Governance Community

The Gujarat government is putting a lot of effort into working on faceless technology. The aim of creating this user passage through faceless technology in administrative works is to curb corruption. On the celebration of five years completion of the Rupani Government, this announcement was made by the chief minister. Rupani mentioned, ‘Gujrat is on the verge of expanding its internet services to the rural areas of the state under the BharatNet Project. Earlier ‘Seva-Setu’ programs were conducted at the taluka level to help citizens get benefits from various government schemes. Now the same program has been shifted online as ‘e-Seva-Setu’  offering services through technology. Rupani highlighted his vision of curbing and decreasing corruption to the maximum possible extent. For this purpose, the state government is all set to move towards the usage of technology for creating a faceless system.  In this regard, the Gujarat government recently made no-agriculture land pertaining services online. With this other services like e-tenders release for mines and minerals has also helped in reducing corruption.  Source: theeconomictimes.com

With an agenda of making public transport environment friendly, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackrey inducted 35 electric buses into Mumbai’s Fleet. This initiative is taken under the central government FAME II project. The project was inducted on 7 August, which is the foundation day for Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST). On this occasion presence of senior officials of state government, BEST, and TATA Motors at BEST Bus depot Mahim was witnessed. These are TATA star buses, with air-conditioning. The 12 meter long bus has a seating capacity of 59 passengers. The buses are manufactured by TATA motors, that these buses are extensively tested and validated across varied terrain. Engineered to deliver high performance, these electric buses also have wheelchair access that extends an automated ramp for specially-abled people ease. These electric buses also have intelligent transport systems (ITS), like GPS panic buttons and telematics systems, regenerative braking systems, and other features for efficient and smooth operations.  Source: Governancenow.com

Hyderabad: Implementation of the ‘Telangana Dalit Bandhu’ scheme has been welcomed by the Telangana government with the release of Rs 7.60 crore, thus providing assistance to 76 Dalit families in Vasalamarri village of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district on Thursday. The implementation came a day after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao visited his adopted village Vasalamarri where he interacted with Dalit families. The release of the financial aid of Rs 7.60 crore was issued by the Scheduled Castes development department through Government Order (GO) which permitted the Telangana Scheduled Castes Co-operative Development Corporation (TSCCDC) to hand over the aid to the district collector for implementation of the benefit of Dalit households in Alair Assembly constituency.  The Chief Minister said that a sum of Rs 10 lakh will be deposited in each beneficiary family’s bank account from Thursday and the beneficiaries are free to spend the money as desired but further advised them to use it to create a source of revenue. During the interaction, he asked the people what they would do with Rs 10 lakh to which the beneficiaries responded in multitudes; setting up a dairy farm, buying tractors, and doing business. CM Rao said that through the financial assistance given under the scheme, the Dalit community should develop itself as a business community by selecting industries, employment, and business of their choice. Under the first phase, 100 families from each of the 119 Assembly constituencies will be identified. The government has announced an allocation of Rs 1,200 crore for the scheme. The Chief Minister said his government was ready to spend even Rs 1 lakh crore for the scheme. He exuded confidence that the scheme will become a torchbearer for the Dalit community in the entire country. Source: India.com

Petitioner claims that Shimla is facing issues due to the project. Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Central and State Governments and other respondents in the matter regarding approval of forest clearance for Shimla Smart City Project. The Court directed the respondents to file reply within a period of four weeks. A division bench comprising the Acting Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed the order on a petition filed by Namita Maniktala. As per High Court PRO, the petition was converted by the Court into a Public Interest Litigation as the matter involves public interest. The petitioner has alleged that a news item dated June 22, published under the title “Key Shimla Projects Delays-Forest Clearance Awaited“, said that some of the developmental projects, which were required to be undertaken as part of Smart City Project were delayed for want of forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act. The petitioner has alleged that Smart City Projects include “Lift and escalator at Lakkar Bazar, escalator to Jakhu Top, a smart path from Sanjauli to Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Vending Zone in Khalini, Krishna Nagar-Combermere Nallah and widening of work in Dhalli area.” She has also alleged that Shimla town is facing traffic hazards and various other problems pertaining to the pedestrians and commissioning of these projects is intimately connected with the Right to Life of the residents of the city in particular and the general public at large as they will make the life of the residents much easier. The petitioner has alleged that these projects are being funded under the Smart City Missions of the Government of India and end of the deadline for completion of these projects shall cause irreparable loss and in case the same is not processed and decided, the funding for these vital projects may also lapse. “The deadline for completion of these projects would be ending very soon next year. The applications for grant of forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act are required to be considered expeditiously by the Centre Government,” the petitioner said and prayed that the Centre government may be directed to consider the applications for grant of forest clearances with respect to the aforesaid projects and the State Government and other respondents may be directed to complete these projects in a time-bound manner after receipt of forest clearances. Source: Published from a syndicated feed, edited by ArdorComm News Network

The congress government started the session with an allegation of slow-speed functioning in the parliament. The BJP dispensation was said to be responsible for the logjam in the parliament. Later allegations of avoiding the discussion on the same issue were also raised by the opposition. The Pegasus snooping has now become a matter of concern and is affecting the work of parliament adversely.  The opposition is also in rage from the unexpected behavior. As per their allegation on BJP, during the meeting of the standing committee of Information Technology which was delayed due to a lack of quorum. As government proposed to work out a solution that can allow smooth functioning of parliament. The Congress spokesperson said, “I am making a proclamation here, you start the discussion today and by tomorrow we will discuss everything else. Why are you avoiding Pegasus?” Source: The Economics Times

A reshuffling of the cabinet is what allows us to examine the performance criteria of the existing government.  It is the gateway to let go of old faces and give chance to new faces. On July 7, Narendra Modi Government witnessed the biggest ever reshuffle in the cabinet in its government. A new record of bringing in 36 new ministers as the first-time ministers in the cabinet is witnessed.  During the sworn-in, ceremony Modi Cabinet consisted of 43 ministers only. While seven years later we can see it increase to 77 ministers’ cabinet, which is only four less from the permissible limit of 81 ministers. The BJP government was the first to win the parliamentary elections with the majority in three decades. Although the Modi Government had started with the slogan Minimum Government, maximum governance. 

Under one of the biggest aerial surveys, around 500 high-resolution drones are to be used by the Government of India. This will aim to map around 6 lakh villages in India, to validate residential property for over 83 crore Indians. This aerial survey, once completed will be helpful for citizens to map and validate their residential property in the rural regions. With this, they will be allowed to be used as a financial asset by the people.  To map the rural lands of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Shillong to Somnath, a huge force of drone pilots will be deployed by the Survey of India (SOI) as published in Business standards.  It is said by Sunil Kumar, the union secretary of Panchayati Raj Ministry, as the nodal agency for Implementation of these survey program, “The average times were taken by a HI-tech drone to map a village is around 15 minutes. Based on this we are expecting to complete the aerial survey of land mapping through done by March 2024”. The pilot project of this aerial survey of drones has so far been successful in over 40,000 villages. After the mapping is done the property holder is said to be allotted a property card. The scheme is named as “Swamitwa Scheme”.  Source: Business Standard