State Level Current Affairs February 2016 for Competitive Exams
BHEL Commissioned Prayagraj Power Project Unit in Allahabad
1) As on December 29, 2015, State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has commissioned a 660 MW unit of Prayagraj Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) at Bara in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
2) The greenfield thermal power project is owned by Prayagraj Power Generation Company Limited (PPGCL), a subsidiary company of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Limited. BHEL is largest engineering and manufacturing company established in 1964 and was awarded a Maharatna company status in 2013.
3) This is the first supercritical thermal unit in the State to achieve, capacity addition on attaining full load. Super-critical units are generally eco-friendly and more efficient thermal power plants as they consume less coal as fuel.
Haryana Government Proposed Qualifications for Municipal Polls
1) The Haryana government on December 29, 2015 announced that it will amend Section-13A of the Haryana Municipal Act 1973, and Section-8 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 to lay down some qualifications for contesting polls to urban local bodies.
2)Â In this regard, a decision was taken in a meeting of the State Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lai Khattar. Qualification has been prescribed as matriculation pass for all levels of the elected representatives of the urban local bodies.
3) As per the amendment, all those against whom charges have been framed by the competent court for grave criminal offences punishable by not less than 10 years imprisonment will be debarred from contesting the elections till they are acquitted.
Andhra Pradesh and Microsoft India Inked Pact for Better Citizen Services
1) Andhra Pradesh government has signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with tech giant Microsoft India to harness Microsoft Cloud technology for the State’s growth on December 28, 2015.
2)Â According to the MoU, Microsoft India will apply Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and Advanced Visualisation to predict and address specific problems in the fields of education, agriculture and eCitizen services.
3)Â Microsoft India will also provide training to the State government’s executives on Microsoft technologies such as Cloud, Mobility and appropriate Microsoft Technology stack.
4) The company will organise an exclusive workshop to the government’s key administrative officers in improving productivity by using Microsoft technologies.
5) In August, 2015, as part of the ‘Badi Pilusthondi’ (The School is Calling) initiative launched by the Chief Minister, the government and Microsoft had announced a Cloud-based Machine Learning solution in the field of education using Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Tools and Power BI.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal Unveiled Blueprint for Odd-Even Vehicle Plan
1)Â Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a blueprint of the ‘odd and even’ vehicle regulation experiment between January 1 and 15 plan on December 24, 2015. It will check the number of vehicles on Delhi roads to fight alarmingly high air pollution levels.
2)Â Women travelling alone or with young children, VIPs from Central and State governments, judiciary and embassies and two-wheelers are among 25 kinds of motorists who will be excluded from this plan.
3) The fine for violating the odd and even vehicle regulation will be Rs.2000. This won’t be a ‘continuous’ exercise and following a ‘reassessment’ after of couple of months, the idea will be implemented in stages.
First Cable-stayed Bridge in North India Opened in Jammu & Kashmir
1) North India’s first cable-stayed bridge named Atal Setu on river Ravi at Basholi situated on Dunera-Basohli- Bhadharwah road in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district was thrown open to traffic on December 24, 2015. The bridge is strategically important from the defence point of view.
2) The 592 m span bridge was constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at a cost of ? 145 crore. Out of 592 m span bridge, 350 m is cable-stayed while rest is plain bridge. It is a joint venture of Indian Railway Construction Company Limited (IRCON) and SP Singla Construction group.
3) The foundation of the bridge was laid in May, 2011. It is the 4th of its kind in the country that will provide close connectivity among the three States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
Uttar Pradesh Government Banned use of Polythene Bags In State
1) The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet presided by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav approved a complete ban on the distribution, manufacture and sales of polythene carry bags in the State on December 18, 2015. The Cabinet decision was in compliance with recent National Green Tribunal (NGT) order.
2)Â The Allahabad High Court had last month directed the Uttar Pradesh government to issue a notification enforcing a complete ban on the sale of polythene across the State by December 31, 2015. The situation in Ghaziabad remained grim due to the rampant use of polythene carry bags.
3)Â The Cabinet also decided to convene the budget session of the State Legislature in the last week of January, 2016 (after January 26) and approved e-auctioning in the State ‘mandis’ (agriculture produce markets) and a unified licence for traders across the State.
