OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD
CORONA
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ALERT JAIPUR l THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00
RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 358
INDIA
WORLD
COVID-19 UPDATE
RAJASTHAN
3,84,642 65,13,891 6,087 2,16,429 209 DEATHS
CONFIRMED CASES
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DEATHS
CONFIRMED CASES
DEATHS
9,652
CONFIRMED CASES
#NISARGAEFFECT Two people died and three others were injured as Cyclone Nisarga wreaked havoc in rural parts of Pune in Maharashtra after making landfall in coastal Raigad district around 1 pm on Wednesday. The cyclone, however, did not cause any major damage on the southern coast of Gujarat.
Strong winds and high tides hit the beach ahead of cyclone ‘Nisarga’ landfall, in Surat on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Cabinet nod to 1 country 1 market for farmers Aditi Nagar New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendment to the six-a-and-half decade old Essential Commodities Act to deregulate food items, including cereals, pulses and onion, a move that will transform the farm sector and help raise farmers’ income. The Cabinet also approved ‘The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020’ to ensure barrier free trade in agriculture produce. The government also approved ‘The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020’ to empower farmers to engage with processors, aggrega-
—PHOTO BY ANI
Amendment of Essential Commodities Act gives farmers freedom to sell his produce in any market across India
Foreign bizmen, technocrats can visit India after fresh visas New Delhi: For the first time since the nationwide lockdown was announced in March, the government has allowed foreign businessmen, healthcare professionals and engineers to visit India but they will have to obtain fresh visas. In an order, the Home Ministry said the foreign nationals, holding a valid long-term multiple-entry business visa, would also have to get their travel documents
re-validated from the Indian missions. “The Government of India has considered the matter regarding relaxation of the visa and travel restrictions for certain categories of
foreign nationals who need to come to India. “It has been decided to permit the following categories of foreign nationals to come to India,” a home ministry statement said on Wednesday. Those who are allowed to visit India are: foreign businessmen coming to India on a business visa (other than on B-3 visa for sports) in non-scheduled commercial and chartered flights. Turn on P6
‘Int’l flights as situation normalises’ New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri on Wednesday said government will consider restarting international flights. “We are continuously monitoring the situation and will consider restarting international flights as soon as situation normalises and poses no danger to our citizens. We will also have to consider that countries, where we intend to fly, Turn on P6
House that! RHB creates a new record ROLLS OUT 17 SCHEMES IN 11 CITIES OF THE STATE IN ONE GO Shivendra Parmar A man buys freshly plucked ripened litchis from a local farmer inside a litchi garden in Tezpur.
tors, wholesalers, large retailers and exporters. Announcing the Cabinet decisions, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, “This will go a long way in helping India’s farmers while also transforming the agriculture sector.” The proposed amendment to the Essential
Commodities Act will allay fears of private investors of excessive regulatory interference, he said. Tomar said that ‘The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020’ will promote barrier-free inter-state
and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under State Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations. “This is a historic-step in unlocking the vastly regulated agricultural markets in the country,” he said. Turn on P6
Jaipur: While the Rajasthan Housing Board (RHB) has made records after records over the past several months, come Wednesday it was time for the Board to turn over a new leaf. At a time when the real estate sector is literally in the doldrums, the RHB has announced not one or two, but a whopping
Bhaskar Sawant and Pawan Arora during a meeting on Wednesday
17 new housing schemes in 11 cities of the state. Interestingly, never before in its 50-year old history, has the RHB launched over a 17 schemes in one go. In fact, not even JDA, Nagar Nigam, UIT or any other development authority has ever announced so many housing schemes in one day and RHB’s endeavour is a record for the state. Turn on P8
Devise ways to tackle locust crisis: Gehlot instructs ministers, babus Naresh Sharma Jaipur: In order to bring relief to the farmers battling locust outburst and to save their crops from further damage, the Gehlot government will soon purchase 100 fire fighting vehicles. These vehicles, purchased from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF), will be useful in locust control as well as disaster relief. An amount of Rs1.47 crore has been made
available to the district collectors from SDRF with which they can hire local vehicles and water tankers including tractor mounted sprayers for locust control and to make necessary arrangements for insecticides immediately. Along with this, the recruitment process of 290 assistant agricultural officers and 1,900 agricultural supervisors in the Agriculture Department will also be completed soon. On the instructions
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the ongoing locust crisis in the state was reviewed in a video conference held at CMR on Wednesday. In the video conference, Agriculture Minister Lalchand Kataria and Revenue Minister Harish Chaudhary said that there is no shortage of money and resources to control locusts. They stressed that a large number of locusts are breeding in African countries and their swarms are ex-
pected to reach Rajasthan. “In this way, we have to work on districtwise strategy for which along with the efforts of Locust Warning Organization and state government, cooperation of local farmers should also be sought,” the ministers said. MoS Agriculture Bhajan Lal Jatav said that monsoon season will start soon and with this, farmers will start sowing. “If this problem is not controlled on time, then the possibil-
ity of damage to crops cannot be ruled out. MoS Forest and Environment Sukhram Vishnoi said that last year, “We had succeeded in overcoming the locust outbreak due to collective efforts. This time too, we can effectively control them by destroying them at night when they settle down.” Meanwhile, Chief Secretary DB Gupta said financial and human resources are being made available to
district collectors as per the need for locust control. The Agriculture Department is engaged in this challenging work with the Locust Warning Organisation. “Till now locust control has been done in about 95,000 hectare area. Cooperation with BSF is also being taken to get concrete information about the arrival of locusts in the border districts, said, Naresh Pal Gangwar, Principal Secretary Agriculture Department.