Day: July 17, 2012

Mail News Service
New Delhi, July 17: Union Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Ajit Singh has said that the Government is in the process of providing air connectivity to remote and interior areas of the country including the North Eastern Region and Tier II and Tier III cities. He was addressing the members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry Civil Aviation Ministry in Bangalore today. Shri Singh said that the new policy instrument in the form of Route Dispersal Guidelines is under consideration. It includes creation of Essential Air Services Fund (EASF) for providing direct subsidy to encourage domestic airlines to fly on these remote and interior routes.
The Minister informed the meeting that the Civil Aviation Ministry is also in the process of enhancing the present operations of helicopters and construction of heliports at various places to improve the connectivity of smaller places, including places of religious and tourist importance with bigger cities. He added that the Ministry would also soon modify guidelines for acquisition of aircrafts so that Indian carriers become bound to acquire smaller aircrafts needed for providing connectivity to these smaller cities.
Singh undelined the need to develop India as an international hub for the passengers and said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has initiated action in this regard, which includes revisiting the policy regarding bilateral air service agreements with different countries and also rationalization of all bilaterals and traffic entitlements on international routes to Indian carriers and rationalization of traffic on domestic routes.
Civil Aviation Minister said that it is a challenge to manage phenomenal growth of air traffic with safety.
He added that for this an effective, autonomous and professionally competent regulatory framework is required. Shri Singh said the Ministry is contemplating to give more functional autonomy to the existing Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by establishing Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under an Act of Parliament which will soon be given a final shape. Besides this, there is a proposal to restructure the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and to constitute a dedicated security force which will soon see the light of the day, Shri Singh added.
Singh said that it is also proposed to set up a National Aviation University, as a measure of skill augmentation and to produce the next generation of aviation professional. He said the National Aviation University is aimed at creation of aviation training hub in the country to meet the requirements of other countries in the region.
The meeting was attended by Members of Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/smaller-towns-will-soon-get-air-connectivity-ajit-singh/

Mail News Service
New Delhi, July 17: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Senior Divisional Manager of Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., Divisional Office-I, Rajkot for demanding & accepting a bribe of Rs. 15,000/- from the complainant.
The complainant, a partner in the Rajkot based manufacturing firm alleged that the accused had demanded an illegal gratification of Rs.15,000/- from him for sanctioning an accident insurance claim of a worker in his firm which was pending for around one & half years. The complainant did not want to pay the bribe and lodged a complaint with CBI.
CBI laid a trap and the accused was caught red-handed while demanding & accepting a bribe of Rs. 15,000/- from the complainant. The accused was produced in the jurisdictional court and was remanded to custody.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cbi-arrests-senior-divisional-manager/

Mail News Service
New Delhi, July 17: Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology rededicated the Centre for e-Governance (CEG) here today.
The Centre has been inaugurated after renovation. Speaking on the occasion Shri Pilot said that CEG will be an effective platform for cross learning, for sharing successes and failures in e-domain. He urged the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) to lead by example by moving forward to e-tendering resulting in minimum paper transactions and human interferences. Sh Pilot said that e-Governance should not only be a buzz word but should percolate down to the masses.
Secretary (DietY), Shri J Satyanarayana said that CEG will motivate the e-champions who will take pride in having their projects displayed here. It will be like a Hall of Fame for virtual personalities i.e various e-projects. He suggested many ways to use the Centre in more effective and purposeful manner.
The Centre has been envisaged as the platform for showcasing advancement in ICT domain especially in e-Governance by demonstrating applications from states, central line ministries, DeitY organizations and other implementing agencies. In addition, it is meant to be a staging platform for cutting edge and emerging technology areas that are part of DeitY mandate and are of relevance to other ICT domain including electronics, Indian Language Solutions, emerging technologies in ICT domains and solutions for differently abled centre.
There are 12 touch screen kiosks at CEG, and at each kiosk a different application is showcased. The applications showcased during the inauguration included-

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/e-governance-should-reach-masses-says-sachin-pilot/

Mail News Service
New Delhi, July 16: The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri V. Narayanasamy has exhorted the district administrators to take a lead in ensuring that public service delivery mechanism operates effectively at the grass root level. Inaugurating the 4th Conference of Secretaries of Administrative Reforms in States/UTs in New Delhi today, Shri Narayanasamy said that district is the nucleus, and the country moves forward when the administration at district level is strong and people friendly. Transparency and citizen-centric administration is key to ensuring welfare of public at the grass root level, he said. The Minister added that for the purpose it is imperative that district administrators perform an effective supervisory role in the field to ensure that lower level administration is sensitive to people’s needs and service delivery is quick.
He also stressed on proper monitoring of execution through more field work rather than desk work.
The Minister emphasised that corruption at grass root level has to end so that benefits of Government schemes reach up to the beneficiaries in a smooth manner. District administrators play a crucial role in this regard and can become a catalyst for change in people’s life, the Minister said. Shri Narayanasamy said that the role and functions of a district collector has undergone a tremendous change in the recent times and they have to rise to meet the challenges. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances(DARPG) has developed training programmes for them so that they are updated on related issues and stay abreast of developments.
Secretary(DARPG), R.C. Mishra in his opening remarks said that the Government role in the present times is more of a facilitator in providing citizen-centric administration. The Government is putting in place systems to make public delivery mechanism transparent and to ensure that no section of the society remains out of spurview of Government schemes. He stressed upon the need of use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in delivery of public services.
A panel discussion on ‘Role of District Collectors in Changing Times’ was held during the conference.
Ramesh C. Misra, Secretary, Department of AR & PG, P. K. Misra, Secretary, DOPT, Vikram Chand, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, World Bank and Dr Nivedita P Haran, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala participated in the panel discussion.
Various issues faced by the District Collectors in the discharge of their duties were raised during the discussion such as use of technology to streamline the work of Collector, empowering the Collector to become a successful leader, capacity building, etc. The panelists have stressed the unassailable role the District Collector plays in the development of a district. Representatives from various States made on by presentations the AR initiatives undertaken by them.
The Conference aims to create a national platform to share experiences of the states in the field of reforms/initiatives undertaken by the departments of Administrative Reforms in the States/Union
Territories to improve public service delivery, make the administration effective, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly. It provides a forum for the A R Departments of the States/UTs to highlight the challenges faced by them and their expectations from the Department of AR & PG, Government of India. The Conference also provides an opportunity to take stock of the pace and progress of administrative reforms across the country.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/v-narayanasamy-exhorts-dcs-to-check-corruption/