All that was discussed in the Houses through the day
About 32 per cent of the Indian coastline is under varying degrees of erosion (low, moderate or high), 27 per cent is of accreting nature and the remaining 41 per cent is in a stable state, Parshottam Rupala, Union minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying said in the Lok Sabha.
The National Centre for Coastal Research has carried out a national shoreline change assessment mapping for the Indian coast, using 28 years of satellite data from 1990-2018.
The study was done along nine coastal states and two Union territories (UT) to provide information for coastal management strategy.
Around 41 per cent of the coastline of Kerala is experiencing erosion, 31 per cent is stable and 21 per cent is accreting, as per the National Centre of Coastal Research studies.
Further, the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the Central Water Commission under the Ministry of Jal Shakti (water resources ministry) also undertake studies on shoreline changes / coastal erosion and its impact, Rupala said.
Cyclones claimed 720 lives
A total of 720 persons have lost their lives due to cyclones from 2016-17 to 2021-22, said Nityanand Rai, Union minister of state for home affairs in the Lok Sabha August 10, 2021.
Cyclones have also damaged 297,000 houses / huts and 588,400 hectares of crop in the same period, the minister added.
Polluting chemical factories of Telangana
About 317,091 tonnes of hazardous waste has been generated against the authorised capacity of 821,229 tonnes during 2019-20, Mansukh Mandaviya, Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers said in Lok Sabha.
He was quoting data from the Telangana State Pollution Control Board.
There are 651 chemical and pharma industries located in the state of Telangana, Mandaviya said.
Chemical, research and development as well as pharmaceutical industries generate hazardous waste such as process sludge, inorganic salts, organic residue, effluent treatment plant sludge and salts from treatment systems like zero liquid discharge and agitated thin film dryer, Mandaviya added.
Workforce reduction in agriculture
The share of workforce of men and women in agriculture has declined in both the rural and urban areas during the period from 1987-88 to 2019-20, Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare said in Lok Sabha. The minister was quoting from the report on ‘Women and Men in India, 2020’ of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The country has witnessed a relatively faster rate of growth in sectors other than agriculture, on account of structural changes due to a shift from a traditional agrarian economy to an industry- and service-dominated one, Tomar added.
30,000+ hiring centres for crop management
A central sector scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanisation for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ is being implemented in the states since 2018-19, Tomar added.
Under this scheme, financial assistance of 50 per cent the cost of machinery is provided to the farmers for purchase of crop residue management machinery. Financial assistance of 80 per cent of the project cost is also provided to the cooperative societies of farmers, farmers producers organisations, registered farmers societies and panchayats for establishment of custom hiring centres (CHC) of crop residue management machinery.
From 2018-19 to 2020-21, more than 30,900 CHCs have been established and more than 158,000 crop residue management machines have been supplied to them and individual farmers of these four states, Tomar said.
Actual number of COVID-19 deaths
As many as 168 central teams deployed in 33 states / UTs have highlighted the need for correct recording of deaths and undertaking periodic death audits, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union minister of state for health and family welfare said in Rajya Sabha.
The ministry has followed a transparent policy of publishing COVID-19 cases and deaths since the inception of the pandemic in India, she added
Status of COVID-19 vaccination
A total of 506.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered from March 1, 2021 to August 8, 2021. As many as 394.3 milion people received the first dose and 112.4 million received the second, Pawar said in Rajya Sabha.
The Centre is procuring 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country, under the ‘Revised Guidelines for Implementation of National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme’ effective from June 21, 2021. These are being providing free of cost to states / UTs on pro-rata basis, the progress of vaccination and vaccine wastage, the minister added.
The domestic vaccine manufacturers have the option to provide upto 25 per cent of their monthly vaccine production directly to private hospitals, she said.
Low ratio of doctors per 1,000 people
There are 1.26 million allopathic doctors registered with the state medical councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC). Considering their 80 per cent availability (1.01 million) allopathic doctors and another 565,000 AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio comes to 1:854 in the country, said Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union minister of state for health and family welfare said in Rajya Sabha.
Deaths due to inadequate supply of oxygen in the Andhra Pradesh
On May 10, 2021, some patients on ventilator support at Sri Venkateswara Ramnarayan Ruia hospital in Andhra Pradesh died while undergoing treatment for COVID-19, Pawar said in the Rajya Sabha based on state communication received on August 9.
It appears that the interval between the levelling out of the 10 kilolitres oxygen tank and the switching on of the backup manifold system of the hospital resulted in the drop in pressure in the oxygen lines, according to the preliminary inquiry report.
The drop in the pressure in the oxygen lines led to insufficient oxygen being available for the patients mainly on ventilator support, the minister mentioned.
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