The Railways moved 387.35 million tonnes of revenue earning freight during first 11 months of the current financial year ending February 1998 as compared to 367.55 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the previous year. This represented an increase of 19.80 million tonnes. The target of 386.40 million tonnes for the period was exceeded by 0.95 million tonnes. The freight traffic was exceeded despite the recession in iron, steel and cement traffic.

    Of the total freight traffic, coal accounted for 188.44 million tonnes, raw material for steel plants 34.60 million tonnes, finished iron and steel from steel plants 10.50 million tonnes, iron ore for export 10.85 million tonnes, cement 32.37 million tonnes, foodgrains 24.10 million tonnes, fertilisers 24.31 million tonnes, Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) 27.80 million tonnes and other goods 37.37 million tonnes. Other goods also included 6.39 million tonnes of container freight traffic.

    The revenue earning freight traffic in terms of Net Tonne Kilometres (NTKMs) in millions was 256725 million NTKMs as compared to 252053 million NTKMs, representing an increase of 46 72 million NTKMs. However, it fell short by 6995 million NTKMs over the target of 263720 million NTKMs.
 
 

    The President of India, Shri K R Narayanan, will present the National Awards for Child Welfare 1997 to five institutions and three individuals here tomorrow. The awardees have been selected for their outstanding voluntary action in the field of child development and welfare. The institutions selected for this year's awards are Haryana State Council for Child Welfare, Vimochana Devadasi Punaravasati Sangha of Karnataka, SAMPARC (Social Action for Manpower Creation) of Pune, Holy Family Mission Home of Meghalaya and SANLAAP of West Bengal.

    In the individuals category, Dr. Narayan Motilal Kabre of Maharashtra, Kumari Philomina S Sangma of Meghalaya and Shri Kayes Malik of West Bengal have been chosen for the awards.

    The Government, in 1979, started a scheme of giving National Awards to deserving institutions and individuals for their outstanding performance in the field of child development and welfare. This scheme was started, with a view to giving recognition to such voluntary action. The awards carry a cash prize of Rupees Two lakh and a citation for each institution and Rupees Fifty Thousand and a citation for each individual. So far 68 institutions and 54 individuals have been honoured with this prestigious award. .

    Shri SURJIT SINGH BARNALA, the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers was born on October 21, 1925 at Ateli Begpur now in Distt. Mohinder Garh in Haryana. He received early education at Nabha and did graduation and Law Degree from Lucknow University in 1946. He participated in the Quit India Movement as a university student and was arrested by the colonial rulers.

    Shri Barnala started law practice in Nabha state and shifted to Barnala after partition. He contested election of the State Assembly on Akali ticket in 1967 successfully. Since then he has been representing the Barnala Constituency in one form or the other and his name became synonimous with the town. He became Education Minister in Punjab in 1969. During Emergency he was in jail for 14 months. In 1977 he was elected to the Lok Sabha and served as Agriculture, Food and Irrigation Minister in Janta Government headed by Shri Morarji Desai from 1977 to 1979.

    After the assasination of Sant Longowalji, Shri Barnala was elected as President of Shiromani Akali Dal in 1985. He became Chief Minister of Punjab after a landslide victory of Akali Dal in 1985 Assembly elections. This was a difficult period of militancy in Punjab and his efforts to fight militancy were praised by the Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi in the Parliament and the President also lauded his services while addressing both the Houses of Parliament.

    Shri Barnala was appointed Governor of Tamil Nadu in 1990. As he had differences with the Central Government, Shri Barnala resigned from Governorship. In 1996 he was elected as member of Lok Sabha again and is leader of Akali Dal group in Lok Sabha. In 1998 Lok Sabha election, Shri S.S. Barnala has again been elected from Sangrur in Punjab. He also holds additional charge for the Ministry of Food in the present government.
 
 

        The Government has further relaxed customs procedures for vessels carrying coastal goods exclusively. A notification issued on the 27th of last month has cancelled the earlier notification of 1st February, 1963 which required vessels carrying coastal goods to file Import General Manifest (IGM)/Export General Manifest (EGM) in terms of the provisions contained in section 30 and 41 of the Customs Act, 1962. As a consequence, vessels carrying coastal goods exclusively will no longer be required to file Import and Export General Manifests.

    According to the new notification, vessels carrying coastal goods exclusively have been exempted from delivery of Advice Book on arrival at each port of call to the proper officer of customs at that port as was required under the Customs Act of 1962. However, the master of each vessel will have to carry the Advice Book on board the vessel, and the proper officer of Customs may, whenever required, call for the Advice Book for inspection or inspect the same on board the vessel.

    With this, the recommendations of the Working Group on the development of coastal shipping regarding customs procedure have been implemented by the Government. These measures are expected to give a boost to coastal shipping in the country.
 
 

    Continuing Medical Education and massive public awareness programmes on TB Control are being organised on the World TB Day today. The President, Shri K.R. Narayanan and the Health and Family Welfare Minister, Shri Dalit Ezhilmalai in their messages appealed to the medical fraternity both in the public and private sectors and NGOs to augment the government's efforts to control the serious disease of TB. Underlining the importance of anti-TB campaign, the President said, continual and unremitting public education is also an important element in the campaign as social mores of health and hygiene are of critical relevance as well.

