• 02 Nov 2022

Unit of Civil Defence

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while reviewing the fire department, civil defence department and prison department in Lucknow, directed that civil defense units will be formed in every district of the state.

Key Points

• The Chief Minister said that the Civil Defence Department has played an important role in maintaining peace, harmony and security in the society and for this reason, keeping in view the importance and utility of civil defence, it will be extended to all the 75 districts of the state.
• It is to be noted that at present civil defence units are formed in 27 districts of the state.
• Reviewing the fire department, civil defence department and prisons department, he directed that civil defence units should be restructured considering all urban bodies of the state as the basis.
• In this way, more than seven and a half hundred civil defence units will be functional in the state. Necessary financial incentives will be provided by the state government for smooth implementation of new units.
• The Chief Minister said that the state cabinet had recently approved its new jail manual and it would prove to be an important effort towards prison reforms. Concerted efforts have to be made to establish prisons as better centres of improvement. Examples from 'open prison' and 'high security prison' can be useful in this regard.
• The Chief Minister directed that a list of prisoners lodged in all the jails of the state for more than 14 years should be prepared and made available and the list should also contain separate details of sick, minor and women and differently-abled prisoners.
• He said that the fire department needs to be established as a disaster management and emergency service and the model 'Fire and Emergency Bill' of the state should be prepared on the lines of the central government's model 'Bill on Maintenance of Fire and Emergency Service-2019'.
• He said that in accordance with the policy of Ease of Doing Business, self-certification system should be implemented by the building owner at an interval of every six months, provision of fire safety officer according to the type of buildings and the system of annual third party audit should be implemented.
• He said that efforts should be made to set up a special fund for the safety of firefighters and availability of high-level firefighting equipment and try to make more and more cities safe cities by making financial management through convergence with inter-departmental coordination.

International Pushkar Fair- 2022

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated the International Pushkar Fair- 2022 at Pushkar, Ajmer, in the state.

Key Points

• The Chief Minister said that Pushkar Dham is the center of faith of all classes and a large number of devotees from all castes and religions come here. Excellent and grand arrangements have been made at the Pushkar fair for the devotees coming here on a large scale.
• On this occasion, he has also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of development works worth Rs 110 crore in Ajmer and Pushkar. This included various development works and projects under smart city, Ajmer development authority and forest department.
• He informed that DPR has been prepared to solve the problem of dirty water in Pushkar Sarovar and development of Pushkar will be done at a cost of about Rs 11 crore and restoration of ghats in Pushkar and other development works will be completed soon.

Rajasthan International Expo-2023

Why In News?

Presiding over the fifth meeting of Rajasthan Export Promotion Council (Rajasthan Export Promotion Council) held at Udyog Bhawan on November 1, 2022, the chairman of the council, Rajiv Arora said that on March 11 to 13, 2023, to increase exports from the state. Rajasthan International Expo-2023 will be organized in Jodhpur.

Key Points

• Rajiv Arora said that from handicrafts to jewelry, ceramics and other products will be displayed on a wide scale in this international expo.
• Additional Chief Secretary Veenu Gupta said that organizing an international level handicraft expo in Jodhpur is an important part of the Chief Minister's budget announcement and it is being named as Rajasthan International Expo to further broaden this expo and to add many other products.
• It is noteworthy that the council has been formed to increase the percentage of exports in the state and to conduct other activities including exports.
• Commissioner Mahendra Parakh said that Rajasthan ranks 12th in the country in terms of exports and the state has a lot of export potential. The percentage of exports from the state has also increased significantly over the years.
• He said that having an international level expo will not only provide a better market to local products but will also identify them.
• In the council meeting, various topics including setting up of testing lab of products, center of excellence, beginning of council membership, becoming mission exporter were also discussed extensively on various topics.

CM Dashboard and 'CM Uphaar' portal in Chandigarh

Why In News?

On October 31, 2022, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal launched the CM Dashboard and 'CM Uphaar' portal in Chandigarh.

Key Points

• The Chief Minister said that the CM Dashboard Portal will enable a real analysis review of all the departments and information about high-level decisions on all major schemes will be made available on the CM Dashboard. This portal will also benefit greatly in good governance.
• On this dashboard, information about the functioning and schemes of all the departments will be available to the Chief Minister at all major and small levels and on this, the functioning can be tracked and it will be easy to analyze the reports and by this old and new data can be compared, which will make it possible to get prior information on the basis of data.
• It is worth mentioning that this dashboard has been developed in-house with state-of-the-art Business Intelligence software.
• Apart from this, all the valuable gifts received by the Chief Minister through the 'CM Uphaar' portal will be auctioned online in a transparent manner and on this portal any citizen of the country can bid for 'Uphaar' and the highest bidder will be awarded. The gift will be given to him after he is declared the winner.
• On this occasion, Chief Minister Manohar Lal said that this portal has been launched for the welfare of the society. The amount received from the auction of gifts through the portal will be used for the welfare of the citizens of Haryana through the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22'

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, the Central Government announced the names of selected schools for the 'Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22' in which Jharkhand has been ranked third at the national level.

