'28'

POWER MINISTER COORDINATES ACTION PLAN FOR RESTORATION OF POWER SUPPLY

    The PSUs have also provided food items, PVC sheets, tents and blankets for the victims of the earthquake. Shri Prabhu obtained a list of the material required for restoration of power when he met the Gujarat Minister for Energy, Shri Kaushikbhai Patel in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. The required material is being obtained for supply from various sources.

    Shri Prabhu visited the earthquake-affected areas of Bhuj, Anjar and Ratnal. The officials of the PSUs and the Ministry of Power accompanied him. The Minister also had discussions with the engineers of the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) to co-ordinate measures to be taken jointly for the immediate restoration of power for essential services.

    Shri Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with the Gujarat Minister for Energy, in Ahmedabad on Tuesday evening in which a detailed action plan. The Action Plan is for short term and long-term measures for restoration of power and assistance to be provided by the Government of India and the PSUs under the Ministry of Power. These PSUs are the NTPC, PGCIL, the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). The Power Minister also met the Gujarat Chief Minister, Shri Keshubhai Patel.

    It was decided at the meeting that the remaining towns and centres would be identified by the GEB to which power supply for essential services would be provided by this evening by utilising 14 DG sets made available by the NTPC and PGCIL. DG Sets would also be mobilised by the GEB itself. As of yesterday power supply had been partially restored at Bhuj and Anjar.

    The restoration of Grid sub stations (220 KV and 132 KV) have been entrusted to PGCIL and NTPC. PGCIL and NTPC will make an assessment of the equipment required to be provided and make necessary arrangement to transport them to the sub-stations. Three 220 KV sub-stations are located in Anjar, Nanikhakhar and Nakhatrana. One 132 KV sub-station is located at Samakhiyali. In addition, PGCIL and NTPC have undertaken the responsibility of restoring six 66 KV sub-stations located at Anjar taluka. PGCIL and NTPC will take up the supply of equipment required for the sub-stations and also get the civil works executed through their own contractors without calling for tenders. The contractors will be required to complete the civil works free of cost and also undertake the installation of equipment, which would be procured and supplied by PGCIL and NTPC. The cost of equipment will be borne by the PSUs of the Ministry of Power.

    Loans will be given for equipment required for restoration of other sub-stations, by the REC and the PFC. The request of the Government of Gujarat for waiver of interest on the loan of Rs. 100 crore sanctioned by REC on Monday will be considered.

    The seismologically sound designs for civil construction will be provided to the Government of Gujarat after procuring them from the Government of Maharashtra.

    The District of Kutch will be adopted under the Accelerated Power Development Programme (APDP) and the best class distribution districts created under the programme for sub-transmission, distribution and Renovation and Modernisation (R & M).

    NTPC has agreed to provide a working capital facility of Rs. 60 crore by deferring part billing payments for February and March against issue of unsecured bonds of Rs. 60 crore.

'7'

CENTRE ADVISES STATES FOR SETTING UP EXCLUSIVE COURT IN JAILS

    The Centre has also advised the States and Union Territories to set up Legal Aid Cells in all the jail premises on the pattern of some of the States having already done so to provide legal aid and advice to the inmates. In this connection, all State Legal Services Authorities are to follow their example and establish Legal Aid Cells in all the jails in their respective jurisdictions.

    The Centre has further suggested that the concerned district administrations and jail authorities should forthwith be asked to cooperate by providing space in the jail for the special court and Legal Aid Cell and infrastructure in the form of staff and office equipment. The Centre has further advised that State Legal Services Authorities should constitute panels of advocates who would be assigned to the Legal Aid Cells in the jails to give advice to the inmates and draft legal documents once or twice in a week. It would be useful to have on these panels lady advocates who would be better placed to win the confidence of women inmates.

    Earlier, following a suggestion from the Chief Justice of India, the States and Union Territories appointed Chief Judicial Magistrates and Chief Metropolitan Magistrates to hold their courts in respective jails once or twice in a month to take up the cases of those undertrial prisoners who are petty offenders. The results of such experiment have been very encouraging. So far, more than 8000 cases of undertrial prisoners have been settled by the special courts held inside the jails. In the Central Jail, Delhi, alone, about 300 cases were settled in the course of three sittings only.

'25'

SCI EARNS A RECORD PROFIT IN THIRD QUARTER of 2000-2001

    During the first nine months of the year, the aggregate net profit earned by the SCI is Rs. 232 crores.

    Meanwhile, the SCI has donated Rs. 5 crores to the Gujarat Earthquake Relief Fund. This was decided at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company yesterday.

