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Inaugurating a CNG distribution centre, he also said that LPG cylinders would now be fitted with a 'locking system' to prevent gas pilferage.

He said that once the technology is implemented in the coming four months, consumers' complaints of getting less quantity of cooking gas would automatically be removed.

He said that India was suffering badly to the unprecedented hike of cooking gas,petrol and diesel due to existing global petroleum price problems.

Not surprisingly, the discussions had little to do with actual progress of e-governance and emphasised more on "informed suggestions'' from ministers, most of whom are far from being internet savvy themselves. If brainstorming for the future was one part of the agenda, the other involved staking claim to the `pilot' e-governance project, which incidentally, is part of a Government of India initiative by the name of National e-Governance Programme.

The scheme was approved for countrywide implementation in May 2006 to "make all government services available to the common man in his locality''. But in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district, the project Lokvani was started by Sitapur's local National Informatics Centre (NIC) in 2004, where authorities were already registering consumer grievances along the e-governance format. A senior Sitapur-based NIC functionary, said: "The software and infrastructure for its implementation had already been developed for implementation across the villages of Sitapur. Among other services, Lokvani also provided employment-related information to residents of the district."

With the success of the Sitapur model, the need for the implementation of a similar system across the remaining districts of UP gathered steam. And with the Government of India taking cognizance of the endeavour, it was not long before the impetus came from the Centre itself. For its e-district programme, the Centre launched a fully-funded pilot project the first of its kind in India to be implemented across six districts of UP, namely, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Noida, Sitapur, Rae Bareli and Ghaziabad.

Source: Times Of India e-Governance in UP: Only talks, no implementation

The GoM was earlier scheduled to meet on July 15.

The Uttar Pradesh government had sent a new report on the Greater Noida Airport sometime in late June, which was sent to the Department of Economic Affairs for its comments, based on which the ministry will prepare a self-contained proposal on the mooted facility, senior ministry officials told ET.

The ministry has also sent the report to the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which has modernised the IGI airport in the national capital, for it to give its views, they added.

The DIAL has appointed the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), an intergovernmental body that helps to plan and develop global air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth, to study the air traffic for the region.

Source: Economic Times Wait For G Noida Airport Gets Longer , GoM Meet To Look Into Proposal Deferred

Such a decision was on the cards ever since the oil ministry decided, on June 25, to deregulate petrol price. The periodicity was finalised after a meeting of the heads of the three state-owned oil companies --Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) -with petroleum secretary S.Sundareshan on Wednesday.

"There is no need to increase petrol prices immediately. All refiners will review prices together," IOC director (finance) S.V.
Narasimhan said. Petrol prices were last increased on June 25 -by Rs 3.50 per litre.

Narasimhan added that the oil firms had also decided to keep the price of petrol the same at all petrol pumps -whether run by IOC, HPCL or BPCL. In order to avoid cartelisation or hoarding by dealers, the date on which the monthly price revision will take place will not be revealed beforehand.

"We may revise prices on any day of the month," he said.

With deregulation, India will follow the price of petrol in the international oil market and will align domestic prices with it every month.

While freeing petrol prices, the government had left it to the industry to finalise the modalities of subsequent price adjustments at the retail level.
The industry explored two options -fortnightly or monthly -and opted for the latter.

The three PSU oil firms said they held discussions with private retailers -Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Royal Dutch/Shell -too.

There's a line for everything. All lines look the same. In some lines, standing and waiting for your turn yields results, in others you waste your time.

At the Regional Passport Office at Bhikaji Cama Place, the line is different. Apart from the usual factors, there's the bored, disinterested faces of the government officials manning the counters to contend with.

As far as work is concerned, Uttam Nagar resident Sakshi Tanwar (29) gives us the low-down: "Getting a passport is an impossible task here. If you have not done your homework you are bound to lost in the sea of people standing here."

Tanwar has stood in line here four times in the past one-and-a-half years, but still hasn't got her passport.

"For some reason or the other they keep sending my file back. Once the policeman came for verification. I was at work and couldn't meet him, so he gave an adverse report. The file was sent back and I had to come and apply again. I can't leave my job and come here every other day," an exhausted Tanwar says. She had just spent four hours in a queue at the RPO.

vijaita.singh@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Vijaita Singh Passport games: Apply, fail, apply.

The "preferred time delivery" scheme will initially be available in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, for an additional payment that will vary from Rs20 to Rs50 per delivery, depending upon the time and day.

"We are looking at massive expansion in domestic LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder capacity in the country and aim to add one crore cylinders every year over a period of next five years. Schemes like these will appeal to customers," said Jitin Prasada, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas.

