HFRI to development forest cover in Ladakh

The Union Cabinet has decided to make amendments to the Coconut Development  Board Act, 1979 to make it  more effecient to carry out the activities of farming and production  of  coconut. Addressing media in New Delhi , Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar that with this decision, now the Chairman of the Board will be a non executive person but will be the person having the knowledge and experience of agriculture sector. Tomar said, the Coconut Development Board will now carry out the activities related to the development of coconut outside the country too. In another decision, Tomar informed that the Union Cabinet has also approved the proposal of allowing the Agriculture Produce Market Committees, APMCs to use the one lakh rupees Agriculture Infrastructure Fund which has been announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package. Tomar said, now APMCs will be eligible to get the benefits of this fund to improve their infrastructure. He said, APMCs will be further strengthened and mandis will not be abolished. Mr Tomar said, this shows the Narendra Modi government's commitment towards farmers' welfare.

-The Defence Ministry has implemented SPARSH, an integrated system for automation of sanction and disbursement of defence pension. This web-based system processes pension claims and credits pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without relying on any external intermediary. The Ministry said, a Pensioner Portal is available for pensioners to view their pension related information, access services and register complaints for redressal of grievances.SPARSH envisages establishment of Service Centres to provide last mile connectivity to pensioners who may be unable to directly access the SPARSH portal for any reason. In addition to several offices of the Defence Accounts Department, which are already functioning as Service Centres for pensioners, the two largest banks dealing with defence pensioners - State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have been co-opted as Service Centres. An agreement to this effect was signed between Officiating Controller General of Defence Accounts Rajnish Kumar and officials of SBI and PNB,

-The Assam cabinet has approved the Cow Protection Bill to be tabled in the upcoming budget session of the assembly. The budget session of the Assam assembly will begin from 12th of this month.Talking to newspersons in Guwahati, Assam Water Resources Minister Pijush Hazarika said, the cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has approved to bring the Cow Protection Bill in the assembly.

-The Centre has allocated over Rs 5,000 crore grant to the State of Karnataka under Jal Jeevan Mission in the year 2021-22. Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat while approving this four-fold increase in allocation than last year, has assured full assistance to the State for making provision of tap water supply in every rural home in Karnataka by 2023. The Ministry of Jal Shakti in a statement said that at the start of the Mission in 2019, out of a total of 19.20 crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 crore had tap water supply. During the last 22 months, despite COVID-19 pandemic 4.42 crore households have been provided with piped connections. It said, presently 7.66 Crore or 40.5 per cent rural households across the country have tap water supply. Goa, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have achieved 100 per cent household connection in rural areas and have become 'Har Ghar Jal'.

-Union Territory of Ladakh and Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for forest cover development in the region. UT Principal Secretary Dr. Pawan Kotwal and HFRI Director Dr. SS Samant signed the MoU in Leh on Thursday. On the occasion, Dr Pawan Kotwal said, MoU is an advisory arrangement without any financial and legal implications. HFRI is an expertise research institute to help Ladakh towards Carbon neutrality. He said, Increase in forest cover temperatures and melting of glaciers.HFRI would study and identify the suitable plant varieties to increase the forest cover in Ladakh and also help in capacity building with training programmes at grass root level. Depending on the requirement a regional HFRI centre in Ladakh is also in plan.