Himachal Pradesh Affairs
131 schools in Himachal have zero enrolment; 1,957 have less than 10 students
The government could consider winding up or merging its 131 primary schools that have zero enrolment and 1,957 schools which have less than 10 students in the state as part of the rationalisation process.
This was stated by Education Minister Govind Thakur in a written reply to a query raised by Ramesh Dhwala of the BJP. He wanted to know the number of schools with zero or less than 10 enrolment and if the government was considering their rationalisation.
Besides this, losses suffered by the Irrigation and Public Health Department amounted to Rs 215.53 crore. I admit that the damages are far more than the compensation received from the Centre or even from our own funds. As such, a large number of repair works have been undertaken as part of various schemes under the MGNREGA or conservation, he stated.
He said at times, relief or compensation given was inadequate but the government had to abide by the relief manual and could not go beyond the fixed amount.
National and International Affairs
Ranking of airports globally
Worlds top-5 include:
Doha Hamad International Airport
Tokyo Haneda airport
Changi airport Singapore
Seoul Incheon International Airport and
Tokyo Narita
It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The council look after the implementation of the Policy and advise the Government to formulate and implement policy and programmes for senior citizens.
NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).
Third meeting of the Council was held in June, 2018.
Issues like Schemes, Programmes and Act were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.
Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:
Council suggested to strengthen the Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007. Following it, government introduced Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.
Council suggested to organise more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across country.
Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs following which, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.
It suggests to provide financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from Senior Citizens Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion, government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.