GN

In its 169th board meeting held Tuesday, it passed a resolution to build a head regulator at the Upper Ganges Canal (UGC), and branch canals to carry 37.50 cusec water to be supplied to different residential sectors of this township.

The Noida board also simplified the rules to build educational institutes. The board cleared 10 percent allotment amount instead of 20 percent rules earlier.

The board also passed a resolution to set up an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in the town to train youths to meet the increasing demand of skilled workers in industrial units.

The stations will be integrated and commissioned as soon as the AMEL opens for the public, DMRC officials said.

Travelling from the IGI Aiport to Dwarka or West Delhi would soon be a brief ride on the AMEL costing a maximum of Rs 30. One can shift to the Delhi Metro network at the Dwarka Sector 21 station, which is just a stop away from the IGI Airport Metro station, and take Line 3 to reach the city.

"The Dwarka Sector 21 station is designed in a way that commuters will not even have to change platforms to board AMEL trains," said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.

"This station will be unique as it will essentially be two stations merged into one. It will have four levels the platforms will be underground, concourse at ground level and two more levels for commercial development. Each level will have an area of about 12,500 sq m," he added.

Construction and finishing work on the Dwarka Sector 8 as well as Sector 21 lines are over, and trial runs have already been conducted. DMRC sources said statutory clearances from the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety would be obtained once the AMEL is complete.

Source: The Indian Express By Sweta Dutta New stations ready, Dwarka set to connect with IGI

Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah rejected the plea of Department of Personnel and Training that these records were held "in confidence" by the government and are hence exempted from disclosure.

"It is clear that the property statements are statements regarding private individuals serving in government and (they) become part of Government records," he said.Habibullah said by no means these records can be treated as information held "in confidence" by the government.

He said these records come in the category of "personal information" the disclosure of which could amount to invasion of privacy and would attract section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.

Source: business-standard Property statements are not 'confidential' info: CIC

The NHAI has decided to set up five call centres covering the eastern, western, northern, southern and central regions. It is proposed to set them up in backward districts and tribal areas so that they also serve a social development purpose.

These decisions were taken in the light of the fact that more than one lakh people die in road accidents in India every year, the highest in the world. The poor sections of the people account for 70 per cent of the fatalities.

The social cost of road accidents has been estimated at three per cent of the GDP.

Save lives

The objective behind the move is to provide timely treatment to the injured and save their lives.These call centres will also arrange for services for clearing obstruction of highways due to falling of trees, dharnas, flat tyres,and bad road conditions, and improve maintenance of roads and facilities to serve the road users better.

Each call centre will have at least 15 persons working in each shift, five of whom will have to do bilingual servicing in Hindi and English. The other 10 are expected to be proficient in languages specific to the region, covering about 19 languages of the country.

The NHAI has floated the tenders and officials expect the call centres to be in place by the beginning of next year.

Officials sources said here the recent spurt in international crude prices had not helped the situation and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) were losing around 50 paise to Re. 1 a litre on petrol. The average crude oil basket is around $81 a barrel and shows no signs of moderating.

After it decontrolled petrol prices on June 25, the government contemplated issuing guidelines to the OMCs for adjusting the price of petrol against the movement of crude oil price in the international market. However, those guidelines are still to come. The State-owned OMCs are likely to raise petrol prices by at least Re.1 per litre by early next month. A hike is imminent to keep the mounting under-recoveries under control.

"Petrol price hike is imminent. Only the quantum of increase will have to be decided," said an official.

A team of top state officials led by state cabinet secretary Sashankh Sekhar Singh and some senior ministers of the Mayawati government held parleys with farmer leader Ram Babu Kateria at the Aligarh airstrip in the early hours on Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Aligarh, Satender Veer Singh said that "The package offered by the state government includes the provision of raising the compensation price offered to the farmers to Rs 570 per square metre (about 20 per cent higher than the earlier price)".

It is expected that the farmer leaders will place this offer before the kisan panchayat at the dharna site at village Jikarpur and seek its "ratification".

