The 74 Parliamentary Constituencies that will go
to poll on September 25,1999, in the fourth phase of the General Elections
to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) are 19 in Bihar followed by 4 in
Himachal Pradesh, 12 in Madhya Pradesh, 1 each in Manipur, Mizoram and
Nagaland, 2 in Meghalaya, 10 in Orissa and 24 in Uttar Pradesh.
The results showing the modified merit order has
been displayed on the notice board of the Commission’s office and the same
is available at the Facilitation Counter of the Commission, Telephone Nos.
3385271 & 3381125 (open between 9.30 A.M. and 6.30 P.M. on all working
days). The formal notification in this regard will also appear in the issue
of the "Employment News" dated 4th September 1999. Affected
candidates are being informed individually.
Shri Pande emphasized the need to take special measures in lower Assam to ensure that violence does not escalate in those areas in the run up to the elections. He also alerted security forces of the likelihood of ULFA targetting the political parties and candidates as was done by it during the last elections. He pointed out that ISI has been using ULFA for achieving its designs to destablise the State. He also stressed for security of vital installations in this context.
For the long term, the Home Secretary asked the State police to prepare an Action Plan to strengthen to strengthen the intelligence set up in the State to be able to face the increased threat perception.
Home Secretary informed that under the Centre’s scheme for modernisation of police forces, equipment and vehicles worth Rs.30 crores would be given during 1999-2000 shortly. He also informed that about Rs.80 crores has been approved, in principle, during 1999-2000 as reimbursement of security related expenditure, out os which Rs.25 crores has been released today.
Earlier, DGP, Assam made a presentation on law and
order situation in the State for the Union Home Secretary.
1(2)Criticism of other political parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programmes, past record and work. Parties and Candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or on distortions shall be avoided.
The Commission would, therefore, once again, appeal
to all the political parties, to maintain the high traditions of India’s
ancient culture, and the mature functioning of India’s polity over the
last 50 years. In a poor country of a 100 crores, that is beset by every
conceivable problem, the debate should be focussed on issues of interest
to the people and their future. Above all, we should not demean our ancient
world admired culture, by any kind of undesirable remarks about out opponents,
least of all women. The Election Commission of India hopes, that this millennium
election will do credit to all of us, and urges restraints and calm on
all sides.
Shri Pant pointed out that the availability of water per capita has come down from 5,750 cu. m per year in 1947 to 2,370 cu. m at present and was likely to touch 1,403 cu. m by the year 2050. In view of these facts, he said annovative strategies including commercialisation and private participation in service provisions both for municipal and multi-municipal schemes, market oriented financial systems including development of the direct access to capital markets through bond issues, new forms of financial intermediation and leveraging public resources and introduction of user charges aimed at meeting O&M expenditure through water tariff should be considered. He said long term strategy should include adoption of appropriate institutional and technological arrangements.
On industrial use of water , the Dy. Chairman pointed out that 64 billion cu m of water is estimated to be required by the industry by the year 2050. He said new technologies of treatment like anaerobic sludge blanket, biogas generation from waste, use of oxygen bleaching to replace chlorine in the pulp and paper industry, use of cartridges for treatment of electroplating wastes etc. would have to be introduced on priority as they aim at resource conservation, water minimisation and recovery and reuse of waste to the extent possible.
On irrigation potential, Shri Pant pointed out that creation of irrigation potential of 89.56 Mha coupled with increased use of fertilizers, seeds of high yielding variety and modern agronomic practices contributed enormously towards a phenomenal four times increase in foodgrain production from 50.82 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 202.54 million tonnes last year. Shri Pant said to meet food requirements of 1.4 billion population about 370 million tonnes of foodgrains would be required. This means demand for irrigation water would go up substantially but growing use of water in industry and domestic consumption would put water resources under immense pressure. He said availability of good water for agriculture was likely to come down to 73 per cent in 2025 A.D. from 85 per cent in the year 1990.
