Jharkhand State PCS

• 30 May 2022

WHO Award to Jharkhand for Tobacco Control

Why in News?

• On May 29, 2022, Lalit Ranjan Pathak, nodal officer of The National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) of Jharkhand, informed that Jharkhand has been selected by the World Health Organization for the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award, 2022 for its efforts to control tobacco consumption.

Key Points

• The State Tobacco Control Cell of the Jharkhand Health Department will receive the award on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day in New Delhi on May 31.
• According to the report of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-1, when the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) was launched in Jharkhand in 2012, the tobacco prevalence rate in the state was 51.1 per cent, of which 48 per cent were non-smoking users.
• The report, published in 2018, said the number of tobacco users in the state declined to 38.9 per cent, of which 35.4 per cent were non-smoking users.
• Ranjan Pathak pointed out that Jharkhand initiated several measures between 2018 and 2022. The Union Health Ministry, WHO and dedicated State and District Health Teams have contributed immensely in reducing the tobacco prevalence rate in Jharkhand.

Regional Offices of Directorate General of Mines Safety increased from 29 to 38

Why in News?

• On May 29, 2022, the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), Dhanbad, issued a notification increasing the number of regional offices from 29 to 38.

Key Points

• After more than a decade, the regional offices of the Directorate General of Mines Safety have been reconstituted and their number has been increased. However, there is no change in the number of zones (currently 8).
• Two regional offices each have been added at Eastern Zone Sitarampur, South-Eastern Zone Ranchi, Southern Zone Bangalore, Western Zone Nagpur and North-Western Zone Udaipur, one each at South Central Zone Hyderabad and Northern Zone Ghaziabad.
• Guwahati Region-2 in Eastern Zone Sitarampur, Bhubaneswar Region-2 in South-Eastern Zone Ranchi, Bellary Region-2 in Southern Zone Bangalore, Parsia Region-2 in Western Zone Nagpur, Ahmedabad Region-2 in North-Western Zone Udaipur, Nellore Region and Hyderabad Region-3 in South Central Zone Hyderabad and Srinagar Region and Ajmer Region-2 in Northern Zone Ghaziabad have been added.
• It may be mentioned that earlier the regional offices of DGMS were restructured in the year 2009, then the existing 6 zones with 6 zones, 21 regional offices and 5 sub-regional offices were brought down to the current level of 29 regional zones with 2 new zones and 3 sub-regional offices.
• 2 new zones - Southern Zone and North-Western Zone and 8 new Regional Offices- Varanasi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bellary, Guwahati (Upgradation from Sub-Regional to Regional), Raigarh and Gwalior were formed. At that time, the Ramgarh sub-regional office was transferred to Ranchi and the Southern-Eastern Zone was merged with Ranchi.