A delivery before 8am in a city such as Delhi will cost an additional Rs50 above the Rs345.35 for the cylinder. Deliveries between 8am and 6pm will cost Rs25 extra and Rs50 more between 6pm and 8pm. A customer is entitled to a discount of Rs20 in case of delayed delivery.

The scheme is to be offered by the distributors of Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) (Indane), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (Bharat Gas) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HP Gas). It will also be available in the neighbourhood of the cities mentioned above, including Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Sonepat, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan, Mira Road and Bhayander. The scheme will be extended to all towns having a population of about one million.

utpal.b@livemint.com

Source: Live Mint By Utpal Bhaskar Customers can choose time of gas cylinder delivery for a fee

The centre is located on the first floor of a commercial complex without any signboards or directions outside the market or anywhere to help the people locate it. There is only one signboard on the stairs of the complex. There is only one gate which is used for both entry and exit and that too is very small, leading to complete disorder.

As there is no information board inside or outside the centre hall, people face a lot of confusion relating to the work-timings of the office, train timings and other queries. There are two counters and only five staff members to support the centre visited daily by around 400 people.

The department has appointed security guards but locals say they hardly see them doing their duty.

Gaurav Arora, a resident of Gama-II says, "There is no proper security for visitors and staff members. The queues are not followed by anybody and no security personnel help out to maintain it."

Source: Jagrancityplus.com Railway Reservation Centre needs attention

The GDA will float the tender for the bridge sometime in July. "From the day one, we were stuck on the huge cost of construction and it became hard to carry forward this project without getting the green signal from the state administration. Now the cost has been reduced from Rs 29 crore to Rs 25 crore in fresh revision," said Anil Garg chief engineer GDA.

Garg said construction would start very soon. Seeing the chaotic condition of the Hindon bridge, it becomes pertinent to construct a third one parallel to the existing bridge which always remains under tremendous traffic pressure.

Necessity of third bridge  
The Ghaziabad Development Authority organised several rounds of talks with the zonal commissioner who approved the project and allowed GDA to float a fresh tender for this project. This time, private contractors could take part along the UP Bridge Corporation in this bid process.

A recent survey found that the existing Hindon bridge is weakening due to heavy traffic load and a parallel one is essentially required. The situation turned traumatic on Hindon river after road widening over New Bus Depot to Mohan Nagar and patching work on parallel road to Hindon Cut Canal.

Various social groups and RWAs of Ghaziabad have also been demanding a third bridge. TR Pandey, general secretary of Trans-Hindon Federation of RWA says, "This old Hindon Bridge is no longer fit to hold the weight of traffic."

The decision to build the new bridge was taken in April after a meeting between GDA-VC and Zonal Commissioner Shravan Kumar. It was taken up after a report submitted by the chief engineer of GDA who had clearly mentioned in his report that this bridge is not enough to bear the rising traffic pressure.

 "The Hindon Bridge was constructed in 1957. Any bridge is constructed keeping in mind a 40-year span. For the Hindon Bridge that time was over in 1997. In a random survey we saw that beams were exposed. There was also rusting in the joints. We have proposed another bridge of 10.5 m width since the present bridge is very narrow," GDA chief engineer Anil Garg.

Sector 29 is one of the posh sectors of Noida. Around 1500 plots and 25 townships are located here, in which thousands of people live.
The area RWA had lodged a complaint in this regard to the NA. And the officials had sent a team of plumbers to repair the pipeline, but the line has leaked again from another place and the plumbers have not come again to repair it even after making many complaints.

Sudha Sharma, a resident of Sector 29 said, "We are buying drinking water for some days now and the problem doesn't seem to end. Few shopkeepers are also selling water on a price higher than  MRP. We had also made complaints in this regard to Bureau of Indian Standards and NA as well, but they have not taken any initiative as yet, which is also a serious issue."

Chandra Mohan, another resident of Sector 29 said, "Residents are scared about the ill effects of consuming this dirty water as it can lead to serious health hazards." Jameel Ahamad, PRO of Noida Authority said, "We had sent our team to repair the line and they did their job, but we did not get any receive further intimation from residents about the same problem."

The whole city is being spruced up for the Commonwealth Games and the security arrangements are also being brushed up for the games. But about 80 per cent of the police posts in the city are still functioning from temporary structures like tents and kiosks. These structures lack even basic facilities like water and seating arrangements. On hot sunny days or during rains, even the policemen have to take shelter in nearby buildings.

In Sector 9, the police functions from a temporary kiosk which does not have sitting space for more than two persons. The kiosk is placed on a footpath. The police post in Sector 37 is under a tree on a busy road.

In Sector 55, Khoda police post functions from a tent pitched on a crossing. The Nithari police post functions from a two-room structure near the Sector 26 gate.

