All that was discussed in the House through the day
The Union ministry of heavy industries has sanctioned Rs 800 crore as a capital subsidy to the three oil marketing companies under the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas to improve the infrastructure of public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for four wheelers, Mahendra Nath Pandey, minister for heavy industries told the Lok Sabha.
The funding will be used to build 7,432 public charging stations for electric vehicles. Furthermore, according to the EV yatra portal, the total number of EV public charging stations in the country as of December 6, 2023, Pandey said.
There were 6,391 incidents of farm-residue burning from September 15, 2023-October 29, 2023 in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and national capital regions of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, Arjun Munda, Union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare, told the Lok Sabha.
In comparison, there were 11,461 farm stubble-burning incidents in 2021 and 13,964 in 2022. The percentage reduction in stubble burning was 44.3 per cent and 54.2 per cent for the same period in 2021 and 2022, respectively, Munda said.
Aquatic pollution does not pose a significant threat to the sustainability of inland fisheries at present, according to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Parshottam Rupala, Union minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, told the Lok Sabha.
“However, certain stretches of the rivers are threatened by pollutants like Biological Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, heavy metals, pesticides, etc due to direct release of industry wastewater, municipal sewage, etc and some contaminants like micro-plastics, bisphenol, etc,” he said.
So far, 409,000 hectares of land have been sanctioned and Rs 55.99 crore has been released for natural farming in eight states across the country through the centrally sponsored scheme Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP), Munda told the Lok Sabha.
An area of 148,000 hectares has also been sanctioned for promotion of natural farming along the Ganga Corridor, the minister said. The government created the National Mission on Natural Farming as a separate and independent scheme by scaling up BPKP to encourage farmers to adopt natural farming and expand its reach, he said.
Hydrometeorological calamities in Himachal Pradesh, including heavy unseasonal rains in August 2023, led to the deaths of 145 people; loss of 9,482 livestock and affected 13,859 houses / huts and 105,000 hectares agriculture / horticulture cropped area, Nityanand Rai, minister of state in the ministry of home affairs, told the Lok Sabha.
The data was calculated according to a memorandum submitted by the state government and assessed by the Inter-Ministerial Central Team.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana introduced in the country in Kharif crop season in 2016 provides financial support to stabilise the income of farmers, especially in natural calamity-hit seasons, years and areas, Munda told the Lok Sabha.
Farmers receive comprehensive risk coverage for crops and areas notified by the state government against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages of the crops at a very low premium, he said.
According to data available as of November 30, 2023, claims totaling Rs 1,51,926 crore have been paid to farmers since the scheme’s inception until 2022-23, against a farmers’ share of premium of Rs 29,237 crore, the minister said.
The total number of deaths, including women and sexual gender minorities, caused by natural disasters like floods is not maintained by the Union ministry of home affairs, Rai told the Lok Sabha. The execution of rescue measures and assessing the loss of human lives on the ground is the responsibility of the state concerned.
Today, India’s installed power generation capacity from non-fossil sources is 186.46 gigawatts (GW), which is 43.82 per cent of its total installed capacity, RK Singh, Union minister of power and new and renewable energy (MoPNRE), told the Rajya Sabha. Furthermore, 114.08 GW of capacity is being implemented.
At the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, United Kingdom, India pledged the country shall have 50 percent of its installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. The country will achieve the target before time, the minister said.
The Union ministry of new and renewable energy is implementing the second phase of the rooftop solar (RTS) programme, which includes centralised financial assistance for RTS installation in the residential sector, Singh told the Rajya Sabha.
The programme, which has been extended until March 31, 2026 calls for the installation of 4 GW of RTS capacity in the residential sector. The ministry has allocated 3.57 GW capacity to various implementing agencies against the RTS capacity of 4 GW. An aggregate capacity of 2.65 GW has been installed in the residential sector so far, he said.
As of June 2022, there were 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with state medical councils and the National Medical Commission, Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state in the Union ministry of health and family welfare, told the Rajya Sabha.
Assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the country’s doctor-population ratio is 1:834, according to the minister. In addition, as of December 2022, the country has 36.14 lakh nursing personnel. The nurse-to-population ratio is 1:476 if nursing personnel are available 80 per cent of the time.
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