• Also, in the last four years, Himachal Pradesh government has given technical concurrence to as many as 167 hydro projects of about 700 megawatt (MW). Along with this, 31 hydro power projects aggregating to 2,067 MW have also been commissioned.

ANDHRA PRADESH

• Hyderabad International Airport Limited bagged the National Award

• Hyderabad International Airport Limited bagged the National Award for ‘Excellence’ in Energy Management at a conference hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
   
• GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a company promoted as a joint venture comprising the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with Government of India (13%), Government of Telangana (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11%).
   
• The event focused on recognizing companies that are engaged in energy efficiency initiatives and displaying commitment towards energy conservation.

ASSAM

• Air India mulls Thailand, China flights from Guwahati.

•  Air India is exploring ways to launch Guwahati-Bangkok and Guwahati-Kunming flights as the Centre and state governments in the northeast push for better connectivity between the region and southeast Asian countries as part of the Act East Policy.

• An ATR flight service between Guwahati-Dibrugarh-Pasighat(Arunachal Pradesh) started from September 1. Efforts are on to make Guwahati airport the hub of ATR aircrafts. He also said there will be a Delhi-Dibrugarh flight from November. There will be new flights in the international sector too, connecting the region to places such as Nairobi and Houston,