The CEO of Noida in 1995, Prashant Kumar Mishra, had set up three police posts with help from public sector companies like Bharat Petroleum. These posts were built in Sector 55-57, 1 and 50. Later, regular police posts in Sector 12-22, 18, 19 and Atta Chowk were set up.

Source: Jagrancityplus.com By Rohit Babbar Noida Police has no `safe' posts

This is causing great inconvenience to the residents who have to either travel far to reach a market or buy things from expensive malls.

"There is no local market in our area. Even for buying small household items, we have to travel at least two km to the central market," says Aarti Sharma of Beta.

"Nineteen years have passed since this city came into existence but most of the sectors still don't have a local market," says Geeta Chauhan, a resident of Phi.

"The malls are not just situated on the main roads but are quite costly as well. The commodities being sold in the malls are touching the sky," she adds.

"It is not possible to go to far off places to buy items of daily need," says Mohinder Jain of Delta. "The Greater Noida Industrial Asscoation (GNIDA) should have set up markets in the residential sectors to meet the basic needs of the people," he adds.

rtankha@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Rajkumari Tankha Shortage of sectoral markets in Greater Noida  

It is necessary to seek permission from the transport ministry first before starting the work, the authority has advised.

It has also written to the DMRC senior project engineer in this connection.

GDA chief engineer Anil Garg said, "The DMRC has been intimated about the objection. It will get the clearance as a matter of routine. However, it may delay the project if approval is not taken."

The next time you are spotted enjoying a quick drink with your colleagues or friends in a public place, you may end up paying a fine of Rs 5,000.

And if you try to create a ruckus, you may even land up behind the bars for up to six months, apart from coughing up Rs 10,000.

After a long wait of almost seven months, the central government has finally approved the Delhi Excise Act that aims at checking the growing problem of liquor consumption on the roadside.

Senior excise officials said President Pratibha Patil had also given her assent to the legislation, which was cleared by the Delhi Assembly last year.

Source: Hindustan Times Time to wind up your `car-o-bars'

Do you trust cops? If your answer is in the negative, there is no need to be embarrassed. For it seems the Noida police department doesn't have too much faith in the conduct of its own men. The department has now decided to implement an e-beat policing technology under which every beat constable will be strapped with a radio-frequency reader to monitor his each and every movement.

The Noida police hopes this will usher in a sense of accountability among its personnel and will improve their response time. So sure is the department of the success of this project that it has claimed that now a policeman will reach a crime spot within 10 minutes.  

"We want to make our police force fast and efficient, so we have decided to install this new radio frequency service. These devices will be given to each beat constable and while they are on duty the device will record all their movements at all locations at all times. After this we will transfer the data stored in the device to a centralised computer network. This will help us reach a spot within 10 minutes and will also make each beat officer accountable for his duties," said AK Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Noida.  

There is good reason behind this transition. The crime graph in the city is soaring each month. Cases of theft, snatching and bike-lifting are common.

Source: Mid-Day By: Shashank Shekhar    'Radiocollared' cops

दुकानों और ठेलियों पर सब्जी बेचने वाले कीमतों में वृद्धि का कारण पंजाब-हरियाणा की बाढ़ बता रहे है। जबकि बाजार के जानकारों को कहना है कि अभी इस बारिश और बाढ़ से कीमतंे बढ़ाना मुनाफाखोरों की मनमानी है। मंडी में अब तक जो सब्जियों की कीमतें बढ़ीं, उसकी वजह डीजल महंगा होना था। कुल मिलाकर बिचौलिये और मुनाफाखोर अपनी अंटी गर्म और ग्राहकों की जेब ढीली कर रहे है। ये विक्रेता `जैसा इलाका वैसा भाव' का फंडा अपनाते है। हालांकि जानकारों का कहना है कि यदि हरियाणा व अन्य समीपवर्ती इलाकों में जलभराव की स्थिति कम नहीं हुई तो आने वाले दो तीन दिनों में राजधानी में सब्जियों की कीमतों में और आग लग जाएगी। खुदरा बाजार में बृहस्पतिवार को टमाटर 40-60 रुपये प्रतिकिलो तक पहुंच गया, जबकि दो दिन पहले तक यह 15-20 रुपये प्रतिकिलो के बीच बिक रहा था। इसी तरह, भिंडी 20-30 रुपये से बढ़कर आज 40-50 रुपये हो गयी। आलू 10 रुपये से बढ़कर 12 रुपये, प्याज 12 से बढ़कर 15 रुपये पहुंच गया। खीरा 10 रुपये प्रतिकिलो से बढ़कर 15-20 रुपये, करेला 15-17 रुपये से बढ़कर 20-22 रुपये प्रतिकिलो हो गया है। इसके अलावा बैगन 10 से बढ़कर 15-20 रुपये प्रतिकिलो, परवल 10-12 से बढ़कर 15-20 रुपये प्रति किलो तक पहुंच गया है। पत्ता गोभी 10-12 रुपये से बढ़कर 20 रुपये, फूल गोभी 25 से 35 पहुंच गया है। घीया 8-10 रुपये से बढ़कर 15-20 रुपये प्रति किलो तक पहुंच गया है।