Kateria, who is under arrest, is expected to be produced before a judicial magistrate today. He is presently at a private nursing home after he had complained of some "discomfort" yesterday.

The state government has also decided to set up a high-level committee headed by the divisional commissioner to further review all other issues related to acquisition of farm land along the Noida-Taj Expressway in the district, officials said.

After clashes between protesters and police left four persons, including a PAC jawan, dead, farmers were continuing their sit-in in the village.

Source: The Hindu U.P. govt. hikes compensation for Aligarh farmers

The Committee said the UP government initially bypassed the process of securing a proper environment impact assessment (EIA) and has now been asked to get these conducted. Local residents had dragged the administration to court after the trees were cut, saying an important green lung of the area had been destroyed under a cloak of secrecy.

After the first EIA done by the Wildlife Institute of India slammed the cutting of trees, the district authorities commissioned two more reports to "balance out" the critical assessment.

The WII report said the cutting of trees, which acted as a buffer for the nearby Okhla Bird park (OBP), will affect the migratory bird population there. It added that the artificial lighting at the complex could confuse the 75 species of birds coming to the park annually. The report suggested that native trees be planted in the complex and blue-tinted lighting be used. It also said that 130 hectares of the Yamuna flood plain, north of the park, be nurtured for water birds.

Following the report submitted last week, the state government asked Dr S N Prasad of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) and Dr V Vasudeva Rao of the Aacharya NG Ranga Agricultural University for another assessment. Their report said there were no protected species in the 33 hectares in question and hence the park did not suffer much damage.

A third report by IIT-Delhi has recommended that the assessment was best prepared by an ornithologist as the OBP and its surrounding areas form one of the most important bird habitats in the National Capital Region.

Instead of having one Public Information Officer (PIOs), ministries have designated PIOs for each section, thereby making filing an application under Right To Information a tedious process.

To overcome this problem, Chief Information Commi-ssioner Wajahat Habibullah had proposed a model, where each ministry will have a cell committed to deal with all matters relating to RTI. The model will also suggest ways to improve efficiency of RTI cells already working in ministries such an Environment and Forests.

"All RTI applications will have to be filed with the cell, which will then be forward to the Public Information Officers concerned and will even send them reminders about by when the information has to be provided," Habibullah told HT.

The cell will also act as an appellate authority for all RTI applications in the ministry.

The transparency watchdog's proposed model would be similar to the one in United Kingdom, where a dedicated freedom of information office ensures that timely reply is given to each application. The office also decides what information can be put in public domain.

chetan@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Chetan Chauhan CIC wants RTI cell in each ministry

The forces and commandos, who will arrive in September, are expected to be well-versed with the geographical conditions of the area, officials said. Importantly, the Noida-expressway will witness the CWG trial cycling event and the security measures were much needed amidst the rising crime situation.

As a number of foreign tourists are expected to visit the twin cities during the Games, state police officials have approved a budget of Rs 5 lakh each for personality development for the officials of the twin cities.

In this connection, 1,000 personnel, including Sub-Inspectors, Head constables and constables, each from Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar, would undergo a personality enhancement and English language courses from a private university.

Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raghubir Lal said the budget has received final approval from the state officials and training is expected to commence soon.

"The personality development courses will help police officials to behave politely and welcome the foreign visitors to UP," ADG said.

Source: Hindustan Times By Peeyush Khandelwal & Kapil Datta Ghaziabad to get extra security for Games

The `Dial 100' solution contains calling line identification (CLI) and direct inward dialling (DID) to help in identification and routing. It also provides connectivity to mobile PCR vans through two-way radios or GPS. It will help in round-the-clock availability, proper dissemination of information, immediate responses to calls, online links with emergency services, thus increase efficiency of Noida police.

`Dial 100' will also allow citizens to avail emergency services such as hospitals and fire-stations. It will help to reduce the number of hoax calls police department gets and provide connectivity to the missing persons and vehicles databases. It also provides customised reporting of call centre performances.

"This initiative has been taken to help the citizens. With advanced technology, the response time of police for the call of service will be improved and more than 70 PCRs will be present for DIAL 100 service," said Gautam Budh Nagar SSP A. K. Singh.

