Development news of orissa and India

NewDelhi: There was no let up in the intense heat prevailing in northern and eastern parts of the country with temperatures remaining above the normal mark at most places.

The maximum temperature in the capital Delhi climbed upto 45 degrees celsius, the highest recorded this season. The minimum was recorded at 26.8 degrees celsius.

In Punjab and Haryana, people were forced to restrict themselves indoors due to the sweltering heat. Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Moga and other towns of Punjab reeled under the severe heat wave. The MeT office has forecast no immediate relief from the hot weather conditions in the region.

Mercury soared in the desert state of Rajasthan with SriGanganagar being the hottest place at 47.4 degrees celsius followed by Churu at 47.2 degrees.

In Uttarakhand, capital Dehradun recorded a high of 43.1 degrees celsius, breaking the previous century’s records in 1944 and 1988.

In Uttar Pradesh, the temperature crossed forty five degrees Celsius mark at many places. The met office has predicted further rise of one to three degrees in southern and central UP in next 48 hours.

The underground water stratum has already gone down and ponds have dried up in central and Bundelkhand region.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has set up Central Grain Analysis Laboratory (CGAL) in Krishi Bhawan to ensure quality food grains under PDS system. Inaugurating the laboratory Prof. K.V.Thomas, Miniser of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that rendom periodical check-up will be carried out by the lab to ensure that food-grains being procured and distributed under PDS are of good quality. The lab will have facilities for physical and chemical analysis of samples wheat and rice collected from procurement centers, FCI stores and Fair Price Shops. He said that Government is very conscious about the quality of PDS foodgrains hence it has directed its technical staff in the field to ensure that at each stage from procurement to storage and distribution quality should be maintained.

Prof. Thomas said that quality monitoring cells have also been set up at Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Pune to inspect food storage depots of FCI, CWC, State Government and other procurement storage agencies and fare-price shops. These cells take up the samples of foodgrains to analysis at CGAL, New Delhi. He said that officers of his Ministry have been directed to take up immediate investigations of the complaints relating to quality of foodgrains during procurement, storage and distribution received from NGOs, local representatives, State Governments and Consumers.

Prof. Thomas said that he has also requested to the State Government to set up quality monitoring cell and laboratories at there level also . |He said that all possible supports and training to the technical staff would be provided by the Centre to ensure quality food-grains through PDS.

Prof. Thomas also launched the upgraded website of Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry. He said that new website has been made more informative and users friendly. It provides many useful in formations to the common persons like:- latest allocation of food-grains under various schemes, off take by the States, movements and storage etc. It also provides daily prices of 22 selected consumer commodities collected from 39 centres across the country and other consumer friendly information.

All the five States participating in Pilot Centrally-Sponsored Scheme “Pradhan Mantrai Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)”, viz., Assam, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh have confirmed preparation of Village Development Plans for the villages covered under the Scheme. The centrally sponsored scheme called “Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gramin Yojana(PMAGY)” was approved in the year 2010 by the Government of India on pilot basis for integrated development of 1000 Scheduled Castes majority villages in five State- Assam(100 villages), Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu(225 villages each).

The Scheme has, in effect, been functional for about two years in Assam, Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and for a little over a year in Himachal Pradesh. Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have reported having initiated the works under the “gap- filling” component of the Scheme. However, the pilot Scheme has a time-frame of three years and can be evaluated only thereafter. Its extension would depend on successful implementation of the pilot phase.

Union Ministry of Rural Development has invited Bill Gates Foundation to partner with it in finding solutions to sanitation problem in India as 60 percent of the country’s 1.1 billion people still practice open defecation. Rural Development Minister and the Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Jairam Ramesh met Bill Gates and his team members here and called for launching a global joint initiative for developing low-cost technological solutions for clean toilets in Railways also, as 11 million passengers commute daily without proper hygienic conditions. The Minister also sought help in devising Behavioural Change and Communication Pilots on the lines of Pulse Polio Campaign Model for toilet use in India. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had launched the initiative titled Reinventing the toilet last year at Rwanda, Africa to help bring safe, clean sanitation services to millions of poor people in the developing world. Shri Ramesh asked Mr Gates to have a more India focussed approach as 58% of all open defecations in the world is in India and the problem is particularly daunting in rural areas. Gates Foundation was urged to partner with Indian Institutes in the R&D field to help co-develop low-cost sanitation solutions.

The Minister also sought Rs.200 crore as initial pitch for the Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation to improve the living conditions of people in the Central Indian Tribal Belt. BRLF provides support to Civil Society Organizations to scale up best practices to empower Community-Based Organisations to improve livelihoods of the extremely backward and poor people in 170 naxal-affected districts in 9 States. Mr Gates expressed interest in the objectives of the Rural Livelihoods Foundation and stressed for keeping the dialogue open for future cooperation. Shri Ramesh informed that Central Government has already committed Rs.500 crore for the BRLF and is trying to garner another 500 crore rupees from the Private Sector as initial corpus to kick start developmental programmes in the 900-tribal dominated Blocks.