Will declare...

Vagyani was responding to a plea filed by activist Sanjay Lakhe-patil, who was seeking a direction to the state government to declare drought before October 31. For a state to get financial assistance from the Centre’s National Disaster Relief Fund for the previous sowing season (in this case, Kharif 2018), it must officially declare drought by October 31, Lakhe-patil’s advocate Ranjit Pawar told the court, referring to the 2016 Manual for Drought Management — an official guideline to declare drought.

Pawar said the state government was not following the guidelines laid down in the manual. The bench, however, expressed doubt over whether it could issue an order, as prayed for by Lakhe Patil. “Can a writ court decide if the situation warrants declaration of drought or not?” the bench asked Pawar. The lawyer responded saying there was urgency in the matter as October 31 was the last date, and that the state will not get any financial assistance through the National Disaster Relief Fund if it misses the deadline.

The judges, however, refused to take up the issue and posted the plea for further hearing on October 31, in order to see what decision the state government takes.

In an affidavit filed by the state in response to Lakhe-patil’s plea, during Kharif 2018 season, the state assessed and evaluated the drought situation on the basis of scientific indicators provided in the manual. It has identified 201 tehsils where trigger-1 — areas that got less than 50% of its average rainfall or experienced continuous dry spell for three to four weeks — had set in.

The affidavit added that on further assessment, the government found trigger-2 had set in 180 tehsils and on October 23, a droughtlike situation was declared. These 180 blocks, according to the affidavit, are now entitled to exemption on land revenue, restructuring of crop loans, stopping recovery of farm loans, onethird subsidy in electricity bills for agricultural motor pumps, exemption in examination fee of students and supply of drinking water by tankers. numbers. “We had initially organised two ferries and a boat, and all of these which had the requisite permissions. However, it seems that as there were more people, another boat was arranged locally,” said Manoj Saunik, the principal secretary, PWD.

After the accident, the state government ordered a probe by the MMB, which is authorised to issue fitness certificates to inland vessels, and had given the capsized boat a fitness certificate in February 2018.

“We are looking at all angles: whether the boat had the necessary permissions, if the skipper had the required training, and why he took the route he did,”said Vikram Kumar, the chief executive officer, MMB. Kumar added that the boat’s capacity was 20 passengers.

The boat, however, had at least 25 people onboard.

Another senior MBPT official said the skipper should not have taken the route near the Prongs Reef, which is generally rocky. “There is a demarcated channel for all vessels to follow in the water. Nobody can take any route they desire,” the officer said.

Despite several attempts, officials from West Coast Marines were unavailable for comment. An email sent to the company also remained unanswered at the time of going to print.

The Maharashtra government is building the ₹3,826 crore memorial of Shivaji in the Arabian sea, off Mumbai’s coast. The construction of the Shiv Smarak, or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial, which is pegged to be world’s tallest statute, was to formally commence on Wednesday.

The memorial project will include a 210-metre high grand statue of Shivaji, to be built by contractor L&T. Apart from the statue, the memorial will have a temple, museum, hospital, and a theatre showcasing highlights of the Maratha king’s life. by the government for the IOE category.

Two of the four officials cited above suggested that the ministry may have put the committee on the back burner because of the controversy. Asked if it had anything to do with the IOE controversy, Oberoi said, “No, no… it has nothing to do with that. I know of a press release about the committee but I have no communication that I will be heading it.”

Experts say the panel would have served an important role. “It seemed like a great idea to have such a panel. Members must be carefully selected and known for their ability to deliver. It is unfortunate that this panel could not make any difference,” said military affairs expert Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).

The defence ministry first announced the 13-member Raksha Mantri’s Advisory Committee on Ministry of Defence Capital Projects in February, but it was approved only on July 23 with 11 members and two special invitees (instead of 13 members.) The special invitees are from private consultancy firms, KPMG and Ernst & Young.

According to a government statement issued on February 7, when the committee was announced, the panel’s terms of reference included undertaking “independent review and status check” of critical ongoing capital projects worth more than ~500 crore.

The panel was also tasked with assessing the “physical and financial progress” of the programmes reviewed by it, apart from identifying reasons causing delay and recommending the way forward. provide a comprehensive range of services and care, “including but not limited to vaccination,” said the declaration, which marks a move away from targeted health programmes that work in silos to an integrated health approach.

“The resurgence of global commitment to comprehensive primary health care resonates well with India’s National Health Policy of 2017. The high priority accorded to Health and Wellness Centres opens the pathway to universally accessible, integrated, continuous care,” said K Srinath Reddy, the president at Public Health Foundation of India. India, which was represented by Union health minister JP Nadda at Astana, has already made a start with the launch of health and wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat that offer health promotion, and disease prevention and management at the community level.

“The role of non-physician health care providers, especially technology-enabled community health workers and mid-level care providers, is pivotal for the success of primary health care as envisioned at Astana. India has to prioritise this investment in health workforce to achieve the health targets of the sustainable development goals (SDGS),” said Dr Reddy.

Strong primary health care, rooted in community participation, builds resilience against new and existing diseases and helps governments to respond to evolving health needs, demographics, environmental challenges, and emergencies to improve outcomes and well-being at lower costs.

For the first time, a health declaration acknowledged the need to “create decent work and appropriate compensation for health workers” working at the primary health care level and invest in the education, training, recruitment, development, motivation and retention of the workforce, with an appropriate skill mix.

With around 80% of India’s 1.04 million registered doctors of modern medicine (allopathic) working to serve 31% of the country’s population, these CHOS will help meet the shortfall of doctors in under-served areas where the allopathic doctor-patient ratio is 1:11,082, against the Who-recommended ratio of 1:1,000.

Astana declaration urges nations to increase investments in human, technological, financial and information resources in primary health care to ensure health services and continuum of care reach everyone who needs them. It said countries must strive to provide primary health care workforce in rural, remote and less developed areas, and not allow international migration of health workers.

“The Astana declaration will set new directions for the development of primary health care as a basis of health care systems and urge countries, people, communities, health care systems and partners to achieve healthier lives through sustainable primary health care,” said Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the prime minister of Kazakhstan, which cohosted the conference.

Sujatha Rao, former health secretary of Union ministry of health and family welfare, said, “It’s timely as the one thing that is clearly emerging is primary health care is the foundation of a health system. If the foundation is weak, how can any structures, no matter how grandly designed, stand?”’ Henrietta Fore, executive director at Unicef, said, “We have the commitment, now we need concrete action and results.” retail transactions is a permanent trend in the Indian economy.

Things might change with evolution of regulation in the digital payment eco-system and ‘adaptive methods’ by small businesses which might be losing their businesses.

There is another takeaway from these statistics. Even from the perspective of pushing digital payments, there were better policy alternatives to demonetisation.