Key Points

• Three schools of Jharkhand have been selected for the award for 'Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22'. All the three selected schools are secondary schools, out of which two schools are in rural area and one in urban area. These include Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya in Sonahatu, Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya in Noamundi, and U.V. Tata Workers Union School in Kadma.
• It is noteworthy that 39 schools from across the country have been selected for the 'Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22', out of which 10 schools are from Gujarat.
• Schools from 16 states of the country could be selected for the award, out of which only two schools have been selected from five states and one school each from seven states.
• The schools selected for the 'Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22' will be awarded by the Union Education Minister in Delhi on November 19. Principals/wardens and members of the Children's Parliament will be honored and the schools will be given Rs 60,000 and citations.
• It is known that both government and private schools are included in the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar Yojana. For the year 2021-22, 44878 schools had registered, out of which 2276 got five star grading. In the year 2019-20, 918 schools were selected and in the year 2017-18, 212 schools got five star grading.
• Top states in the country in 'Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2021-22':
  1. Gujarat 10
  2. Puducherry 06
  3. Jharkhand 03
  4. Maharashtra 03
  5. Haryana 02
  6. Punjab 02
  7. Rajasthan 02
  8. Uttar Pradesh 02
  9. West Bengal 02

Chhattisgarh State Decoration Award

Why In News?

Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel honored various personalities of Chhattisgarh with state decoration awards for their achievements and contribution to the development of the state in the state decoration and Rajyotsav ceremony organized on the occasion of Chhattisgarh State Foundation Day on November 1, 2022. .

Key Points

State Decoration Awards and personalities awarded to them

Award/Honour	Honorable personality	providing department
Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Award	Narayan Markam	Tribal Welfare Department
Pandit Lakhan Lal Mishra Samman	Laxmi Prasad Jaiswal	Home Department
Yati Yatanlal Samman	Madan Mohan Gaushala (Kharsia, Raigarh)	General Administration Department
Gundadhur Samman	Amitesh Mishra	Sports and Youth Welfare Department
Minimata Samman	Dr. Meera Shukla	Women and Child Development Department
Guru Ghasidas Samman	Khemchand Bharti	Tribal Welfare Department
Thakur Pyarelal Samman	Ashok Agarwal	Co-operative Department
Haji Hasan Ali Samman	Janab Yunus Khan	Tribal Welfare Department
Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla Samman	Sitaram Agarwal	General Administration Department
Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Samman	Rameshwar Vaishnav	Culture Department
chakradhar Samman	Vedmani Singh Thakur	Culture Department
Dau Mandraji Samman	Jayanti Yadav and Pandit Ram (jointly)	Culture Department
Dr. Khubchand Baghel Samman	Kheduram Banjare	Department of Agriculture
Maharaja Agrasen Samman	Ishwar Prasad Agarwal	General Administration Department
Danveer Bhamashah Samman	Gangotri Verma	Social Welfare Department
Bilasabai Kenvatin Fish Development Award	Rupchand Dheewar	Fisheries Department
Sanskrit Language Award	Dr. Balkrishna Tiwari	Department of Higher Education
Bhanwar Singh Porte Samman	Tukeshwar Kanwar	Tribal Welfare Department
Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singhdeo Award	NTPC Sipat and Paluram Sahu (jointly)	Labour Department
Bisahudas Mahant Award 2020-21	Anand Dewangan and Pancharan Dewangan (jointly)	Department of Village Industries
Bisahudas Mahant Award 2021-22	Rajan Dewangan and Krishna Kumar Dewangan (jointly)
Rajarajeshwari Karunamata Handloom Promotion Award	Narasimha Dewangan and Sripati Meher Dewangan (jointly)	Department of Village Industries
Devdas Banjare Memorial Award	Dwarka Burman	Culture Department
Devdas Smriti Panthi Dance Award	Milap Das Banjare	Culture Department
Kishore Sahu Samman	Manu Nayak	Culture Department
Kishore Sahu National Ornamentation	Palash Vaswani	Culture Department
Dhanvantari Samman	Dr. Manoj Chouksey	Health Department
Barrister Thakur Chhedilal Samman	Dr. Priya Rao and Vivek Saraswat (jointly)	Law and Legislative Department
Chhattisgarh Pravasi Bharatiya Samman	Ganesh Tax	Culture Department
Lala Jagdalpuri Literary Award	life	Culture Department
Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Journalism Award	Hindi Print Media - Dhananjay Verma Electronic Media Hindi- Amitesh Pandey and Dr. Vaibhav Shiv Pandey (jointly)	Public Relations Department
Madhukar Kher Memorial Journalism Award (Print Media English)	Dr. K. N. Kishor	Public Relations Department
Pandit Madhavrao Sapre National Creativity Award	Sudeep Thakur	Public Relations Department

Third Tribal National Festival Inaugurated

Why In News?