To expand irrigation potential to meet future requirements
need is to restructure the financing pattern and handover the entire running
of the systems to the users. He said some States have already taken steps
in this direction. Shri Pant pointed out that it may not be possible for
the States to provide funds for creation of more irrigation facilities.
The Consultation Paper will be released at 3.00.p.m.
at the Delton Hall, Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers
(IETE), 2, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi.
Out of 25,784 Local Telephone Exchanges and 386 Trunk Automatic Exchanges in DOT, Y2K solution is pending for implementation in only 2065 exchanges and the rest have all been made Y2K compliant. Out of 2065 pending exchanges, 2063 are C-DOT exchanges which are spread across the length and breadth of the country covering difficult terrain like remote islands, hilly areas, etc. Majority of these C-DOT exchanges would be made Y2K compliant by September, 1999 and the remaining by October, 1999.
All Transmission systems, Intelligent Network (IN) systems, 457 Satellite Earth Stations/Terminals are Y2K compliant. Only 38 Y2K non-complaint Satellite VSAT (HVNET) Terminals which are used by a few closed user groups (CUGs) will be made Y2K compliant by November, 1999. The Packet Switched Public Data Network (called INET) serving 106 nodes/cities would be made Y2K compliant by October, 1999.
Most systems in the Computer Application Systems, computerized Fault Repair Service and Directory Enquiry systems have been made Y2K compliant and the remaining will be covered by September, 1999.
Among the Public Sector Undertakings of DoT, the equipment and services provided by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), Hindustan Teleprinters Limited (HTL) and Telecom Consultants India Limited (TCIL) are Y2K compliant. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) have madeY2K compliant 5 out of the 11 International Gateway switches, all Transmission (cable) systems, all satellite earth stations, all leased lines, all Internet gateway routers, all Internet access routers (ports), all Internet remote access servers (ports) and 37 of the Internet servers. Two Telex systems and the remaining 8 Internet servers, would be made Y2K compliant by September, 1999. The remaining 6 International Gateway switches would be made Y2K compliant by October, 1999.
Presenting the Y2K status of Private Telecom Operators as per reports received, DOT said that among the three basic service providers, one is fully Y2K compliant while the remaining two are under implementation. Out of 22 cellular operators 3 are Y2K compliant, remaining are under implementation. Of the 139 Internet licensees, 65 have reported Y2K compliance; out of 4 Voice Mail service providers, 2 have reported Y2K compliance; out of 15 Radio Paging service providers, 5 have reported compliance, 6 are under implementation; out of 10 VSAT licensees, 8 are Y2K compliant and out of 21 radio trunking service providers, 17 are Y2K compliant. All the above Private Telecom Operators would be Y2K compliant latest by November, 1999. DOT, as an administrative Ministry and licensing authority, is pursuing the case with these Operators and also with their service associations so that they could make their services Y2K compliant as early as possible.
DOT has adopted three stage certification procedure, first certification by vendor himself, second by Telecom Engineering Center (TEC) based on International Telecom Union procedure and third by the implementing agency. DOT has further plans for end to end testing of the entire telecom network including network of VSNL. Preliminary contingency plan which is ready would be final by 30th September, 1999. The contingency plan covers human resources on high-risk dates, on-site operation and recovering staff backed by support teams, centralized crisis management and establishment of Monitoring & Control centres at national, state & telecom district level. Contingency plan also envisages commitment from vendors to provide emergency solutions and deployment of support teams by vendors.
DOT has placed detailed Y2K compliance status of
the Telecom Sector on its website www.dotindia.com.
The Ninth Plan Document spells out the specific mechanism with regard to the monitoring and timely implementation of Central Sector Project/Progammes/Schemes, Centrally-sponsored Schemes and State Plan Schemes. The mechanism includes:
The major international markets getting the share of growth are Australia (+50%), Italy (+50%), Japan (+82%) and USA (+102%). U.K. continues to be at top with 30% of India's export of sports goods to this country in the first quarter.