 आलू-प्याज मर्चेन्ट एसोसिएशन के राजेन्द्र शर्मा ने बताया कि बारिश की वजह से थोक मंडी में सब्जी की कीमतों में अभी कोई अंतर नही पड़ा है, लेकिन खुदरा बाजार में कीमतें बढ़ गयी हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि खुदरा बाजार पर हमारा नियत्रंण नही है। खुदरा दुकानदार ऐसे मौके की तलाश में रहते हैं। जैसे ही मीडिया में खबरें चलती हैं वैसे ही खुदरा विक्रेता कीमतों में इजाफा कर देते है। शर्मा के अनुसार सोमवार को थोक मंडी में आलू (3.75-13.75 रु./किलो) बिक रहा था, जो बृहस्पतिवार को बढ़कर 4- 16.25 रुपये प्रतिकिलो पहुंच गया। जबकि प्याज की कीमतें यथावत हंै। भिंडी 6-11 रुपये से बढ़कर 8-14 रुपये हो गयी है। सोमवार को थोक मंडी में टमाटर 6-22 रुपये किलो बिक रहा था जो आज बढ़कर 6-25 रुपये किलो पहुंच गया।

Noida has more than 100 sectors and most of them are posh areas. Some sectors have townships and some have independent houses, but entry and exit gates of such sectors are encroached by roadside vendors, who not only spoil the beauty of the sector, but also become a cause of insecurity as residents can't trust them.

Residents have lodged a complaint in this regard with the NA officials but they said, "We are unable to trace the vendors as they change their places of operation at regular intervals. They usually encroach places which draw huge crowds."

"They have also constructed khokhas or temporary shops at the sides of the roads for their convenience. Sectors 15, 17, 18, 29 and 52 are most affected areas by this problem," said NP Singh, president of Federation of Noida Residents' Welfare Associations.

On the other hand, NA officials said, "We need police support to launch anti-encroachment drive and drive would be started soon."

Two years after the UPA chairperson's appeal, no state, except Madhya Pradesh, has sought information on Jaankari -- launched by the Nitish Kumar government in 2007.

Bihar goes to polls in less than six months, with Nitish seeking a repeat mandate on the basis of his government's performance.

So, the chances of Jaankari being replicated in the near future by other states appear all the more bleak.

A study commissioned by the Governance Knowledge Centre, an initiative of the department of administrative reforms and public grievances ( DARPG), shows that the call centre model has been a success in Bihar.

The " best practice" documentation, undertaken by the One World Foundation India, has identified " political will" as main reason for the success of the model.

Source: Mail Today By Ashish Sinha Nitish's RTI helpline model has few takers despite Sonia's push

Previously, Indian firms had to limit their foreign hires to 1% of their workforce and pay them at least $25,000 a year (Rs11.68 lakh). Both restrictions have been scrapped in the new rules that were communicated to the ministry of external affairs by the ministry of home affairs in a let- ter dated 31 May. The ministry of external affairs then communi- cated the same to all Indian dip- lomatic missions.

The new rules came into effect immediately.

The home ministry has also asked that only "skilled" foreign workers be given work visas. "We have instructed our missions not to issue visas for unskilled work...that can be simply per- formed by an Indian. Visas will only be issued to highly skilled people, who bring technical ex- pertise into the country," said a senior home ministry official, who did not want to be identi- fied. This person added that In- dia has a population of 1.2 bil- lion and any employment oppor- tunity should first be made avail- able to Indians. The official said that the 1% policy was put in place at the request of the labour ministry, but that it was never re- ally followed.

India's labour secretary Prab- hat Chaturvedi clarified that the cap had been misunderstood. "The policy stated that an Indian embassy abroad can clear em- ployment visas only up to 1% (of a company's workforce) at its end. In case the employer de- manded more visas, the matter would be referred to the labour ministry." He said he wasn't aware about the recent changes in rules.

Source: Live Mint By Sahil Makkar & Elizabeth Roche 'Employment Visas For Foreigners: 1% Cap On Work Visas Minimum Annual Salery Of $25,000 Scrapped'