In parliament: 662 border villages being developed

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that 662 border villages were being developed under the Centre’s Vibrant Village Scheme that has a budget of Rs 4,800 crore. Of these, 455 are in Arunachal Pradesh, 75 in Himachal Pradesh, 51 in Uttarakhand, 46 in Sikkim and 35 in Ladakh.

Farmers benefited from higher MSPs

Farmers across the country benefited from the successful implementation of higher Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), Minister of State for Agriculture Ram Nath Thakur told the Lok Sabha. He stated that between 2022-23 and 2023-24, 3.2 crore farmers received a total of Rs 5.1 lakh crore as MSP payments.

Women make up 10% of police force

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha that women account for 10 per cent of the Indian police force, with 2,63,762 women personnel in a total force of nearly 22 lakh. Uttar Pradesh leads with 33,319 women officers, followed by Maharashtra with 32,172. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have 8,167, 5,506 and 2,593 women police personnel, respectively.

Same income cap for OBC, EWS quotas

Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar clarified in the Lok Sabha that the annual income cap for determining the creamy layer for Other Backward Classes and for the Economically Weaker Sections in the general category is Rs 8 lakh. He asserted that the criteria for both quotas are equitable.