On the occasion of Chhattisgarh State Foundation Day on November 1, 2022, Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Speaker Dr. Chief Minister Mr. Charan Das Mahant and Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the Third National Tribal Dance Festival at Science College ground in Raipur by playing nagada as per tribal tradition.

Key Points

• Before this, he lit the lamp on the picture of Chhattisgarh Mahtari and started the program with Chhattisgarh state song 'Arpa Pairi ke dhar'. In the festival, he also released a coffee table book decorated with beautiful memories of the tribal festival.
• As many as 1,500 tribal artistes from different states and union territories of the country, including 100 artistes from abroad, are engaged in the three-day National Tribal Dance Festival and Rajyotsava to spread the rainbow colors of tribal culture.
• The main stage, pandals and stalls have been attractively decorated for Rajyotsava at the Sais College ground. Here people will get a glimpse of the development journey of Chhattisgarh for four and a half years with the rich culture, tradition and folk arts of the tribes.
• Several states of India including Togo, Mozambique, Serbia, Indonesia, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Russia, Rwanda and Egypt will showcase their tribal dance skills for three days at the festival.
• The 3rd National Tribal Dance Festival kicked off with enchanting performances from Mozambique, Russia and Mongolia. The dancers from Mozambique were the first to perform at the reception. He presented a dance form to be performed on the occasion of harvesting.
• While dancers from Russia and Mongolia presented a fusion dance form. In this, the culture, customs, tradition, natural beauty of the place are displayed. Artists from Mongolia captivated with performances focused on the themes of Achievement in Hunting, Height Strength, Intuitions of Animals and Lifestyle.

Paddy Procurement Started in Chhattisgarh

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, the work of paddy procurement started in Chhattisgarh under the Kharif marketing year 2022-23. Paddy procurement in the state will continue till January 31, 2023.

Key Points

• On the first day, 10 thousand 257 metric tonnes of paddy were procured by 775 procurement centers. Paddy was sold by 3 thousand 951 farmers in the first day.
• This year, preparations have been made by the government for the purchase of 110 lakh metric tonnes of paddy. This year 2497 procurement centers have been set up. 25 lakh 93 thousand farmers have registered for the sale of paddy. The total registered area of paddy is 31.13 lakh hectare. This year 2 lakh 3 thousand new farmers have registered.
• 5341 tokens were issued for the first day. Token 268 tokens were issued through Tunhar Hath App. Rs 279 crore has been released by Markfed to Apex Bank to make payment to the farmers for the first day's paddy procurement.
• After the implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana in the state, the number of farmers and the area under cultivation has increased every year. Along with this, a new record of paddy procurement is also being made every year.
• In the Kharif marketing year 2021-22, 97.98 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured, which is a record since the formation of the state. Then 21 lakh 77 thousand farmers had sold paddy. He was paid a support price of Rs 19038.04 crore. Apart from this, they have also got the benefit of input subsidy under the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana.
• Earlier in the year 2020-21, 92.02 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured. Paddy was sold by 20.53 lakh farmers. He was paid a support price of Rs 17240.55 crore. Apart from this, he also got the benefit of Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana.
• In the year 2019-20, 83.94 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured. Paddy was sold by 18.38 lakh farmers. He was paid Rs 15285.85 crore. Apart from this, he also got the benefit of Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana.
• In the year 2018-19, the state government had procured 80.38 lakh metric tonnes of paddy at the rate of Rs 2500 per quintal. A total of Rs 20094.32 crore was paid to the farmers including support price.

Souvenirs For the Devotees Coming to Uttarakhand

Why In News?

On November 1, 2022, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Dr. SS Sandhu told in the review meeting of MSMEs that souvenirs would be prepared for the pilgrims visiting the Chardham Yatra in the state.

Key Points

• SS Sandhu informed that lakhs of devotees from all over the country and abroad visit the state during the Chardham Yatra. The preparation of souvenirs for the devotees will open the way for self-employment for the youth and women in the state.
• He said that the focus should be on design, quality, production and marketing for the souvenirs and special attention needs to be given to the size and packaging of the souvenirs so that the devotees do not face any problem in carrying them.
• The Chief Secretary directed to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and to give priority to the disposal of complaints at the state level and district level. To bring any kind of scheme, investors should be supported as much as possible, focusing on taking suggestions from investors and resolving the problems faced by them.
• He said that feedback should be taken at the field level regarding other schemes including Mukhyamantri Swarozgar Yojana, so that maximum benefits can be taken from the entrepreneurs.
• He directed to promote one district, two products, link them with growth centers and simplify the departmental process so that investors get benefit from single window.