'13'

BIO-TECH PARKS/CITY PROPOSED IN SEVERAL STATES

    A proposal is also being considered by the Small Industries Service Institute, Bangalore for setting up a Biotechnology Incubation Centre in Karnataka. A biotechnology park for women was recently set up at Chennai in a joint venture between the government of Tamil Nadu and the Department of Biotechnology. The park aims at providing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to qualified women entrepreneurs.

    The broad parameters, for setting up biotechnology parks include, industrial competitiveness, existence of biotech-based firms, availability of expertise and trained human resource, basic infrastructure facilities, nature of bio-resources and financial mobilisation. The location specific issues are generally focussed in the park concept, aiming at economic progress and employment generation.

'8'

Rs. 150 CRORE FOR GUJARAT EDUCATION RECONSTRUCTION PLAN

    The HRD Ministry has also decided that 200 creches would be established in the State, Dr. Joshi said. Besides, 50 short stay homes for women and 10 women’s hostels would be set up for the shelterless women. More than 5000 new Anganwadi centres would also be opened under 24 additional Integrated Child Development Services projects in Gujarat. These would benefit about 3 lakh women and children and cost Rs. 7 crore annually. Dr. Joshi said a suitable scheme would also be started for the children rendered orphan in the earthquake.

    Dr. Joshi today took a meeting with the officials of the Ministry and instructed them to extend all assistance to the quake-hit State. Teams from CSIR, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee and Women and Child Development Department are already in the State. A team from Education Department is also going there to make an assessment.

    Dr. Joshi has written to Chief Ministers, State Education Ministers and the institutions under the Ministry to provide all support in terms of physical and financial resources. He has suggested that an appeal could go out to all schools, colleges and universities for this purpose. It would be better if such efforts are consolidated State-wise before sending the contributions to the Government of Gujarat, he said.

    Officials of the Ministry of HRD, Science and Technology and Ocean Development are to contribute one day’s salary to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

'25'

TRANSPORT MINISTER DONATES ONE MONTH'S SALARY

    The two-day conference is being organized with the aim of increasing awareness of the role, the hydropower can play in the sustainable development of renewable energy. It will also promote and propagate hydro development which is planned and implemented in an environmentally and socially acceptable way.

    There are 45,000 big and small dams around the world and 30,000 more dams are needed by the end of the century. India has 4,300 dams and 10,000 more are needed in the next 50 years. The world population will increase from 6 billion at present to 9 billion by 2050.India’s population will go up from 1 billion to around 1.65 billion which would be 18% of the world population. Access to electricity for all is a prerequisite for an acceptable standard of living. At present 2 billion people do not have access to reliable electricity supply. Hydropower is the cheapest and renewable form of energy as compared to energy from fossil fuels with their fast dwindling reserves. Combustion of these fuels cause major health problems and green house gase emissions. Fresh water will be required for an additional 3 billion human beings. Simultaneously, food production will have to be increased through an increase in irrigated area.

    In most countries, especially developing and under developed countries rivers carry bulk of their water flow during the four monsoon months and remain relatively dry in other months of the year. Dams, small or big, have to store water for various uses by human beings. Water resource development projects are, therefore, essential for survival of human beings and other species.

'18'

BSP TEAM IN EARTHQUAKE RESCUE AND RELIEF WORK

    Immediately after the earthquake the Minister of Steel appealed to steel collective to contribute generously to the PM’s Relief Fund and to rush all necessary help to carry on the rescue and relief work in the affected areas. He has also appealed to the officials of the Ministry and the PSUs to contribute one day’s salary to the PM’s Relief Fund for the earthquake victims.

    "The Cabinet expressed its deep sense of sorrow and grief at the heavy loss of lives and at the magnitude of destruction caused by the earthquake in parts of Gujarat. Members of the Cabinet also observed two minutes of silence.

    The request of the State Government for relief assistance has been received and action already taken to rush that assistance. The Cabinet directed that the situation will be constantly monitored by the Crisis Management Group under the Cabinet Secretary and all emergency assistance and action for rescue, relief, medical treatment and restoration of communication will be provided.

    Food, medical teams, blankets and tents are being provided on an emergency basis. All necessary measures are being taken to restore power and communications as early as possible. Departments of the Govt. of India, the Armed Forces and the PSUs have been instructed to liaise with State Govt. and spare no efforts to provide immediate assistant to the affected areas."

