Claiming it to be for the first time in the country, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has said over 30 lakh sports persons including men and women of all age group have registered for ‘Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Olympic Games’ in 8-days of season beginning on August 29 in villages in the state.
The games of Kabaddi, Tennis Ball cricket, volleyball, hockey, shooting volleyball, and Kho-Kho will be organised at Gram Panchayat, Block, District and State level in Rajasthan for the first time, Gehlot said while releasing Logo at the stadium here last night.
CM said about two lakh teams have been set up and the games would held as per the standard norms to not only boost of the young and senior players but also drive them for a better career in sports field. An atmosphere and culture of sports would be developed right from villages, he added.
The state government has sanctioned a sum of Rs.40 crore for this very feature in its annual budget 2021-22.
Among others who spoke on the occasion included Krishna Poonia, an international gold-medalist of Indian discus thrower and Chairman of Rajasthan State Sports Council and Ashok Chandana, MoS Sports and DIPR

To control the rising trend of Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle in the state, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has approved a budget of Rs.30 crores enabling the Animal Husbandry and other concerned departments to purchase medicines and vaccines for treatment of bovines.
Earlier the state Animal Husbandry Department has submitted a proposal for additional provision of Rs.30 cr in the current fiscal year 2022-23 under the Pashudhan Nishulk Arogya Yojana for districts to purchase essential drugs and vaccines to cure the animals’ lives. Yesterday, the CM approved the extra grant for this purpose.
In compliance with the approval of the budget the concerned departments would be able to buy drugs as per the required quantity to contain the spread of the disease in cattle.
Over 2000 bovines, mainly cows, have died of this LSD virus in parts of the state in about a month.
LSD is a viral disease and after the onset of SW Monsoonal rains causing high humidity, the outbreak of ‘unknown virus’ (Lumpy Skin) is spreading very fast and getting common in cows (both domestic and wild) with clinical signs of fever, lacrimation, hypersalivation and characteristic skin eruptions

Twenty-five per cent of additional seats are being created for foreign students in educational institutions across India. These foreign students will not have to undergo the process of appearing for entrance tests. All students who have foreign passports will be considered foreigners.

Indian students who are living abroad with foreign passports will also be able to take admission in reputed higher educational institutions across India without appearing for entrance tests.

Foreign students will not have to give entrance tests, but a fixed admission process is being formulated which will be completely transparent. Along with this, keeping in mind the interests of foreign students, higher education institutions will have to set up an ‘office of international affairs’.

Not only the Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) are taking major initiatives for the admission of foreign students in Indian educational institutions, but also in the field of Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) and visa, extensive facilities are being made available to such students.

Single point contact is being established for the registration of foreign students along with FRRO or e-FRRO.

Higher educational institutions across the country will now be able to create 25 per cent additional seats in their universities. UGC has given approval to higher educational institutions across the country for this arrangement.

The UGC in its 560th meeting on August 18 has given this approval along with guidelines for admission of international students and supernumerary seats (means seats which are over and above the sanctioned intake approved by the appropriate authority and the government) in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Indian higher educational institutions.

The basic objective of allowing higher educational institutions to increase seats for foreign students is to facilitate smooth and easy admission of international students to higher educational institutions in India, to create a conducive environment for Indian higher education to attract international students and to make India a preferred destination for foreign students.

UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar told IANS that the higher educational institutions would be allowed to admit international students through a transparent admission process which will be similar to that being followed by foreign universities.

Foreign students do not have to go through the admission process for seeking admission to higher educational institutions in India.

According to the UGC Chairman, all higher education institutions will have an ‘office for international affairs’ which will be responsible for carrying out various activities.

This includes dissemination of information related to the admission process of foreign students, coordination of all matters relating to foreign students, brand-building campaigns abroad, redressal of grievances of foreign students in various matters, facilitating networking with fellow students, provide all possible assistance to foreign students to adapt to the new cultural environment and to make their stay comfortable and prosperous in India.

