New Delhi Apr 25 PTI Natural farming is the need of the hour as the cost of production of foodgrain has increased due to the use of chemicals and fertilisers NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Monday Addressing the National Workshop on Innovative Agriculture organised by NITI Aayog Kant further said India is now an exporter of wheat and rice Natural farming is the need of the hour and it is important that we identify scientific ways through which we can ensure farmers can directly benefit from it thereby increasing their income he said Kant added The cost of production of foodgrain and vegetables rose due to excess use of chemicals and fertilisers Natural Farming is a chemical-free farming method It is considered as an agroecology-based diversified farming system which integrates crops trees and livestock with functional biodiversity Also speaking at the event NITI Aayog member Agriculture Ramesh Chand said there are many methods of natural farming that can be adopted such as organic farming diversification and agroecological farming Through our shared experiences its crucial to understand the pros and cons of each of the methods he added PTI BKS DRR

New Delhi Mar 24 PTI Authorities have issued over 198 crore challans worth Rs 189873 crore for traffic violations across the country in the 2021 calendar year Parliament was informed on Thursday In a written reply to the Lok Sabha Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said 215328 cases of road rage and rash driving were reported in 2021 as per the governments centralised database According to data provided by the minister Delhi has seen the highest number of challans at 7189824 followed by Tamil Nadu 3626037 and Kerala 1741932 challans Authorities have issued over 40 lakh challans worth Rs 417 crore for traffic violations across the country between January 1 to March 15 2022 Gadkari said To improve road safety and tighten traffic regulations such as issuance of driving licences and impose stricter penalties for violations Parliament on August 5 2019 had passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2019 President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Bill on August 9 2019 The minister also said that while the number of traffic violations under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 before between February 1 2017 to August 31 2019 the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 was 13872098 the number of cases after September 1 2019 to February 2022 the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 stood at 48518314 Gadkari said his ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety based on education engineering both of roads and vehicles enforcement and emergency care Replying to a separate question he said 553 National Highways projects in a length of 10964 km have been awarded during 2020-21 Expenditure incurred for ongoing works of National Highways NHs projects during 2020-21 stood at Rs 153240 crore Gadkari added According to the minister the contributions received under the Public Private Partnerships PPP mode during 2020-21 stood at Rs 12476 crore It has been estimated that 4076 mandays of work is created for every km of road constructed he noted PTI BKS DRR

New Delhi Mar 24 PTI Authorities have issued over 198 crore challans worth Rs 189873 crore for traffic violations across the country in the 2021 calendar year Parliament was informed on Thursday In a written reply to the Lok Sabha Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said 215328 cases of road rage and rash driving were reported in 2021 as per the governments centralised database According to data provided by the minister Delhi has seen the highest number of challans at 7189824 followed by Tamil Nadu 3626037 and Kerala 1741932 challans Authorities have issued over 40 lakh challans worth Rs 417 crore for traffic violations across the country between January 1 to March 15 2022 Gadkari said To improve road safety and tighten traffic regulations such as issuance of driving licences and impose stricter penalties for violations Parliament on August 5 2019 had passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2019 President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Bill on August 9 2019 The minister also said that while the number of traffic violations under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 before between February 1 2017 to August 31 2019 the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 was 13872098 the number of cases after September 1 2019 to February 2022 the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 stood at 48518314 Gadkari said his ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety based on education engineering both of roads and vehicles enforcement and emergency care PTI BKS DRR