Himachal Pradesh Weekly Current Affairs

1. Sarveen Chaudhary gets Smart City Person of the year award:

Urban Development and Town and Country Planning Minister Sarveen Chaudhary has been honoured with the Smart City Person of the year award by BW Businesswolrd media group.
The award was presented to her by the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of BW Businesswolrd Annurag Batra during the 6^th edition of BW Smart Cities conclave and awards in New Delhi.
The Urban development Minister said that the Himachal government was committed to take forward the opportunity offered by the Smart City Mission and making Shimla and Dharamshala as the best and most livable cities of the country, with world class standards of infrastructure and citizen delivery. Together, the two cities have envisaged an investment of Rs. 5000 crore with 53 projects in Shimla and 74 in Dharamshala.

2. Union Ministry proposes up-gradation of two national highways in HP:

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed two national highways of Himachal Pradesh for up-gradation to double lane traffic standards for the World Bank financial assistance.
Additional Chief Secretary Manisha Nanda said that these national highways are Hamirpur-Mandi section of NH-70 (New NH-03) having length of 124 kilometers and Paonta Sahib-Gumma section of NH-72B (New NH-707) having length of 97 Kilometers with estimated project costs of Rs. 909.81 crores and Rs. 779.10 crores respectively.
The Hamirpur-Mandi NH will be developed as green highway for sustainable environment and inclusive growth.

3. Govt. to allot 3/2 biswa land to widows whose husbands were landless:

The state government has decided that a widow whose husband was landless would be considered eligible for allotment of 3/2 biswa land in rural and urban areas, if her family income is less than Rs. 50,000 without paying any consideration to their right on parental property.

4. CM launches mobile demonstration van of state cooperative bank:

Chief Minister said that this initiative of the state Cooperative Bank would go a long way in spreading awareness and promoting digital financial literacy in the rural areas of the state.
This van would visit remote areas of the state to demonstrate various modernized banking services in order to bring maximum people under financial inclusion. Moreover, it would help in sensitizing businessmen and end customers to use digital payment system besides creating awareness among the users about the precautions and safety measures while using different bank technologies.
The mobile van has been equipped with ATM, TV screen, cctv camera, sound system and publicity material. NABARD has provided financial assistance of Rs. 15 lakh for the purchase of this mobile van.

5. CM calls upon youth to contribute in curbing drug abuse menace:

Govt. to bring law to make drug peddling a non-bailable offence.
Drug de-addiction centre to be opened at Baddi.
Himachal Pradesh shares border with about five states, the drug peddlers were quite active in the border districts of the State.
It was on the initiative of the state government that a meeting of Chief Ministers of neighbouring states was held at Chandigarh to chalk out a joint strategy against drug abuse.
A special campaign would be launched throughout the State to sensitize the people, particularly the youth against ill effects of drug abuse.
Prevention programmes involving entities such as families, schools and the immediate communities were important in this regard. CM urged the children to come forward to discourage their elders from using liquor just for sake of entertainment and relaxation.
Media also needs to understand its role in this context and should play a positive role by resisting the urge to earn millions by romanticizing and glorifying drug abuse.
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, was enacted with stringent provisions to curb this menace which envisages a minimum term of 10 years imprisonment extendable to 20 years and fine of Rs. 1 lakh extendable up to Rs. 2 lakhs for the offenders. The Act has been further amended by making provisions for the forfeiture of properties derived from illicit drugs trafficking.

6. State to constitute Core Group for landslide mitigation

Landslide was the most common hazard in the state and almost every year the state gets affected by one or more major landslides causing loss of life and damage to houses, agricultural fields, roads and infrastructure.
Most of the critical landslide spots were near the National Highways maintained by the government of India.
The National Disaster Management Authority,the government of India has sought detailed project report for landslide mitigation from the State.
As many as 21 vulnerable sites of landslide have been selected which may be perused at falling in different districts.
It was decided in the meeting to constitute a core group with Engineer-in-Chief, PWD as Member Secretary for preparation of the DPR for the State.
The Core Group will have the Director, Geological Survey of India, Chandigarh as Member and Engineers from PWD, Geologists from Industries department and technical experts from IIT, Mandi will also be the Members of this core group.
The State PWD department would be the implementing agency for landslide mitigation with Geological Survey of India and State Geological Wing as supporting agencies. IIT Mandi will be the technical support agency for the DPR preparation and landslide mitigation.

7. Panorama of Himalayan Architecture Book by noted writer Shri O.C.Handa released: