Addressing the inaugural session of the five-day conference on "Parliament and the Media: Building an Effective Relationship", organized, here today, Sh. Jaitley said that Parliament represents the popular faith and the will of the people and frames laws and discusses sensitive issues most vital to the nation. The media acts as a vital link between the Parliament and the people. One without the other is unable to play its role effectively and a balance of relationship between the two is most essential, he said.

    Referring to the fast changing technology, affecting the media scene, Shri Jaitley said that the traditional methods are giving way to the new mechanisms. It is to be seen how effectively the convergence of new technology is utilized by the media to convey the parliamentary proceedings to the vast majority of people in a country like India which has great diversification of religion, culture, language and tradition, Shri Jaitley said.

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    Shri Nripendra Misra (IAS: 67) has been allocated the work relating to WTO Trade Policy issues in the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in addition to his existing charge. This is an internal arrangement, consequent upon the relinquishment of charge by Shri N.N. Khanna, Special Secretary, following his appointment as Secretary (Youth Affairs & Sports). Shri Nripendra Misra has been Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce since 1996.

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    The Prime Minister Sh. Atal Behari Vajpayee has said that the country will have to invest more in human resource development so that workers are able to give their best. He urged the industry to substantially augment its resources for this purpose. Sh. Vajpayee said that having entered information age "the acquisition of skills, in particular knowledge based skills, must receive unreserved support at all levels". The Prime Minister was speaking after giving away 17 Shram Awards to 31 workers here today in recognition of their exceptional contribution in productivity / production and innovative abilities of high order.

    Giving reasons for increasing investment in human resource development, Sh. Vajpayee said that in the coming years we must create a highly skilled workforce which would have "the ingenuity and resourcefulness to adjust itself to the rapid changes in the labour market". He said that at present a large number of people joining the country’s workforce, which is growing at a rate of 2.5 percent, do not possess the necessary wherewithal for absorption by the market. The Prime minister said "a revitalised and re-energised working class can become the engine of growth and development and thus help build a strong, prosperous India". He said the winners of the Shram Awards symbolise the new work ethos and culture that are needed to meet the new challenges of the new century.

    Felicitating the awardees, the Labour Minister Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya said performance skills have assumed an important role for institutions to remain competitive in the era of liberalisation. He said institutions would have to work to bring out the hidden best talent among the workers. This will not only infuse a sense of belonging among the workers but also make them committed for increasing production. Dr. Jatiya said this commitment and devotion are essential for industrial units to ensure stability, improve quality and remain competitive in international markets. He said this would need new strategies that can be jointly devised by the management, Trade Unions and workers for industrial development and nation’s progress.

    The highest SHRAM RATNA, carrying a cash prize of Rs. 2.00 lakhs, was jointly awarded to S/Sh. Pradeep Yadav, Jeevan Kumar Sharma, Pratul Das and Dhamendra Kumar Patel working in Bhilai Steel Plant, Bhilai.

    Of the two SHRAM BHUSHAN awards, carrying a cash prize of Rs. One lakh each, one was given to Sh. A. Antony working in Seamless Steel Tube Plant (SSTP) of BHEL at Trichirapalli for his innovations of exceptional order . S/Sh. Balmiki Shah, Birendra Prasad Shah, Bijay Kumar Singh and Sanjeev Kumar Singh of NTPC shared the other award..

    Among the recipients of six SHRAM VIR awards, conferred for continuous record of dedicated service, are S/Sh. Dolu Patra, Mohammad Jallaludin, P.N.B. Partap and Suprokask Majumder. Of the remaining two awards, each has been jointly given to S/Sh. K. Krishna Murthy, A. Ayyavu, M, Murugan, S. Balasubramanian, P. K. Gunasekaran and Rajesh kumar Chouhan, Laurence Kerketta, Ratan lal Shakya, Subhakaran. Shram Vir award carries a cash prize of Rs. 60,000/-.

    Two SHRAM DEVI awards have been conferred on three women workers, one of them posthumously for showing exceptional zeal and enthusiasm for work. Six workers have been honoured with SHRAM SHRI awards. Each of these awards carries a cash prize of Rs.40,000/-.

    The awardees also received a "SANAD" from the Prime Minister.

    The Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Smt. Maneka Gandhi has said that the forthcoming census exercise should incorporate the number of persons with disabilities to ensure that a strong data-base is available for the welfare of disabled. Addressing the two-day meeting of the State Welfare Secretaries here today, Smt. Gandhi said she has already taken up this issue with the Registrar General of India (Census Commissioner) and hoped that the Census- 2001 would include this information.

    Smt. Gandhi said that the States and the Centre have to work in tandem to achieve the common goal of reaching the maximum number of disabled and marginalised sections.

    The Minister said that some improvement has been achieved in the lot of the Scheduled Castes over the years but a lot more needs to be done. She said even amongst the Scheduled Castes the focus must be on the poorest and most disadvantaged sections. She pointed out that the results regarding Other Backward Classes (OBCs) would take some time to manifest themselves since affirmative action for this category commenced only in the 90s.

    The Minister also unveiled the proposal to set up hierarchical service delivery system under the National Programme for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, comprising two community based Rehabilitation Workers in each Gram Panchayat, two multi-purpose Rehabilitation Workers in each block for providing basic rehabilitation services and for coordinating activities with other Government Agencies. She said that this scheme sought to ensure local capacity building and better utilisation of available resources while providing a much needed rehabilitation structure right to the grass root level.

    Smt. Gandhi said that a Project has been approved recently to set up six regional Composite Centres covering all areas of disability as the present institutional framework consisting of the apex level institutions dealing with specific areas of disability was not found adequate to provide the requisite support to all regions and states of the country.

    The Minister emphasised the need to set-up old-age homes at the village level instead of spending more money at urban centres, which, in her view, were not the ideal old age homes. She urged the State Secretaries to consider the suggestion that instead of spending 30 lakhs at an Urban Centre, the same amount should be utilised for setting up 30 old age homes at village level with low-cost and less expensive structures.

    Referring to the AADHAR which has been set up as a service for pursuing redressal of grievances of older persons, she asked the States to indentify four to five persons in each districts for participating and collaborating with AADHAR in this endeavour and refer these names to the Ministry to enlarge the area of its activities. She said that the identified persons should preferably be Lawyers, Medicos and Social Workers so as to work as a team to help the old aged people.

    Smt. Gandhi said that presently we have a very complicated system of adoption. She said that her Ministry is working on this issue and is in the process of re-setting up Central Adoption resource Agency (CARA). She said that in-country adoption should be encouraged as this is the most effective way of dealing with destitute and abandoned children.

    The Minister expressed her deep concern over the fact that the State channelising agencies have failed in taking full advantage of the services provided by the apex corporation which have been set up by her Ministry for supporting the economic development of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes, OBCs, Minorities and the Handicapped.

    She asked the States to look into the reasons for poor accessing of the resources of these Corporations and try to identify remedial measures to ensure an exponential growth in the number of persons assisted through the programmes of these corporations and also the Corporations working under the States.

    The Minister also categorically pointed out to the State Secretaries that the credentials of some of the NGOs recommended by the States for financial assistance were found to be suspect in the past and asked them to be more vigilant in this regard. She asked the States to make a comprehensive list of NGOs working in their areas, sift out those with suspect credentials and develop a very effective monitoring system to ensure that the public money is not misutilised by the unscrupulous elements in the NGO Sector. She however emphasised the simplification of rules and regulations for grants so that the genuine NGOs do not suffer due to officialdom.

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    The Department of Ocean Development held a seminar here today in Hindi on Ocean Information Services. A number of scientists spoke on the occasion in Hindi on such a technical subject as Ocean Information Services, in a bid to popularize use of Hindi not only in general but also in science related subjects.

    The speakers emphasised the need to collect ocean data for specific site or for a specific purpose through Ocean Information Services. They also recognised the availability of new technologies for which integrated programmes on Ocean Information Services had been conceived and launched by the Department of Ocean Development. Shri D.N. Tiwari, Member (Science) Planning Commission in his augural speech underlined the need to protect seas from any sort of pollution. He said, while we explore and exploit the seas, it is also necessary to save and conserve them, as they play an important role in our life.

    The Secretary, Department of Official Language Shri Ashok Kumar said the IT revolution world wide cannot succeed in India, unless softwares are developed in local languages including Hindi.

    The Secretary, Department of Ocean Development, Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam said the Department has taken a big leap forward in popularising Hindi on such a technical subject as Ocean Information Services.

    The Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Ram Naik today said that with advancement in technology there should be a significant reduction in the number of incidents in various operations in the oil sector. Speaking after giving away the Oil Industry Safety Awards, Minister said that it is responsibility of one and all to prevent accidents by contributing actively to the development and implementation of the safety policies and practices.. He noted with concern that number of major incidents in oil sector have gone up to 101 during 1998-99 as against only 58 in 1997. This, however, could be the result of substantial increase in the number of units and other activities in this sector.

    Calling upon all organisations to have efficient safety management systems, Shri Naik underlined the fact that throughout the world safety and productivity go hand in hand. It needs a strong corporate policy to evolve a sound safety structure. To achieve this object safety targets need to be set up at various levels of the organisation by involving different segments of the human resource. There is also a very urgent need to educate the employees through innovative methods including use of audio-visual technology in all spheres of safety. All the employees need to be made aware of the importance of individual safety performance and their responsibilities need clear definitions

    While giving away the awards the Minister commended GAIL for registering NIL incidents ensuring optimum safety compliance. Shri Ram Naik gave away awards in seven different categories of oil operations during 1997-98. ONGC Uran won the award in the category of Processing Organisations (excluding refineries) and BPCL won award in the section of Refineries. In Oil and Gas Production Units segment, Oil India Ltd., was declared winner, whereas in Marketing Organisations (excluding LPG) section, BPCL won its second award. In the area of LPG Marketing Organisations, IOC was declared winner and in the segment of Cross Country Pipelines GAIL received the award. HPCL - Haybunder won the award in 7^th section i.e. Lube Oil Blending Plants segment.

    The Oil Industry Safety Awards are given based on the safety performance of member industries as adjudged by a Committee of experts by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Oil Industry Safety Awards were instituted in order to inculcate competitiveness among oil companies to improve their safety performance. Safety performance of the competing organisations/installations is evaluated with the help of a new criteria developed at Oil Industry Safety Directorate which takes into consideration, the total loss concept i.e. fatalities, fires, lost time, direct & indirect losses etc. and also the hazard potentials.

    President of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan presented the 46^th National Film Awards at an impressive function, here today. The doyen of Indian cinema, Shri B.R. Chopra was conferred the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award for lifelong contribution to the Indian cinema. The President also gave away awards for the best films of 1998.

    In his address, the President said that the films in India have contributed immensely to the society. Apart from providing entertainment, the films have exposed the social evils and brought about social consciousness, he said.

    The Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Arun Jaitley in his address expressed confidence that the emergence of multi channel TV system would provide necessary impetus to the otherwise commercially unviable section of cinema. He said, cinema even today remains the most powerful medium of entertainment. The art cinema brings us close to the realities of life while the documentaries depict the neglected aspects of social life, Shri Jaitley said.