Himachal Pradesh Weekly Current Affairs

Himachal Pradesh Government, Government of India and World Bank have signed Development Policy loan I ( DPL 1 )amounting Rs. 292 Crores out of total negotiated loan amount of Rs. 986 Crores to improve water supply and sewerage services in Greater Shimla Area.
Various components will be covered under Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Project which include construction of water supply system from Satluj and rehabilitation of Giri and Gumma pumping systems to supply 107 MLD at a cost of Rs 366 crore, improvement in water distribution and SCADA( Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition ) at a cost of Rs 270 crore, extension of sewage network at a cost of Rs 246 crore and rehabilitation and capacity addition of sewage treatment plants at a cost of Rs. 104 crore.
These will ensure per capita supply of water to 135 lpcd ( Litre per capita per day) besides round the clock supply universal coverage.

This report is provided by ASER 2018 a nation-wide survey that provides a snapshot of children’s schooling and learning for a representative sample of children across rural India.
It was found in the survey that students of fifth standard of Himachal Pradesh tops in Language and Mathematics in the country.
Learning level of Government Schools in Himachal Pradesh was better than that of Private schools.
99.7 percent schools in the State have toilet facilities and the enrolment percentage in schools in age group 6 to 14 years was 99.6 percent.

CM Shri Jai Ram Thakur flagged off the electric bus for Shimla town from State Vidhan Sabha Complex and fifty such buses would ply in Shimla town.
these buses were equipped with the latest equipments and have zero pollution emission.
This would go a long way in protecting the salubrious and pristine environment of Shimla city and would be commuters delight as they would be able to enjoy noise free and comfortable journey.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched seven citizen-centric services of Shimla Municipal Corporation developed by the Information Technology Department under e-District Project, which is an Integrated Portal for delivery of citizen services.
The online services launched are online billing, water bill payment, and property tax payment, application for water connection, application for sewerage connection, application for NOC of electricity, application for permission of canopy and application for dumping debris.
Total 59 services were now hosted on e-District Portal and the State government was going to host 136 more services during the next financial year 2019-2020.
Jai Ram Thakur also launched availability of two documents through DigiLocker to the people of the State. These two documents are ration card and copy parivar register.
These services have been integrated by the IT Department within a period of ten days, in collaboration with the food and civil supplies and Panchayati raj department.

CM inaugurated 5MW Berry Dol Solar Power Plant constructed near Shri Naina Devi Ji Shrine in Bilaspur district.
This project has been completed by spending an amount of Rs. 36.24 crore by the HP Power Corporation Ltd.
This power project would generate 101 lakh unit electricity per annum and will earn revenue of Rs. 4.40 crore to the State exchequer.

Rs. 800 crore were spent under MNREGA in Himachal Pradesh which was highest and an additional 100 crore has been released under MNREGA which would be utilized up to 31^st March, 2019.
Rs. 850 crore has been approved for 2019-20 under MNREGA and more amount would be provided if needed.
7800 houses has been approved for the state under Prime Minister Aawas Yojna for the year 2019-20.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (7^th Indian edition) held in Himachal Pradesh and received wide participation across State.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is a citizen science initiative which encourages both amateur and professional bird-watchers to contribute towards understanding bird and their biology in a better way.
Participation in the event involved a minimum of 15 minutes bird-watching during which all the bird species seen were counted and listed. In addition to bird watching, the event was used as a means to reach out to people and spread conservation awareness about birds.
This involved bird watching sessions with school teachers and students, birding involving local villagers and panchayat representatives and training of frontline staff of forest department in bird identification.
Event witnessed participation by amateur birders from across the state and 287 checklists were uploaded in to e-Bird by 55 participants.
All the districts were surveyed during the count and a total of 332 bird species were recorded.
More than 150 bird species were recorded in Mandi, Shimla, Kangra and Sirmaur districts.
Among Indian States Himachal Pradesh shared the topmost position with Uttrakhand where highest number of species was recorded.

Central University will have two campuses at two different locations.
The first Campus would be at Jadrangal near Dharamshala, which would be spread in an area of 750 hectare. The second campus would be established at Dehra in an area of 287 hectare.
Rs.1300 crore would be spent on construction of both these campus and the same would be completed in next three years.
These campus would be spread in an area of about 1000 hectare making it one of the biggest University of the region.
In coming times the University would have fourteen schools of studies with nearly seventy Department of Studies and about forty Centres of Studies as per the Ministry of Human Resource Development/UGC.

Himachal Pradesh Weekly Current Affairs – [February 3rd Week]