Himachal Pradesh Weekly Current Affairs

The Cabinet gave its approval to amend the para-1 & 6 of order number F.F.E.B.A (3)4/99 dated 10th September, 2002 under Himachal Pradesh Land Preservation Act, 1978 for felling trees from the private land under ten years ‘Pattan’ programme by empowering concerned Divisional Forest Officers to grant permission for felling of upto 200 trees in place of upto 50 trees in a year, concerned Chief Conservator of Forests/Chief Conservator of Forests upto 300 trees in place of upto 100 trees in a year, Principal Chief Conservator Forests upto 400 trees in place of upto 200 trees in a year and Government of Himachal Pradesh above 400 trees in place of above 200 trees in a year.
It also decided that in case of trees are not felled within a prescribed year, the competent authority may extend the period upto one year where the process of demarcation of land and marking of trees have been completed during the prescribed year of felling and the felling orders stand issued by the concerned DFO but felling of trees have not been done or has been done partially and where process of demarcation of land and marking of trees has been completed during the prescribed year of felling but felling orders has not been issued.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur laid foundation stone of Centre of Excellence for Tourism and Hospitality and Information Technology to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 85 crore in Gram Panchayat Chausha near Waknaghat in Solan district.
This Centre would provide a sound and trained manpower to the tourism and hospitality industry.
This Centre of Excellence would have an Information Technology Centre, Centre of Excellence for Tourism and Hospitality, Training Hotel, Teaching Staff Residence, Students Hostel, Staff Quarters and Directors Residence.
The Centre would produce some of the best-trained youth as per the demand of the industry.

The State Cabinet gave its consent for allotment of 104 MW Tandi, 130 MW Rashil and 267 MW Sach Khas hydro-electric projects on Chenab Basin in favour of SJVNL.

Himachal Pradesh has rounded the highest full immunisation coverage ie. 89.3 percent amongst the states in National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and has registered an enormous improvement of 20 percent from last survey.
The Government of India recently released the report of NFHS -5 which was conducted in the year 2019-20.
Full immunisation coverage is conducted based on number of children aged 12 to 23 months who have been administered the complete set of vaccines as per universal immunisation programme.
This increase in immunisation has led to a substantial decrease in the Under 5 Mortality Rate and the Infant Mortality Rate which have come down to 23 and 19 respectively as per SRS-2018 data.
The state has improved on most of the counts in NFHS-5 as far as health indicators are concerned.
Total unmet need for family planning is reduced around 15.7 percent to 7.9 percent and institutional births have improved from 76.4 percent in the last round of survey to 88.2 percent in the year 2019-20.

Himachal Pradesh Kaushal Vikas Nigam here today signed an agreement with Himachal Pradesh Tourism department for skill training of the youth of the state in the fields of hotel management, tourist guides, adventure sports, trekking guides and paragliding.
Himachal Pradesh has immense employment opportunities in tourism, hospitality and adventure tourism and this skill training will prove to be helpful in exploiting this potential. Under this programme, 640 youth of the state will be provided free skill training through Hotel Management Institute, Kufri and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali.
Financial assistance and technical support for these training programmes will be provided by Himachal Pradesh Skill Development Corporation while Tourism department will implement and coordinate the training programme.
The duration of the training programme will be two to three weeks.
In hotel management sector, the youth will be trained in the field of tourist guide, hotel kitchen operation, food and beverage management, hotel accommodation management etc. through Hotel Management Institute (IHM) Kufri whereas through Atal Bihari Vajpayee Mountaineering and Allied Sports Institute, Adventure Sports Manali; skill training will be provided on Trekking guides, adventure sports and paragliding.

Two jetties and common facility would be constructed at Tatapani and village Kasol with an estimated cost of Rs. 2.02 crore to develop water transport facilities between Tattapani and Salapar area.
Draft agreement from NTPC for signing MoU for use of land for construction of Jetties has been received in this regard.
The Chief Minister said that this would not only provide cost-effective transportation facilities to the people of the area but would also prove as an added attraction to the tourists.
This would also give a boost to economic activities in the surrounding areas by providing employment and self-employment opportunities to the youth.

Himachal Pradesh Current Affairs – [December 2020]