Rs 435 million spent to propagate Hindi worldwide

Complaints to NCM fall down sharply...4,000 Indian women deserted by NRI husbands since 2016...79 districts in India still don't have blood banks...
Check out information ministers revealed in Parliament.

The Union government has made 'sustained efforts' to publicise Hindi and spent Rs 43.48 crore (Rs 434.8 million) over the past five years to propagate the language worldwide through diplomatic missions and posts, the external affairs ministry told Parlianent.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the government has made sustained efforts for acceptance of Hindi as an official language at the United Nations. According to UN procedure, getting Hindi accepted as an official language involves adoption of a resolution by the general assembly with at least two-thirds of its membership.

India has signed an MoU with the UN secretariat in March 2018 to increase the volume and frequency of Hindi content produced by the UN.

'In July 2018, UN launched Hindi versions of its social media content on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The UN News Hindi Website was initiated on the occasion of World Hindi Day in January 2019. The UN News audio bulletins in Hindi are being released on a weekly basis,' the minister, who hails from Kerala, said.

Complaints to NCM fall down sharply

The number of complaints received by the National Commission of Minorities have reduced from 2,439 in 2011-2012 to 1,871 in 2018-2019, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi revealed in the Lok Sabha.

The responsibility of maintaining law and order, registration and prosecution of crimes against all citizens, including minorities, rests with the respective state governments and appropriate action as per law is taken, he said.

'The central government has issued guidelines to deal with situations arising out of communal violence. The guidelines are reiterated while sending advisories by the government with the objective of sensitisation of states/UTs and enhancing their preparedness from time to time,' the minister said.

4,000 Indian women deserted by NRI husbands since 2016

As many as 4,698 complaints from distressed Indian women deserted by their NRI husbands were addressed in the last three-and-a-half years, the ministry of external affairs told the Lok Sabha.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the complaints were received between January 2016 and May 31, 2019.

The ministry provides counselling and guidance, and information on legal procedures and mechanisms to serve judicial summons to accused NRI husbands, Muraleedharan said.

Information on filing a judicial case in India, issuing look out circulars, impounding and revocation of Indian passport of the husbands is also provided by the ministry, the minister said.

To provide online consular assistance expeditiously to Indian nationals who are in distress abroad, including marital disputes, the MADAD portal was launched in 2015, Muraleedharan said.

A module 'marital disputes' was added to the portal to provide a digital platform to distressed Indian nationals married to NRIs.

To provide financial and legal assistance to distressed women married to NRI men by all Indian missions, the Indian Community Welfare Fund guidelines were revised in September 2017, the minister said.

'The amount of legal and financial assistance to distressed Indian women has been increased to $4,000 per case,' Muraleedharan said.

Eight look out circulars have been issued against erring spouses, the minister added.

A bill 'The Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indian Bill, 2019' was introduced on February 11, 2019 to offer greater protection to Indian citizens married to NRIs.

It would, the minister said, act as a deterrent to NRIs against harassment of their spouses and force the accused NRI spouse to come back to India to face legal consequences of his overt and covert acts.

79 districts in India still don't have blood banks

Over 70 districts in the country do not have licensed blood banks, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha.

The Government of India's National Blood Policy to have at least one blood bank per district is already in place, he said.

'As per information from states, there are 79 districts where there are no blood banks. Under the National Health Mission, support has been provided to states to set up 74 blood banks and 1,583 blood storage centres,' Choubey said.

Arunachal Pradesh tops the list with 14 of its districts not having blood banks, followed by Manipur (12 districts), Nagaland (9 districts) and Assam (8 districts).

Army spent Rs 12.4 million on dog squad

The Indian Army incurred Rs 1.24 crore (Rs 12.4 million) on its dog squad for training, food and expenses during 2018-2019, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik told the Lok Sabha.

The Army currently has 25 full dog units and two half units.

A full unit of the army comprises 24 canines and half consists of 12.

2,896 scientist posts lying vacant

The top 70 institutes and laboratories under the ministry of science and technology have nearly 2,900 vacant posts of scientists.

The vacancy of scientists in five institutes -- the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, the Fourth Paradigm Institute, Bengaluru and the Central Flood Technological Research Institute, Mysuru -- is 100 or more, Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Lok Sabha.

Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com