State Scan: List of noteworthy events last week

Telangana The Central government has convened its first meeting of a panel constituted to resolve the bilateral issues between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on February 17. The meeting of the dispute resolution sub-committee will be held via video-conference to discuss the pending issues between the two Telugu States. This was announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday.

The Ministry on February 8 constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary to carry out the preparatory work and recommend practical ways to resolve the bilateral issues arising out of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Ministry had invited Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Andhra Pradesh’s Principal Secretary (Finance) and Telangana’s Special Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao to attend the meeting.

The agenda of the meeting includes special category status, which was promised to the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. The items on the agenda include division of Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation, settlement of power utilities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, removal of anomaly in taxation matters, division of cash balance and bank deposits, cash credit by APSCSCL and TSCSCL, resource gap, development grant for seven backward districts of Andhra Pradesh covering Rayalaseema and north coastal region and tax incentives.

West Bengal
In a significant development, Trinamool Congress Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last Saturday dissolved all the existing posts in the party and formed a 20-member national working committee after holding a meeting with some senior party leaders at her Kalighat residence.

The significant announcement came at a time when there were rumours that the party’s All-India General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, is likely to step down from all organisational responsibilities allegedly because of differences with some senior party leaders. Senior Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee said, Banerjee will later appoint the new office-bearers and accordingly it would be sent to the Election Commission of India.

Among the leaders who found a place in the national working committee are Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Abhishek Banerjee, Anubrata Mondal, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim, Yashwant Sinha, Asima Patra, Chandrima Bhattacharjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Moloy Ghatak, Jyotipriya Mallick, Goutam Deb, Buluchik Baraik and Rajesh Tripathi. Interestingly, most of the members of the national working committee belong to Mamata camp, indicative enough that the Chief Minister is keen to establish her control over the party.

Madhya Pradesh
In a bid to attract tourists to the State, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department has decided to organise two events — ‘Forsyth Trail Run’ and ‘Dhoopgarh Rock Climbing’ in the dense forests of Satpura at hill station Pachmarhi.

The first event, Forsyth Trail Run, will be held on February 12 and it will be the first-of-its-kind marathon in India. The second event will be Dhoopgarh Rock Climbing, which will be held on March 5. The events will be jointly organised by India’s leading adventure tourism agency ‘Moustache Escapes’ and the State Tourism department.

The State government has tied up with Moustache Escapes for the events. The Forsyth Trail Run will be organised on Saturday from Pachmarhi in Hoshangabad district. The run will start from Singnama and end at Bison Lodge Pachmarhi. Tourists from Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Vidisha and Indore will participate in the run, covering a distance of 30 to 40 km in the forest area.

Jammu & Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha last Saturday laid the foundation of the Tawi riverfront development project here and said it would generate employment opportunities for local communities. The Lt Governor said planned urbanisation while respecting and restoring the delicate balance of nature can influence inclusive development.

In the first phase, embankments, interceptor drains, sewerage treatment plants, cycling track, jogging track, walkways, green spaces, and other wayside amenities would be developed. The complete project is prepared on the lines of the Sabarmati riverfront in Gujarat. The infrastructure would also include river plazas, promenades, parks, gardens, sports and entertainment venues, commercial and residential spaces that will transform Tawi as the center of the economic engine of Jammu.

The Lt Governor said 109 projects which were pending for years have been completed in the Jammu division at a cost of Rs 455 crore, including 14 new bridges which have made connectivity easier.

New Delhi
Senior Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, which has been sent to the parliamentary standing committee headed by him, is poorly drafted and has huge shortcomings.

Ramesh, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said he is overwhelmed by the over 70 responses received from experts and institutions on the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Now the Standing Committee has a very complicated task of examining the 50 amendments proposed.

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