Kumar told IANS, “Internationalisation of higher education is an essential aspect of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. Opportunities to attract international students, academics and funding are increasing and many Indian Higher Educational Institutions are now committed to expanding their reach. In order to facilitate internationalisation of Indian higher education institutions, the UGC has prepared guidelines for admission and creation of additional seats for international students.”

NEP, 2020, envisages a new and forward-looking vision for India’s higher education system. It lays the foundation for the much-needed transformation and overhaul of the current education system by focusing on key issues such as access, equity, multidisciplinarity, holistic and value-based education.

According to the UGC, the Indian higher education system is one of the largest in the world and such a vast system has led to transformation, including in the areas of leadership, funding, quality of education delivery, accountability, management, teaching-learning and education. There is a need to change the system or processes for higher education sectors.

Continuing its action against alleged corruption during the previous Congress regime, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau has arrested former minister and state’s Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu in the food grains transportation scam in which tenders were allocated allegedly on registration numbers of scooters and cars listed as trucks to claim transport subsidies.

Former forest ministers in the Congress government, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sangat Singh Gilzian have already been booked in alleged corruption cases. A minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh government, Dharamsot – who is in judicial custody after his arrest on 8 June – is accused of taking bribes to permit felling of over 25,000 trees,Gilzian allegedly took bribes on the installation of tree guards after becoming the forest minister in Charanjit Singh Channi government.

A two-time former legislator from Ludhiana West, Ashu was food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister in the previous Congress government, first under Captain Amarinder Singh and later under Charanjit Singh Channi. He lost his seat in the 2022 Punjab Assembly election.

A spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Monday said the Bureau, after verification of a complaint made by complainant Gurprit Singh, has already registered a first information report (FIR) under Preventions of Corruption Act at Ludhiana in which besides owners of Gurdas Ram & Company, contractors Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia has been booked.

The contractor Telu Ram has already been arrested in this and he is on police remand. “During investigation by the VB, accused Telu Ram has submitted that he met Bharat Bhushan Ashu through his personal assistant Meenu Malhotra for getting tenders for the season 2020-21 who further told him to meet Rakesh Kumar Singla, deputy director of food and civil supplies. Singla was chairman of departmental chief vigilance committee for tenders and was acting on the directions of former minister,” he said.

The accused Telu Ram has informed the VB that when he met RK Singla, he has demanded Rs 30 Lakh on behalf of Ashu and gave bribes of Rs 20 lakh to RK Singla, Rs Six lakh to Menu Malhotra and other officers.

The spokesperson added that on the basis of revelations as well as the material evidence, Ashu has been nominated as an accused in this case. During Investigation it has come on record that Telu Ram has purchased about 20 acres of land and accused Meenu Malhotra, who is at large, has also made a number of properties and records are being collected in this regard.

He informed that the record with regard to posting of accused Rakesh Kumar Singla is also being collected besides properties made by him would be probed.

Revealing the modus operandi of this scam, the spokesperson informed that the tenders were invited cluster wise in which ‘A’ group of mandis and work of all procurement agencies was allotted for the cluster and name of leading mandis in particular area was used as cluster name. In Ludhiana district, Telu Ram has four clusters (Jodhan, Mullanpur, Raikot and Payal) which contains 34 grain markets. Apart from this, Telu Ram was also having clusters in district Ferozepur at Talwandi Bhai and district Ropar local.

During investigations it has come to light that main accused Telu Ram had received about Rs 25 Crore for the said work. In order to get tenders the lists of vehicles submitted by accused were containing registration numbers of cars, scooters, motorcycles etc but the same transportation vehicles were required to be verified

After verification, technical bid was required to be rejected by district tender committee but they in connivance with each other allotted the tenders.

The spokesperson said even in the gate passes numbers of scooters, cars etc were mentioned but the above mentioned officers made payments to the accused contractors in respect of material quoted in these gate passes thereby matter regarding misappropriation also comes to light.