All that was discussed in the House through the day
An estimated 37,439 inhabited villages (according to Census 2011) in India did not have 3G / 4G mobile internet coverage, Sanjay Dhotre, Union Minister of State for Communications, Education and Electronics & Information Technology told the Lok Sabha February 10, 2021.
This, the minister said, was according to data collected from telecom service providers in 2020. Of these villages, 33 per cent were in just two states — Odisha (8,947) and Arunachal Pradesh (3,343).
Employment of women in rural areas
Over 25.5 per cent of women aged 15 years and above in rural areas were employed in 2018-19, in comparison to 23.7 per cent in 2017-18, according to Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Labour and Employment told the Rajya Sabha.
But the share of women in total person days of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act declined to 52.74 per cent in 2020-21 from 54.59 per cent in 2018-19, according to the data presented by Gangwar.
Smart Cities Mission
The cities under Smart Cities Mission had shown considerable progress since the inception of the scheme, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs told the Rajya Sabha.
A total of 5,151 projects worth Rs 205,018 crore were proposed by the 100 Smart Cities as part of their Smart City Proposals. The Government of India had released Rs 22,822.33 crore as the Central share to the states. Of this, Rs 18,403.53 crore (81 per cent) had been utilised by the Smart Cities.
Tamil Nadu had spent almost 97 per cent of the amount released by the Centre as part of the mission implementation.
‘Housing for all’ by 2022
The government was committed to the promise of ‘Housing for All’ by 2022, Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha. He said the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban Mission had been strategised to complete the construction of houses sanctioned under the Mission by 2022.
A closer look at the progress report presented showed that nearly 62 per cent of the houses sanctioned during the last three years were yet to be completed.
Ujjwala Yojana
The implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) had resulted increase in national liquified petroleum gas (LPG) coverage to 99.5 per cent as on January 1, 2021, from 61.9 per cent as on April 1, 2016.
As on January 1, 2021, the total number of LPG consumers was 287 million, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas told the Rajya Sabha. In the budget announcement made February 1, 2021 the finance ministry said it would 10 million more LPG connections under PMUY, Pradhan informed.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
.png)
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.