    Tuberculosis continues to be a serious infectious disease in India. Nearly 2 out of 5 TB cases in the World are found in India. In our country, about 22 lakh new cases of TB occur each year, taking annual number of sufferers to 140 lakhs, out of which about 35 lakhs are highly infectious. An estimated 5 lakh people in India die every year of tuberculosis, more than 1000 every day - a patient a minute.

    To tackle the problem of tuberculosis, Government of India launched a National Tuberculosis Control Programme in 1962. The programme built up a good infrastructure by establishing 446 District TB Centres, 330 TB Clinics and over 47,600 beds. However, inspite of best efforts, the programme did not make a significant dent on the problem of Tuberculosis. The Programme was critically reviewed and based on its recommendations, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was launched on 26th March, 1997. RNTCP is initially being implemented in 102 districts of the country covering a population of 271 million in a phased manner. RNTCP has been shown to be remarkably successful in pilot projects.

    On the occasion of World TB Day, three Continuing Medical Education programmes at each of the 39 RNTCP districts, five CMEs at the state headquarters of these districts and five CMEs at Central level are being organised. To involve the private sector in the programme, support has been given to Indian Medical Association to organise CMEs in different parts of country. It will help in igniting a renewed spark of interest in all those who are involved in the TB control activities.
 
 

    Attention of the Ministry of Commerce has been drawn to recent reports in a section of the Press sregarding the decision to allow sale of imported tea in the domestic market throuth Export Oriented Units (EOUs) and Export Processing Zones (EPZs) under the Domestic Trea (DTA) sales scheme.

    Prices of tea during the current Year had registered a significant increase form May 1997 onwards. This was Iargely due to increase in the prices at tea auctions following an increase in exports due to shortage in the global tea crop caused by lower production in countries like Kenya. In this scenario, the current restriction on DTA sales of tea by EOU's allows sale of 25% of their product in the DTA on acase to case basis. EOU's exporting agricultural commodities are allowed to sell even 50% of their product in the DTA, Chairman, Tea Borad was requested to have a fresh look at the existing policy of DTA sale in consultation with the tea industry. Thereafter, a proposal was received from the Tea Board proposing to allow DTA sales by EOUs/EPZs units engaged in manufacturing of tea subject to certain conditions. The matter was examined in detail by the concerned Divisions of the Ministry of Commerce and it was decided with the approval of the then Commerce Minister to allow EOU/EPZ tea manufacturing units to sell 25% of their production in the DTA for a period of 6 months starting from 1st January 1998 till 30th June 1998.

    It will thus be seen that DTA sales of tea had been permitted only for a limited period to ease the tea price situation. Further, the Ministry will be reviewing the position in June 1998. The fear that cheaper teas will flood the market is unfounded as also the allegation that the decision was taken in response to demand from any multinational corporation for allowing tea imports. It may also be noted that the decision on DTA sales is subject a number of restrictions, namely (i) sale of tea in bulk form in DTA shall not allowed; (ii) DTA sales and entitlement shall be available only against exports made on or after 1.1.98 and upto 30.6.98; and (iii) EOU/EPZ units shall furnish the statistics relating to import of tea and DTA sales of tea on regular monthly basis to the concerned Development Commissioner and the Tea Board. An additional safeguard is that the situation regarding sale of tea in DTA will be reviewed in June-July 1998.
 
 

    The Union Public Service Commission have announced the results of Civil Services (Main) Written Examination, 1997 held in November/December, 1997. The candidates have qualified for interview for the Personality test for appointment to Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, Police Services, Group 'B' and Central Services, Group 'A' and Group 'B'. The Interview of qualified candidates will commence on 20th April, 1998.
 
 

    Government of India will host the first Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in New Delhi from April 1-3, 1998. The Assembly will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha will chair the Assembly and Minister of Environment and Forests will participate in the Assembly.

    GEF is financial mechanism that promotes international cooperation and fosters actions to proctect the global environment. The primary purpose of the Assembly is to review the general policies of GEF and evaluate its operation. The Assembly also provides the opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of key global environmental challenges and need for concerted activities in order to address those challenges.

    The Assembly will also provide greater understanding of GEF and its usefulness in assisting countries to contribute to the global environmental benefits. The Assembly of GEF comprising of 161 governments is to meet once after every years. GEF has defined four focal area for its programmes. These are biological diversity, climate change, international waters, ozone layer depletion. After a pilot face of three years, the restructured GEF was made operational in 1994 with a pledged core funds of US dollar 2 billion. Project  approvals have increased steadily over the years, and now total about US dollar 1.6 billion. The second replenishment is now in its concluding phase with a target corpus of US dollar 2.75 billion. India's contribution to the Second Replenishment is US dollar 9 million.

    The Assembly will preceded by a GEF Council Meeting on March 30-31, 1998. The GEF Council comprising 32 members from developed, developing countries, as well as countries in transition, is the governing body. GEF's implementing agencies are UNDP as well as the World Bank, which also serves as GEF's trustee.

    The Scientific and Advisory panel (STAP) is an independent advisory body that provides strategic scientific and technical advice. Apart from the Governmental delegations, representatives of Implementing Agencies, Trustee, STAP, Convention on Biological Diversity, Framework Convention on Climate Change, Montreal Protocol, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, United Nations commission on Sustainable Development, Regional Development Bank, United Nations Specialized Agencies that have participated in GEF projects, other funding organizations, including bilateral development agencies, accredited NGOs, including representatives of major groups will also be invited to attend the Assembly.