Similarly, HCL Infosystems Executive Vice-President George Paul said: "Today with the increasing threat perception and the need to protect lives and secure infrastructure, effective utilisation of information and communication technology for information enablement and empowering police services is an area of key importance. With the introduction of Dial 100 solutions, the police force would be able to extend its service in a much faster and efficient manner."

According to state government officials, the data compilation and inviting objections over the lists will be over by August 31. But the beneficiaries may have to wait till November to get the first installment of the money.

The scheme was announced by Chief Minister Mayawati on her birthday on January 15. It was to be launched in April and the government ordered all districts to complete their survey of determining the beneficiaries by June 30.

In a recent review meeting, it was found that though the deadline was over, a large number of districts are yet to complete their surveys and the online compilation of data.

Official from Aurriaya, where 78 per cent of the gram panchayats have been covered, said: "It is mandatory that all entries should be compiled online alongwith the physical survey, which is making the process time consuming. Yet we are trying to cover all gram panchayats within this month." Following the delay in the first step, the state government has extended the deadline for survey and compilation to July 31. The Principal Secretary (social welfare) Balvinder Kumar, said: "We have extended the deadline. In August, the districts will be inviting objections and creating the final list of beneficiaries." The panchayat elections, slated for September, may further slow the scheme.

Source: The Indian Express By TARANNUM MANJUL Maya's pension plan for poor may take effect only in November

Some MEA (ministry of external affairs) staff attend work wearing black badges, to show their protest against involving a private, third party company (TCS) in record processing and passport issuance, a job which was solely done by the goverment till now. The lack of cooperation is clear and loud on the ground, at the Passport Seva Kendra on Lal Bagh Road and Regional Passport Office in Bangalore.

The MEA is in the process of setting up an online passport application, verification and issuance system with the assistance of tech major Tata Consultacy Services. The current passport system is as old as independent India and turning this legacy system online is an extremely challenging and complex procedure. TCS has just taken over this task and the company says it would be able to offer complete citizen satisfaction in a fortnight, though it is currently facing multiple hurdles.

The pilot project, currently on in Bangalore, Mangalore and Hubli, is expected to be completed in 12 weeks and the country wide roll out across 77 passport seva kendras (PSK) will happen in six months. The system has been seeing teething troubles, and there have been times when the system has been down.

The project involves development of a new system network, software, infrastructure and application. ``The initial learning is happening. Glitches are part of the overall proposition and it is only natural. TCS is trying to simplify the system for MEA staff and citizens alike. Certain elements always resist change. Soon, systems will get institutionalized, citizens will realise the value of it and then all negative elements will wither away,'' said sources close to the development.

LOCAL FLAVOUR: Veenod Aggarwal runs a colony tabloid in Noida

Want to know what's cooking in your neighbour's house or what transpired in the RWA meeting that you missed last Sunday? Colony news, spicy gossips about your neighbours and RWA activities are all being served up in newspapers and magazines across residential societies. Run by tiny teams of residents retired professionals, publishers, marketers, former homemakers these hyperlocal rags are designed, proofread and published like any mainstream journal, only they are distributed free.

The launch of a coin-vending machine in Pocket III is front-page news in Mayur Vihar's Mayur Infomail; Community Samvada (Noida Sector 15A) has the RWA elections on its front page and woes of the Thursday Ladies Club inside. Samvada's Gulmohar Park edition discusses the issue of serving alcohol at club events and requests residents not to walk off with newspapers from the club. From hard news colony events, club politics, RWA elections to harmless gossip and a cartload of ads, "micro-media" has it all.

Dwarka residents are particularly enterprising in this respect. The sub-city has over a dozen registered newspapers. ``It's exclusively for Dwarka. Not even Palam," says Mukesh Sinha of Dwarka City, a fourpage English glossy issued thrice a month with a circulation of 35,000. Sinha and his wife started it in 2003.

