• 27 Oct 2021

Panchayat Election, 2021

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, 65.23 percent voters exercised their franchise in the third and final phase of polling for Panchayat Samiti member and Zilla Parishad member in Alwar and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan.

Key Points

• State Election Commissioner PS Mehra informed that in the third and final phase, polling was held for 167 wards of 7 Panchayat Samitis and their respective Zilla Parishad constituencies of Alwar and Dholpur districts of the state.
• In this phase, maximum voting took place in Kishangarh Bas Panchayat Samiti of Alwar district, where 69.98 percent voters cast their votes.
• There are 606 candidates in the fray for Panchayat Samiti members. The two districts together had a total of 7 lakh 76 thousand 284 voters, out of which 5 lakh 6 thousand 350 voters exercised their franchise.
• On October 20, 2021, 64.24 percent of the voters had voted in the first phase and on October 23, 2021, 57.46 percent of the voters had voted in the second phase.
• Counting of the above three phases will be done on October 29, 2021 at both the district headquarters. At the same time, the election of the head and head of the panchayats will be held on October 30, 2021 and the election of the up-pramukh and vice-pradhan will be held on October 31, 2021.

3704 Villages Declared Deprived

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, the Rajasthan State Government declared 3704 villages in 7 districts of the state as lacking due to water logging and floods, etc. For this, a notification has been issued by the Department of Disaster Management Assistance and Civil Defense.

Key Points

• According to the notification, on the basis of special girdawari done in various districts for Kharif crop 2021, these villages have been declared as deprivation under the Rajasthan Affected Areas (Suspension of Proceedings) Act, 1952.
• In this notification, a maximum 1236 villages have been declared in Baran district, 1177 in Jhalawar, 485 in Kota, 469 in Bundi and 224 in Tonk district. In Dholpur and Sawai Madhopur districts also 72 and 41 villages have been declared as deprived.

'Aid for Waste Management' Scheme

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, Haryana Government notified the 'Aid for Waste Management' scheme for the industrial sector with a view to encourage industries to undertake waste management activities, under which industries in the state will be provided facilities such as garbage collection, transportation, treatment and disposal. Incentives will be provided for waste management activities.

Key Points

• A spokesperson of the Industries and Commerce Department said that the scheme would be deemed to have started from January 1, 2021 and would remain in force for a period of five years. Under this scheme, assistance will be provided on purchase of land, machinery and equipment on or after January 1, 2021 and before December 31, 2025.
• Under the Waste Management Scheme, financial assistance up to 50 percent of the project cost including machinery and equipment up to Rs 50 crore would be provided for setting up electronic waste management and e-waste recovery projects for industries operating in the electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector.
• Financial assistance will be provided by way of reimbursement of expenditure incurred only to new ultra-mega projects, mega projects, large industries, micro, small and medium enterprises operating in the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector anywhere in the state of Haryana.
• The restrictive list of industries notified under HEEP-2020 will not be applicable for this assistance. Eligible units will have to file IEM/Enterprise Registration Certificate (URC) and Haryana Enterprise Memorandum (HUM) on the portal for statistical purposes.
• The unit should be in commercial production. The unit should be in regular production at the time of distribution and subsidy will not be released to the closed unit.
• Under the method of disbursement, the financial assistance will be disbursed in three phases. In the first phase, the first installment of 25% of the eligible assistance will be released after taking 100% possession of the land and 50% of the eligible project cost should be spent by the applicant.
• The second installment of 25 percent of the eligible assistance will be disbursed after the applicant has spent 75 percent of the eligible project cost. The third and final installment of 50% of the eligible assistance will be paid after the applicant has spent 100% of the eligible project cost. In all these cases the applicant will also have to submit a progress report.
• The deficiencies shall be communicated to the applicant within a period of seven days in writing and the applicant shall be given a time period of 10 days to rectify the deficiencies pointed out.

Central Energy Scheme

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, the state government issued a notification to constitute a committee at the district level for monitoring the Central Energy Schemes.

Key Points

• A committee will be formed at the district level to ensure that electricity connection reaches every household in rural areas and the last person is benefited from the schemes related to electrification of the central and state governments.
• The government has said that in the last 5 years, a new scheme of Rs 3 lakh crore for modernization and to deal with the challenges related to Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Integrated Energy Development Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Har Ghar Bijli Saubhagya Yojana and Rural Electrification Scheme Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme has been notified.
• These plans include establishment of more and more substations and upgradation of existing substations and ensuring public participation and monitoring. District Electricity Committee has been constituted for each district for monitoring the schemes.

'Vertebroplasty' Surgery

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, the first successful 'Vertebroplasty' surgery for vertebral fracture was performed at the Department of Radiology, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Medical College, Raipur.

Key Points

• Dr. Vivek Patre, an interventional radiologist at the institute said that 70-year-old Shakeela Pal of Tilda-Nevra (Raipur) underwent a minimally invasive vertebroplasty surgery for a spinal fracture, for which an image guided vertebroplasty procedure was used.
• No operation fee was charged from the patient for this treatment, as the patient was covered under the Dr. Khubchand Baghel Swasthya Sahayata Yojana, whereas the minimum cost of the operation ranges from Rs 2 to 3 lakhs depending on the procedure adopted .
• In the Image Guided Vertebroplasty procedure, a special bone cement is injected into the bone through a hollow needle at the fracture site. The cement settles at that place, which provides support to the broken bones.

National Award for 'Bhulan the Maze'

Why in News

• Recently, at the 67^th National Film Awards ceremony, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu presented the National Award to Chhattisgarh's film 'Bhulan The Maze'.

Key Points

• This film has been made in Chhattisgarhi language by Manoj Verma, a well-known director of Chhattisgarhi cinema. Actor Omkar Das Manikpuri has worked in this. The music of the title song of this film is given by Kailash Kher.
• The film is based on the novel 'Bhulan Kanda', authored by Sanjeev Bakshi.
• 'Bhulan Kanda' is a plant found in the forests of Chhattisgarh, on which a person starts forgetting everything. He forgets the way, he starts wandering, during this time when another person comes and touches that person, then he comes to his senses again.
• These National Awards were announced by the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on March 22, 2021. In this, the Chhattisgarhi dialect film 'Bhulan The Maze' was also nominated for the National Film Award.
• The name of 'Bhulan The Maze' has also become the record for the first film from Chhattisgarh to win the award at the international level. Under the new film policy, the Chhattisgarh government has also announced a grant of Rs 1 crore to the National Award winning film of Chhattisgarh.

Mukhyamantri Swarojgaar Nano Yojna

Why in News

• On October 26, 2021, the state government issued a revised mandate of 'Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Nano Yojana' to strengthen and empower small businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Key Points

• By amending the earlier mandate, the loan limit under this scheme has been increased to Rs 50,000.
• This amendment in the scheme will benefit all the fruit, vegetable vendors, tea vendors, tailors, plumbers, electricians, mobile repairers etc. small businessmen in rural and urban areas.
• For the grant given under this scheme, 5 categories A, B, B + C and D have been fixed in the state respectively.