DIRTY WATER IN 67,000 Rural AREAS
There are over 66,700 rural habitations, where one or more drinking water sources are contaminated and these areas are yet to be provided with safe drinking water, the government said on Monday. Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav told the Rajya Sabha that of these, 12,727 were fluoride-affected habitations.
More People Thrown out of Train
There has been a sharp rise in the number of incidents involving passengers and ticket collectors getting thrown out of running trains. While there were 16 such incidents reported in 2013, 20 such cases had taken place in 2014. However, no compensation has been paid to the victims so far, MoS for Railways Manoj Sinha said, adding safeguards had been put in place to provide security to passengers and about 1,600 trains were escorted by RPF.
Drop IN Film Shooting Revenue
There has been a drop in revenue to Railways from shooting of films on trains in the last three years, the government said. Railways received Rs 6.74 crore in 2013-14 as revenue while it dropped to 3.2 crore in 2014-14 and 0.66 crore in 2015 so far. The Railway Ministry further informed that booking of special trains for shooting of films have been revised with effect from August 1, 2015 and the rates have almost doubled.
Projects on Rivers from Nepal
India is working to have storage projects on rivers flowing into India from Nepal to check flooding. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti told the House in a written reply that the problem of flooding in India in rivers flowing from Nepal was not due to the release of water by Nepal. “In fact, it is because there are no storage projects in Nepal on these rivers. India is endeavouring to have storage projects at potential sites on these rivers,” the minister said.