• 27 Aug 2022

Sewage Treatment Plant Based on Hybrid Annuity Mode to be Built on the Banks of Yamuna

Why In News?

• Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved the construction of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) based on Hybrid Annuity Mode to deal with the increasing pollution due to large drains falling into Yamuna River.

Key Points

• Sewage treatment plants will be built on the banks of river Yamuna at a cost of Rs 583 crore, which will treat 177.6 MLD of sewage falling into the Yamuna.
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between NMCG Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam and Vishwaraj Environment Private Limited in Delhi in this regard. The agreement was signed by Rajkumar Sharma, Superintending Engineer, Jal Nigam, Satyajit Raut of Vishwaraj Environment and Vinod Kumar, Project Director, NMCG.
• It is worth noting that the Taj Mahal in Agra is being attacked by Goldie Chironomus insects due to the swamp created due to drain water in Yamuna. Insect attacks on the Taj Mahal have increased in the last four years. Even after taking suo motu cognizance of Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal, sewerage has not stopped in Yamuna river.
• National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) Director General G. Ashok Kumar said that with the construction of the new sewage treatment plant, the sewer will stop falling without treatment in the Yamuna.
• Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also included the construction of three new STPs to solve sewer problems, including interception, diversion structure, laying of I&D network, operation and maintenance for 15 years.

Awadh Bihari Choudhary Appointed New Speaker of Bihar Assembly

Why In News?

• On August 26, 2022, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Awadh Bihari Chaudhary was unanimously elected Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Key Points

• Awadh Bihari Chaudhary has replaced former Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha as the 17th Speaker of the Bihar Assembly. On August 24, Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha resigned from his post.
• The Grand Alliance had nominated RJD's Awadh Bihari Choudhary as its candidate for the speaker's post. There was no other nomination against him, so he was unanimously elected president.
• Maheshwar Hazari, who was sitting on the chair of the Speaker of the Assembly, started the process of election for the post of Speaker. After this, Jitan Ram Manjhi of 'HAM' proposed the name of Awadh Bihari Chaudhary. After this, with the consent of the entire House, Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari announced the election of Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as the Speaker.
• The new speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary was made to sit on the Speaker's podium by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and leader of opposition as per tradition.
• 76-year-old Awadh Bihari Chaudhary was elected MLA from Siwan in 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000 and in February 2005 and 2020. He contested for the Speaker's post in 2020 but lost the contest to Vijay Kumar Sinha. Awadh Bihari Chaudhary has also been a minister in the Rabri government.

Rajasthan 'Mahila Nidhi'

Why In News?

• On August 26, 2022, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot established the first 'Mahila Nidhi' (Rajasthan Mahila Nidhi Cooperative Credit Federation) for the social and economic advancement of women in the state level Women's Equality Day celebration organized at Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Center (JECC), Sitapura. ) was launched.

Key Points

• This fund will provide easy loans to women for business growth and entrepreneurship in addition to daily needs.
• On this occasion, the Chief Minister provided an amount of Rs. 1 crore 42 lakh as loan from Rajasthan Mahila Nidhi to the members of 386 self-help groups of 6 districts. He also awarded 8 women of Rajivika Community cadre for their distinguished work at the community level.
• The Chief Minister said that in the budget 2022-23, it was announced to set up the Women Fund through the Rajasthan Rural Livelihood Development Council. Rajasthan is the second state in the country after Telangana where women's fund has been established.
• Mahila Nidhi has been established to strengthen the women self-help groups, get loans from banks, increase the income of poor, propertyless and marginal women and social and economic progress of women by skill development.
• Under this scheme, loans up to Rs 40,000 will be deposited in 48 hours and loans above Rs 40,000 will be deposited in the bank account of the group of members applied within a time limit of 15 days.
• At present, 2 lakh 70 thousand self-help groups have been formed in 33 districts of the state, in which 30 lakh families are connected. In the financial year 2022-23, 50 thousand self-help groups are proposed to be formed, in which about 6 lakh families will be connected. A total of 36 lakh families in the state will get benefits from Rajasthan Mahila Nidhi in a phased manner based on their needs.
• In the program, an MoU was signed with Amazon for online sale of products. This will list products made by over 15,000 women entrepreneurs and self-help groups on the online marketplace and made available to millions of Amazon customers across the country.
• Through this, work will be done to empower the artisans and weaver community and encourage them to digital inclusion by making them Amazon sellers. Chief Minister's Work from Home Job Work Scheme and portal were also launched on the occasion.
• On this occasion, the scope of 'Indira Gandhi Matritva Poshan Yojna', which was earlier implemented in 5 districts of TSP area, was extended to all the districts. Under this scheme, a total of Rs 6000 is given in 5 installments on the birth of the second child. Now the benefit of this scheme will be available to the women of entire 33 districts from April 1, 2022.
• Apart from this, the second phase of 'UDAN Yojana' was also launched in the program, in which a provision of Rs 600 crore has been made for 1 crore 45 lakh adolescent girls and women. It is noteworthy that 29 lakh adolescent girls and women have been benefited from the first phase of this scheme.