Centre had Declared Tamil Nadu Floods as Calamity of Severe Nature
1)Â The Centre has declared the recent floods in Tamil Nadu as a calamity of severe nature on December 10, 2015, with Parliamentarians being informed that they can recommend renovation and rehabilitation efforts to the tune of ? 1 crore from MPLADS.
2) The Centre’s announcement came after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa made a plea to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first week of December, 2015, seeking that the floods be declared as National Disaster.
3) The Chief Minister recalled that the North-East monsoon, which brings the bulk of Tamil Nadu’s annual rainfall, had set in’late by October-end in 2015.
Maharashtra MLAs can Raise Questions Online
1)Â As on December 7, 2015, Maharashtra has become India’s first State to allow the members of State legislature to raise online questions in an effort to move towards complete digitisation of the process. The step is aimed at bringing the paper work to minimum.
2) The experiment was tried for the first time before the ongoing winter session of the State legislature at Nagpur. The whole ^exercise called Digital MLAs is expected to cut paper cost and time, while it will also enhance the accuracy.
3) As per the programme, the State government has given unique user names and passwords to each of the members and a server has been set-up. The laptops of members have been configured to server, which is set-up by Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited.
UP Government Launched First International Festival on Birds
1)Â In order to promote the array of bird species in Uttar Pradesh, the State government has launched its first International Festival on Birds on December 4, 2015.
2) The three-day international festival (from December 4 to 6,2015) on birds held in the National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS) in Agra. The first-of-its-kind festival was inaugurated by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav at the National Chambal Sanctuary.
3) It has been jointly organised by the State Forest department in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). Over 80 Indian ornithologists and around 25 top international bird experts and are participating.
Goa Government Launched National Food Security Act 2013
1) Goa government has launched the National Food Security Act (NFSA) on December 3, 2015 in order to benefit one-third of, the State’s population.
2) This will be done by bringing large part of the coastal State into legal entitlements of existing food security programmes and schemes of the Central government.
3)Â By National Food Security Act, 2013, government provide subsidised foodgrains to people. It forecasts sufficient quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life of dignity under Article-21 of Constitution.
West Bengal Approved Proposal for Formation of Six New Districts
1) The West Bengal cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ratified a proposal to create six new districts otxDecember 18, 2015.
2) The Darjeeling district in North Bengal will be bifurcated and a new district Kalimpong which is a sub-division, carved out of it. Further, the Basirhat district would be formed out of North 24 Parganas district. The Sundarbans stretches currently across parts of the North and South 24 Parganas districts.
3) The existing Burdwan district will be bifurcated into Burdwan (Industrial) and Burdwan (Rural). Jhargram which is a police district under West Midnapore district, will become a full-fledged administrative district.
4)Â Mirik block in Darjeeling district will be upgraded into a sub-division, while Jhalda and Manbazar blocks in Purulia district will also become sub-divisions.
Rajasthan became the First State to Submit Smart City Plan
1) Rajasthan has become the first State to submit smart city plans. In this regard, Manjit Singh, Rajasthan’s Principal Secretary (urban development), submitted smart city Proposals of Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer to Samir Sharma, Additional Secretary (urban development) on December 14, 2015.
2) With December 15, 2015 being the last date for submission of smart-city plans, at least 15 of 98 selected cities were missed the deadline. Investment outlays proposed for developing these cities as smart cities are Kota Rs. 1493 crore, Ajmer Rs. 1300 crore and Udaipur Rs. 1221 crore.
NGT Banned Sale of Diesel Cars in Delhi
1) The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the registration of new diesel-run vehicles in Delhi on December 11, 2015. The NGT also ordered government of Delhi not to renew the registration of any diesel vehicle more than ten years old.
2) The tribunal directed the Union and State governments to consider not buying any diesel vehicles for their departments. Government of Delhi had proposed that cars with number plates ending in an even number would be allowed to ply only on even dates, and odd numbers on odd dates.
3) According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study in 2014, Delhi had the worst air quality among 1600 cities studied worldwide. The government has disputed the findings. The situation was so alarming that people have been even advised to leave Delhi due to adverse effects on health.
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