The 51st International Trade Fair for
Sports Equipment and Fashion -ISPO'99, Munich in Germany just concluded
successfully. At this ISPO (1st to 4th August 1999), twenty
Indian companies participated and booked orders worth Rs. 5 crores and
received enquiries worth Rs. 18.5 crores. ISPO'99 (Summer) was able to
attract as many as 1628 exhibitors from 47 countries with the major participation
coming from countries like Germany, Taiwan, Italy etc. The participation
of Indian sports goods companies was organised by Sports Goods Export Promotion
Council (SGEPC) in collaboration with Indo German Export Promotion Project
(IGEP), which helped the Sports Goods Industry obtain a glimpse of the
Global sports goods markets. The Indian exhibitors at ISPO received about
600 trade enquiries of which roughly 150 came from German companies.
The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting
Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also expressed deep sorrow at the demise of Shri
Khan.
The Secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport, Shri R. Vasudevan today Laid the Foundation of the Campus of NITHE in the Noida Institutional Area (Phase II). Speaking on the occasion, Shri Vasudevan said the country is going to witness massive construction in the road sector in the near future. In this connection, he mentioned about the integrated National Highway Development Project (NHDP) of the Government consisting of six-laning of the "Golden Quadrilateral" and the development of East-West and North-South corridors costing Rs. 50,000 crore. Shri Vasudevan said that in view of this, there is a great need for developing human resources and imparting training to the highway engineers. He called for a comprehensive National Training Policy for the training of personal engaged in highway construction. Shri Vasudevan said that the creative potential of the Engineering community can be best channelised by giving them, perhaps, autonomy of decision making and also combining responsibility and accountability with authority. He called upon NITHE to assume the twin role of advising the Government in framing policies as well as implementing them.
The Director General (Road Development), Ministry of Surface Transport, Shri Prafulla Kumar said that very large sized projects under the "Golden Quadrilateral" and North-South and East-West corridor programme are expected to be started soon. In addition, he said, the State Highways will also witness massive development programmes. For ensuring successful implementation of these projects a large number of experts in various disciplines of highway engineering such as survey and investigation, traffic and transportation, pavements, environment, project management and construction equipment will be required. NITHE will go a long way in imparting training in all these fields to fulfill the objective, Shri Prafulla Kumar added.
Those present on the occasion including Shri Deepak Das Gupta, Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Director General, CPWD, Shri B.S. Duggal and Director In-charge of the Institute, Shri G. Sharan.
The building is being constructed under the World Bank aided programme. As for the World Bank loan agreement, CPWD, which has been, entrusted the work of planning, design, construction and supervision of the construction, followed the banks guidelines for engagement of the contractor. The bank has given its no objection for award of work to M/s Globe Construction Company, Delhi in June ‘99 and the work was awarded in July ‘99.
A collaborative body of the Central and State Governments,
NITHE was set up in the year 1983 with the primary objective of fulfilling
the long-standing need for training of highway engineers at the entry level
and during the service. NITHE has trained more than 6500 highway and bridge
engineers from India and abroad through its 260 training programmes in
diverse spheres such as planning, design, construction, contract management
and maintenance etc. Besides training of engineers from India, NITHE has
trained considerable number of overseas engineers from Africa, East Asia,
Middle East, Indian subcontinent, South & South East Asia through its
international and SAARC level programmes under assistance from World Bank,
ADB, ILO and also sponsored by the respective countries. NITHE has also
acquired expertise to organise training programmes outside India and a
few such programmes in Canada, UK, Australia, Bhutan, Ghana, Malawi, Nepal
and Thailand were highly appreciated.
Children born between 1.7.86 to 30.6.90 and studying in recognised schools are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The last date for receipt of applications is 31./10.99.
The application forms can be obtained (free of cost)
from the Director General, Centre for Cultural Resources and Training,
Bahawalpur House, Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi-110001 and C.C.R.T. Regional
Centre, A-4, Ambavgarh, Udaipur-313001, Rajasthan and C.C.R.T. Regional
Centre 1st Floor, A. P. Film Development Corporation Complex
(APFDC), 10-2-1, A. C. Guards, Hyderabad-500028, Andhra Pradesh (opposite
to Mahaveer Hospital near J.N. Technical Univrsity).