Rajasthan Tops in Service Delivery through Digital Medium

Why In News?

• On August 26, 2022, Information and Technology Commissioner, Rajasthan, Ashish Gupta said that Rajasthan has now become Sirmaur state in the country in the service delivery of schemes through digital medium. There are a total of one lakh e-mitras operating in the state.

Key Points

• A total of one lakh e-mitras are operating in the state including 85 thousand e-mitras and 15 thousand e-mitras plus, whereas in the country this figure is 3 lakh. In this way, one-third of the e-mitras of the entire country are operated in Rajasthan.
• Information and Technology Commissioner Ashish Gupta gave this information while addressing a state level workshop on 'Recent Initiatives to Simplify Aadhaar Usage' at Bhamashah Techno Hub, Jhalana Dungri.
• He said that earlier in the state, the common man had to visit government offices to take advantage of government schemes or for other works, but in this era of digital revolution, now all the schemes of the government are available on mobile phones and digital service delivery has increased transparency in the system.
• The most important role in service delivery is the authenticity of the data. In the state, this work is being done through Aadhar card or Jan Aadhar card. In the coming time, work is being done to make Aadhaar registration 100% in the state.

Rajasthan gets Award for Smart Water Supply Monitoring System

Why In News?

• On August 25, 2022, In the 3rd Digitech Conclave-2022 held in New Delhi, Rajasthan was awarded for its remarkable work in installing IoT based Smart Water Supply Monitoring System.

Key Points

• Rajasthan's Public Health Engineering and Ground Water Minister Dr. Mahesh Joshi received this award.
• Dr. Joshi said that Rajasthan has installed IoT based smart water supply monitoring systems in most villages under a pilot project using digital technology.
• IoT (Internet of Things) based smart water supply monitoring systems have been installed for real-time monitoring of drinking water supply through taps in 15 villages of Jaipur district selected under a pilot project in Jal Jeevan Mission.
• In this system, sensors have been installed at the beginning of the drinking water supply line, branch node and tail node of the pipeline. These sensors have been connected to the Internet. Data collected by sensors is exchanged and monitored through the Internet.
• Through the sensors, it is also known that the water in the tank is pure and there is no contamination in it. Also, data on the water that the tail end consumer is getting, what is the pressure of the water, how the flow is, the pH value, TDS, chlorine and fluoride, the data is also received from the sensors.

Chief Minister gave Instructions to Set up New Power Plants of 1320 MW

Why In News?

• On August 25, 2022, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel gave instructions for setting up a new power plant of 1320 MW in the state. For the first time after the establishment of the state, a power plant of such capacity will be set up.

Key Points

• This will be the largest and most modern plant of Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company. With the establishment of this plant, the own power generation capacity of Chhattisgarh State Generation Company will increase to 4300 MW.
• The Chief Minister reviewed the availability of electricity required to supply the demand of power in future in a review meeting of power companies at his residence. New power plants will be required to supply the required power demand growth by 2030-31.
• The Chief Minister directed the State Power Generation Company to take appropriate action for setting up a 2×660 MW super critical new power generation plant on the available land in Korba West.
• NK Bijoura, managing director of the power generation company, said that this super critical plant will be set up with state-of-the-art technology. This will ensure availability of electricity on one hand, while employment opportunities will also increase.
• He informed that his own land is available for setting up a plant in Korba West. Also, conveyor belt facility is also available for the existing mobile production plants to ensure availability of coal at the required project site.
• The conveyor belt is expected to be cheaper at the rate of power generated from the newly proposed plant due to coal availability, own land availability and supercritical plant. The development of local employment will also be possible by setting up a new production plant.
• After the instructions of the Chief Minister, necessary approvals for the establishment of the plant, coal allocation, detailed DPR including water allocation. The work of preparing etc. will be done at an accelerated pace by the power generation company, so that the expected power supply can be made possible by the year 2030-31.

Chief Minister Inaugurated Dehradun-Almora Heli Service

Why In News?

• On August 26, 2022, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami launched the Dehradun-Almora Heli service under the 'UDAN scheme' at Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun.

Key Points

• Chief Executive Officer of Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority, C. Ravi Shankar said that with the introduction of air service from Dehradun to Almora, besides promoting tourism, local people will also be able to travel in less time.
• He said that at present, the Heli service has been allowed to run once a week by the DGCA. It can also be done daily as the number of passengers increases.
• Recently, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had asked Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to allow Heli services to operate from Dehradun to Almora.
• The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed Pawan Hans to operate a heli service between Dehradun and Almora.
• With this, one will be able to reach Almora from Doon in one and a half hours. It is a journey of 12 to 13 hours by road. The fare for the heli service has been fixed at Rs 7700 per passenger.
• The heli service will run from Jolly Grant Airport to Pantnagar, Haldwani, Almora and Pithoragarh. This route will also be of return.