Center reconstitutes Committee assisting Krishna River Management Board

Center reconstitutes Committee assisting Krishna River Management Board The Centre has reconstituted a committee that was tasked with assisting the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). The new committee will be headed by A.K. Bajaj, former chairman of the Central Water Commission. Other board members include Gopala Krishnan, R.P. Pandey, Pradeep Kumar Shukla and

N.N. Rai. The objective of the committee will be to assist the Krishna River Management Board in preparing a manual on how projects, common to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, needs to be handled. It would also deal with how the Godavari waters ought to be transferred to the Krishna Basin in accordance with the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award. The need to reconstitute the committee was required as the earlier Board ruled that Krishna water should be divided 70:30 between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the coming month. The Telangana government has strongly objected to this.The Water Resources Ministry constituted the first committee of irrigation, hydrology and hydel power experts in September 2016 to suggest a mechanism for facilitating the effective functioning of the KRMB as per the provisions of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Textile Ministry to launch Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre for weavers

 The Ministry of Textiles has planned to set up a “Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre” where professional experts would solve the queries of the weavers.

ii. The helpline center would function from 10.00 a.m. to 6 p.m. and initially it will be provided in 7 languages including Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada Bengali & Assamese.

iii. Currently 28 Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs) are functioning across the country to provide technical assistance to handloom weavers in improving their skills. For seeking assistance, weavers have to personally visit the WSCs.

iv. However, till date, there is no single point of contact where weavers can seek solutions for their technical issues/problems. The helpline aims to overcome these problems.

v. To set up this helpline, M/s. MSD (I) P. Ltd., Bhopal has been selected as an agency for providing Handloom Helpline Centre. The call centre would start operating within a month.