-Business Standard The government has sought parliamentary approval for an extra Rs 18,995 crore social sectors during 2015-16, almost half of the total extra spending asked for over the Budget Estimates (BE). In a supplementary demand for grants, tabled in Parliament last week, the government placed additional expenditure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Food Security Act (NFSA), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, drinking water scheme, Pradhan Mantri Gram...
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Green plan for highways: 1% project cost to be set aside to plant trees -Anil Sasi & Sharmistha Mukherjee
-The Indian Express Planting fruit-bearing trees specific to the region can aid revenue generation The road ministry has finalised a “green highways” policy to “tree-line” 140,000 kilometres of national highways. Under this policy, one per cent of the civil cost of national highway development projects will have to be set aside for the planting of trees in a planned manner, covering both existing NH sections and new routes that would be added...
More »Government racing against time for PM Narendra Modi’s promise of school toilets
-PTI With barely three weeks left for Independence Day celebrations, Parliament was informed last week that 2.86 lakh toilets have been constructed so far Government seems to be racing against time to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of ensuring toilets in all schools across the country in a year as about 1.94 lakh toilets are yet to be made operational as against the target of 4.19 lakh toilets. Modi had in his...
More »Nagaland produces India’s first bamboo toilet
-TheNorthEastToday.com DIMAPUR: Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya formally inaugurated India`s first bamboo toilets here on Wednesday. The inauguration took place at the Nagaland Bamboo Resource Centre in Dimapur as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission). The two prototype bamboo toilets inaugurated by Acharya are an outcome of a five-day training on “bamboo toilets for private use and for the community” jointly organised by Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA) and South Asia...
More »Inequality in access to sanitation continues
There is some positive news about national progress in sanitation and drinking water. A newly released report from UNICEF and WHO informs us that the country has witnessed 31 percent reduction in open defecation since 1990. This means 394 million Indians no more defecate in the open. The bad news, however, is that the progress in ‘population not practising open defecation’ among the poorest has been slower during the last 20...
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