    The Centre has state-of-the-art facilities for comprehensive management of spinal injuries. In a letter to the State Chief Minister Shri Keshu Bhai Patel, Smt. Gandhi said that the earthquake and the resultant collapse of buildings would have led to a number of spinal injuries and any such person could be referred to the Centre. This prestigious Centre was set up under an Indo- Italian Cooperation Project under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. The Centre has been asked to reserve ten free beds for such persons.

'12'

SHRI MAHAJAN WRITES TO URBAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTER FOR INTRODUCING LEGISLATION ON EARTHQUAKE CERTIFICATION FOR STRUCTURES IN SEISMIC ZONES

    In a letter to Urban Development Minister, Shri Mahajan has said that proposed legislation should make it mandatory for people to get earthquake proof certificate from the relevant certifying authorities before obtaining their occupancy certificate.

    Shri Jagmohan asked the CPWD to bring out a booklet for general guidance having details of the precautionary measures to safeguard buildings against seismic forces. He was also informed that because of sound structural designing of CPWD buildings in Gujarat, no CPWD building including multi-storeyed buildings constructed by CPWD, collapsed in the Gujarat earthquakes or earlier earthquakes.

    Shri Naik informed the Members that the Government is proposing to release 1.3 crore new LPG connections during the calendar year 2001 in order to provide more LPG connections in different parts of the country including the rural areas. He further said that the Oil Industry has identified about 700 viable locations at Block levels in the country for setting up of LPG distributorships under the Marketing Plan 1999-2000. This is in addition to 540 LPG distributorships being set up exclusively in the rural areas under marketing plan 1996-98.

    In his opening address, Shri Ram Naik expressed great concern and grief over the recent devastating earthquake in Gujarat and joined the Members in observing two minutes silence for those who have lost their lives. Members welcomed the major relief initiatives launched by the Petroleum Ministry for the benefit of earthquake affected people. The Oil PSUs will contribute Rs. 40 crore towards Prime Minister's Relief Fund for the purpose. Government has approved additional supply of 45000 KL (4.5 crore litres) of Kerosene. He said that sufficient supplies of all petroleum products is being maintained to fully meet the demand. In addition, the Oil PSUs have made available DG sets, cranes, excavators, gas cutters, water tankers, transport vehicles, blankets/bedsheets, tarpaulins, medicines, food grains, etc. In addition to the donation of medicines worth several lakhs, the oil companies including IOC and ONGC have mobilised 100 volunteers, medical and para-medical personnel.

    Shri Naik also told the meeting that the consortium led by Cairns Energy (India), has discovered gas and oil in the Gulf of Cambay (off-shore Gujarat) within 8 months of their first significant strike while ONGC made India's first discovery of gas in the deep waters in Krishna-Godavari Basin. He hoped that this would enthuse other oil companies also to enhance their efforts to find more and more oil and gas to meet the domestic needs.

    Shri Ram Naik also informed the Members about the Road Shows held recently in India as well as abroad for attracting large investments in the second round of NELP. The members were also informed about the Government's approval for the proposal of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) to acquire 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-1 offshore project located in Russia. This would help in acquiring equity oil of about 2-4 million metric tonnes and about 5-8 million standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas from abroad.

    The meeting was also attended by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri P. Shankar, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, CMDs of Oil Companies and other senior officers of Petroleum Ministry and Oil Companies.

    The following members attended the meeting: S/Shri Lal Bihari Tiwari, , Jaswant Singh Bishnol, Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey, Manibhai R. Chaudhari, Prof. Rasa Singh Rawat, Ram Singh Kaswan, N.H. Diwathe, Kishan Singh Sangwan, Col. D.R. Shandil, Jai Prakash, Dr. Sushil Kumar Indora, Kunwar Sarvaraj Singh, K.K. Kaliappan, Ram Sajiwan, Prakash V. Paranjpe, Ram Jeevan Singh, M.H. Gavit, Harpal Singh Sathi, Prof. Ram Bakhsh Singh Varma, Prof. Ram Deo Bhandari, N.R. Dasari, Satish Pradhan, Rajubhai A. Parmar, R.N. Arya and Ram Nath Kobind.

    In another development following the decisions taken after yesterday’s meeting, seismologically sound designs for civil construction have been handed over to the Government of Gujarat after procuring them from the Government of Maharashtra.

    Diesel generating sets are now in place in the quake affected areas of Gujarat to restore power to meet the requirements of essential services. The Minister for Power had ordered these sets to be sent to the State immediately after the devastating earthquake on January 26^th. The sets have been provided by NTPC and PGCIL.