About 172.35 hectares of private land required for the project have been notified. Out of this, 60 hectares of land has been taken over. The process for taking over of the balance land is also underway.

    The process of rehabilitation of the project affected persons is in its advance stage of finalisation. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is taking necessary action in this regard.

    The construction work on 8 kilometre long Shahadra – Tees Hazari section of the Shahadra – Nangloi Rail Corridor has commenced in October 1998. This is expected to be completed by March ,2002.

    The Rs.4860 crore project is proposed to be completed by March ,2005. As a result, the annual requirement of equity from both the Central Government and the National Capital Territory Government of Delhi has gone up to Rs.122.9 crores per annum.

    The Overseas Economic Cooperation Funds (OECF) of Japan is providing loan assistance for the Delhi Metro Rail Project to the extent of 56 per cent of the total cost of the project. The balance cost of the project on account of land cost and other related matters is to be met by the Government of India and the National Capital Territory Government of Delhi.

    The Union Cabinet approved the investment proposals for Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System in September, 1996. Under this decision, the project is to be implemented through a joint venture company named Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. with equity participation of 50 per cent each by the Government of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi.
 
 

    Shri Prabhu has said that a meeting of the Chief Executive Officers on Star Trading Houses will be held on June 5^th this year to discuss the marketing of these products outside India. Marketing in the domestic market is looked after by the Khadi & Village Industries Corporation (KVIC).

    Turning to the need to increase the forest cover in the country, Shri Prabhu has said that this has to be increased from the current 19% to 33%. There is a need to involve Non-Governmental Organisations to save at the existing forest cover and to increase it further. The country's forests are under tremendous socio-economic pressure. He has called upon Scientists to come out with new ideas to decrease the pressure on the forests. The need of the hour is to fully protect the country's natural forests and to take care of the needs of society. The National Forest Policy will ensure that these aspects are taken care of, the Minister added. Women are the worst hit by deforestation and every effort will be made to involve them in forestry programmes. Shri Prabhu also emphasised once again that all new industrial projects will have to contribute 1% of their project cost, as a cess towards forest development.
 
 

    Each individual award consists of a cash prize of Rs.50,000/- and a citation. The Institution Award consists of a cash prize of Rs.2 lakh and a citation. The National Selection Committee is headed by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development. Other members of the Committee are Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, a representative of the Department of Education, a representative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a representative of the Ministry of Ministry of Welfare and President, Indian Council for Child Welfare. Joint Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development is Member-Secretary.

    In 1979, the Government of India initiated the Scheme of state recognition of voluntary efforts in the cause of children in the country. The scheme envisages awards to three individuals who have done the best work in the cause of children and five institutions who have done the best work in any branch of child welfare.

    India has been one of the leading nations to espouse the cause of the children and promote the efforts of the international community that led to the declaration of 1979 as the International Year of the Child. The advocacy of the cause of the children and the enhanced emphasis on the programmes for the welfare of children were not continued to the year 1979 alone. The International Year of the Child was the jumping board to promote programmes of a larger dimension and create a greater awareness in the nation for the cause of children.
 
 
 

• Aluminium:

TOTAL                                     714000                 621767`                                  542005                     554355
 

• Copper:-

    The production of Copper Cathodes and Continuous Cast Copper Rod by Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) during 1998-99 was follows:-

                                              Installed                                 Cumulative                             Cumulative
                                              Capacity                                 Target Apr'98                      Production
                                               March'99                               Apr'98                         Apr'97-March'99 March'98
Copper                                   47500                                     43500                             35740                 42375
Cathodees
Continuous                             60000                                      36600                             33036                 31484

Cast Copper Rod
 

• Zinc & Lead:

Zinc
HZL                           152000                                134000                                         141806                 136271
BIL                             30000                                  30000                                           31176                   28322
TOTAL                     182000                                 164000                                         172982                 164593

LEAD

HZL                         65000                                     40500                                         39010                     35766
ILL                          24000                                      18000                                         11135                     12626
Secondary
TOTAL                   89000                                     58500                                         50145                        48392
 
 

•  Gold:

TOTAL                                                         2252.970                                              1958.382                       1952.237
 
 

    During 1998-99, more than 441 crore passengers travelled in the Indian Railways compared to 434.8 crore in 1997-98. Non-suburban traffic has shown 3,17 per cent increase during this period, but suburban traffic has grown by 0.34 per cent.
 
 

    Striking a philosophical note the Minister said that while the technological revolution may shorten the space and distance between people what can really bring them together to live in peace and achieve progress is a radical transformation of their minds and hearts. Urging the experts in telecom to take a holistic view of technological progress Shri Jagmohan emphasised the need for sociological and cultural factors to be taken into account in our march towards progress. He said, "We should look to the future and learn from the past. We should remember that while technologies have brought benefits to humankind it has also brought in its trail many negative circumstances like enslavement of people, imperialism and colonialism."

    Stating that even today the world is suffering from poverty, over population, lack of clean drinking water and sanitation, the Minister said that we should do some loud thinking as to why there has been no betterment of human condition inspite of so many programmes, plans and various initiatives embarked upon by national and international conventions. He said that the actions of nations whether developed or developing should be imbued with a larger perspective of establishing a fair and just world order with the sole purpose of enlarging human happiness.

    Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State for Communications, Shri Kabindra Purkayastha said that National Telecom Policy, announced by the Government, seeks to encourage Electronic Commerce so that information can be passed seamlessly. He said that the Policy envisages the requirement to develop adequate bandwidth of the order of 10 Giga bits on national routes and even terabits on certain congested important national routes so that growth of Information Technology as well as electronic commerce will not be hampered.

    Shri Purkayastha urged upon the different departments of the Government, educational institutions and organisations to pool in their best efforts to develop and improve the socio-economic condition of our country particularly in rural and remote areas.

    Dwelling on the theme of the World Communication Day "E-Commerce", the Minister said that the policy framework enabling the country to take full advantage of enormous opportunities in global transactions should include policies for trade, production and finance complemented by modern, legal and regulatory systems which are able to handle electronic contacts. He said in order to maximise the benefits to developing countries, and to minimise associated threats, there is an urgent need to negotiate international agreements and set standards for connectivity and inter-operatability of the systems.

    Earlier, addressing the Seminar the Chairman, Telecom Commission, Shri Anil Kumar said that the Government through its New Telecom Policy has placed special emphasis on creating modern and efficient telecom infrastructure which will support Internet and Electronic Commerce. He said electronically linked business operations help the customers, suppliers, distributors and manufacturers to streamline the processes and reduce their costs. In the near future Electronic Commerce is likely to be the most cost effective way even for the smallest company since it will enable them to reach worldwide customers, he added.

    The Member (Services), Telecom Commission, Shri P.S.Saran said that electronic Commerce is evolving as a major service on the Internet. The service would bring about a mass consumer market for various applications. In order to effectively use electronic commerce, the users will require various types of functions and services which include the ability to search and access relevant information efficiently, make monetary transactions against the intentional and unintentional corruption and theft of data. In this connection he pointed out that some of the major issues are acquiring and storing information, search and discovery services, electronic payments, security services, connectivity, legal and policy requirements.

    The one-day Seminar was attended by senior officials of the DoT and the representatives of the industry.
 
 

    Shri Sinha said that India weathered the South East Asian crisis and the sanctions imposed by the western countries because of our strong economic fundamentals. The sense of economic stability has overtaken the sense of political instability which was reflected in the recent upsurge of economic recovery. The Finance Minister complimented the Central Board of Direct Taxes for their extremely creditable p-performance during the year 1998-99 in which the direct tax collections registered a 20% growth. He said, in view of the momentum of the economy and hard work of the tax personnel it is possible to achieve the targeted collection of Rs.59,000 crores towards direct taxes during 1999-2000. He said the tax base is being widened and approximately 1.6 crore applications for permanent account number were received and hoped that the number of tax assessees will touch 2 crore mark very soon. Shri Sinha asked the CBDT to gear up to the challenge and advised that the payment of tax should be made as painless as possible and also the tax payers should feel the honour of paying the taxes. The Finance Minister asked the CBDT to complete the work of allotting the PAN numbers in all metropolitan cities within a fixed time frame and the entire country be covered during this financial year. The Finance Minister also addressed the need to computerise all offices and make every official computer literate in their respective income tax offices.

    The Conference was attended among others by the Revenue Secretary, Shri Javed Choudhary, the CBDT Chairman, Shri Ravikant, CBEC Chairman, Shri S.D. Mohile and Chief Commissioners and Directors General of income tax in various regions of the country.
 
 

    Congratulating the Awardees, Shri Jagmohan urged the officials to work with a sense of commitment, dedication and devotion and show compassion in their dealings with the customers. The Minister said it is not so much the job but the manner in which it is carried out that gives one honour and the job the lustre. What is needed is self-discipline and service orientation which once adopted will create a dynamic work-ethos, he added. Describing the Awardees as ambassadors of excellence, the Minister exhorted the staff of DoT to show originality and inventiveness in their approach.

    The Minister of State for Communications, Shri Kabindra Purkayastha while complimenting the award winners said that the awardees have special responsibility towards the society for providing satisfactory services to the people. He said that as the tele-density in the country was very low it required a determined and concerted effort on the part of telecom officials to take the benefits of progress to the masses particularly the rural areas.

    Sanchar Doot Awards, the highest in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) were instituted in 1984 to encourage excellence in performance of DoT personnel and also to recognise their special contribution for the development of telecommunications and improvement of operational efficiency. These awards which are given to six best telecom personnel in India in six different categories consist of a Silver Medal, a Cash Award of Rs.51,000, a plaque and a Citation. In addition, the awardees are eligible for travel by air with family to any place in the country plus daily allowance for seven days. The personnel coming from outside Delhi to receive the award are paid to and from Air Fare. Best performing Telegraph Offices Awards -- UTKRUSHT TAR SEWA PURASKAR 1999 are also presented on the occasion.

    The Chairman, Telecom Commission, Shri Anil Kumar and other senior officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) were present at the function.

    The following officials have been selected for the Sanchar Doot Awards for the year 1999 :-

• Shri Sukanta Sardar, Telecom Mechanic, Calcutta Telephones.
• Shri Gouranga Ch. Das, Chief Telephone Supervisor, Orissa Telecom Circle.
• Smt. K.Pachainayaki, Sr. TOA(TG), Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle.
• Shri Shambhoo Sharan Shukla, TTA, Gujarat Telecom Circle.
• Shri M.R.Sunder Raj, Sr. Section Supervisor (O), Southern Telecom Region, Chennai.
• Shri Harish Chandra Bhikaji Desai, Machine Setter-cum--Operator (Industrial), Telecom Factory, Mumbai.