The older journal, Mayur Infomail, was started by Ashok Kumar Gupta, a former engineer with the department of telecommunication, in 1997. Mayur Infomail launched as a tabloid, evolved into a black-andwhite broadsheet and five-six years ago took its current form a six-page, colour fortnightly with a circulation of 12,000. ``It's a household name now," says Gupta. During the Kargil war, a report on a local kid who had raised funds for war heroes had initiated a competition among residents, who tried to outmatch each other by donating money. ``We started a social movement," says Gupta. They also covered the Akshardham Temple construction. "Now you know how big it is. It was very important for us. We covered every aspect of the construction."

Community Samvada, a bilingual monthly, is a slightly different story. It'll soon touch 50 editions one for each colony and sector of Noida and have websites for them too. This mother of colony tabloids grew from a single one 16 years ago. It was started by Veenod Aggarwal for Noida Sector 15 A. "We scaled up our operations seven-eight years ago," he says. It's distributed free and 90% ads are local.
(with inputs from Kim Arora)

Source: Times Of India By Shreya Roy Chowdhury Colony magazines serve up neighbourhood gossip

India is among thirteen countries that have been declared to have a high level of corruption and abysmal government performance.

According to the report prepared by the Washington based Results for Development Institute (R4D), Guatemala, Paraguay, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Argentina, Russia, Romania, Albania, Moldova, Poland, and Indonesia are the other countries that were listed for review and assessment on these two counts.

As far as India was concerned, the report based its assessment on two districts in the state of Karnataka, which has a population of 53 million.

It quoted the Indo-Dutch project management society (IDPMS) as saying that it found that 24% of all positions were vacant at public health centres, including half of the pharmacy jobs.

They also found that common drugs were not available in health clinics for six to eight months at a time, and doctors were not available for 37% of the time during clinic hours.

In some cases, the investigators said, unqualified people were disbursing drugs because no pharmacist was available.

The report, From the Ground Up, which was published by the Brookings institution press, documents a growing phenomenon of watchdog groups in developing countries examining key issues in government performance, seizing a role that has long been delegated to Western institutions and a cadre of outside consultants.

Experts say the indigenous groups have the potential to do a better job than the outsiders--and cost far less.

"What these organisations are showing is that there are people on the ground in these countries who know the context better, know the schools, know the health system, and with a little outside help, they can go in and make changes happen,'' said Courtney Tolmie, a co-author of the report.

Source: dnaindia.com Bad governance: India is among 13 corrupt nations

GK-I, R-Block
For the past one year, residents of the area have been pursuing officials to give them permission to carry out rainwater harvesting on a main road. They already have two projects running inside
parks, for which the resident welfare association had no trouble getting clearance. The current project is stuck because permission from the DDA is required.

Rajendra Gupta, an office bearer with the association, recently wrote to chief minister Sheila Dikshit, asking her what steps residents were required to take if they simply wanted to follow the law. ``Our plans were cleared by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and other agencies like the MCD had given us the go-ahead. We had even drilled 100 metres for a borewell when the police stopped us, saying that we needed to get permission from the SDM. Our request has been pending with the SDM for the past month, and now we are being told the SDM is not authorised to give us the go-ahead," said Gupta.

Ashoka Avenue
Residents were inspired by the nearby Sainik Farms to take up rainwater harvesting on a community level a few months earlier. The RWA set out to identify 4- 5 spots where rainwater harvesting structures could be set up. But nobody knew who to approach for clearances or funds. R N Saxena, honorary secretary of the RWA, consulted with an NGO which works with water-related issues and met Delhi Jal Board officials.

Source: Times Of India By Neha Lalchandani RED TAPE DETERS DELHIITES

CNG rates in Delhi will go up by Rs 5.60 per kg - from Rs 21.90 to Rs 27.50 per kg, IGL said in a statement here.

"The new consumer price of Rs 27.50 per kg in Delhi and Rs 30.60 per kg in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad would be effective from midight tonight," it said.

The hike was necessitated because of the government's decision to raise natural gas prices from Rs 3.2 per cubic meter to Rs 7.5 per cubic meter (USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit).

IGL, however, did not increase the price of gas that it pipes to households for cooking purpose.