Blood Donation Camp Organised by Territorial Army

Press Information Bureau Government of India ******* Blood Donation Camp Organised by Territorial Army   New Delhi : October 21, 2009   The Territorial Army organized a Blood Donate Camp on 21 Oct 2009 with effect from 0900 hours onwards at 105 Infantry Battalion (TA) RAJ RIF in Delhi Cantt on the occasion of its Diamond Jubilee Celebration. The camp was graced by Shri Sudarshan Agarwal, Ex Governor Uttarakhand and Sikkim, Major General (Retd) KVS Lalotra, AVSM, YSM, SM formal Additional Director General of the Territorial Army and Brigadier HK Singh, Officiating Additional Director General of the Territorial Army. A motivation lecture was conducted by the staff of Rotary Blood Bank for troops present, followed by voluntary blood donation.   28 Officers, 35 JCOs and 500 Other Rank of the Territorial Army donated blood to demonstrate their continued solidarity with the citizens of the country. This act is the hallmark of the Terriers, who continue to be the torch bearers in showing the path towards selfless contribution which reinforces the commitment of the Citizens, Army towards the Nation. The blood was donated to the Rotary Blood Bank, a charitable institution. The Rotary Blood Bank located in Tughalakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi is one of the most modern and state of the art voluntary blood bank which issues blood without taking replacement donation and provides 24 hrs service. The Donors included all ranks from age group 20 to 58 years.   S Om Singh/Rajendra  /spandey       Press Information Bureau Government of India ******* NALCO pays Rs. 84.22 crore dividend to Government   New Delhi : October 21, 2009   National Aluminium Company Limited, (NALCO) has paid a dividend of Rs. 84.22 crore to the Government of India for the year 2008-09. The cheque was presented to the Union Minister for Mines and Development of North Eastern Region, Shri B. K. Handique by the CMD of NALCO, Shri A. K. Srivastava, here today. The Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Smt. Shantha Sheela Nair was also present on the occasion.   NALCO, a Navrathna public sector undertaking of Ministry of Mines, has paid 50% dividend for the year 2008-09. Of the total 50% dividend, interim at 35% was paid earlier in February, 2009 and the balance final dividend at 15% has been paid this month. Together, the dividend pay-out works out to Rs. 322.15 crore out of which the Government share is Rs. 280.74 crore.   The Government of India holds 87.15% equity in the Company. The balance amount of Rs. 41.41 crore is disbursed to other shareholders of the Company like banks, financial institutions and individual shareholders.   NALCO's profits for the 2008-09 took a knock with the near collapse of metal prices after the global melt down. The profits reduced to Rs. 1,272 Crore from Rs. 1,632 crore earned in the previous year. The volumes of production and sale of its products remained almost at the same level as of previous year. The Company has ambitious plans of growth in aluminium sector and for diversification in other metal and power sector. Some of these growth projects are planned abroad.   NSK/Ak  /spandey       Press Information Bureau Government of India ******* Union Tourism Minister reviews progress of creation of Additional Accommodation for CWG-2010   55 PERCENT HOTEL ROOMS COMPLETED   New Delhi : October 21, 2009   A meeting to review the progress of creation of additional accommodation for Commonwealth Games – 2010 was held here today under the Chairpersonship of the Union Tourism and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja. It was also attended by Secretary Tourism Shri Sujit Banerjee and representatives of Govt. of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Urban Development, Railways, DDA, NDMC, MCD, Delhi Police, DIAL, ITDC and IHM (Pusa) etc.   The Tourism Minister was informed in the meeting that as per the latest review, several units in likely category have been converted into definite category. There are 10,268 'definite' rooms and 1757 rooms were available under the 'likely' category. Out of these 5645 rooms have been completed and rest are in progress. In the last review meeting held in the first of week of September only 4238 rooms were completed and now 1407 additional hotel rooms have been completed. This comes to 55 percent of the total hotel rooms in the definite category.   It was decided in the meeting that 5,500 residential flats of DDA located at Vasant Kunj and Jasola for the Games which would be furnished and operated by ITDC, should be ready and handed over to ITDC in phases between January to May, 2010 to enable timely furnishing of these flats.   During the meeting the Govt. of Delhi was advised to do aggressive marketing for Bed & Breakfast Scheme to meet the targets for the Commonwealth Games. Presently there are 1,534 'Bed & Breakfast' (B&B) Units available in the Delhi NCR. The Govt. of Delhi has been asked to work towards reaching the target of 3000 B&B Units.   It was further decided to use around 11,000 rooms of Guest Houses in Delhi and their infrastructure upgradation / beautification of the surrounding areas is being undertaken. Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has received funds for upgradation of Paharganj area. Funds have also been sanctioned recently for Karol Bagh area. Ministry of Tourism has also sanctioned Rs. 11.6 crores to MCD for multilevel stack parking and development of public amenities and has asked MCD to complete the projects as per agreed schedule i.e. by 30th June, 2010.   Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has indicated availability of 3250 beds of hostels of educational institutions / University of Delhi. These hostels are proposed to be upgraded and used as additional accommodation during the Games. It was informed in the meeting that the Government of Haryana has identified vacant sites at Surajkund and Hodel for setting up tented accommodation. Further, Govt. of Haryana also proposed to earmark suitable land for tented accommodation at Badhkal Lake. The Hotel Associations and others have been asked to come up with proposals for temporary tented accommodation on these lands. They can directly contact the State Tourism Department for this purpose. It was informed that Ministry of Defence has identified a Nodal Officer for matters related to identification of defence land for setting up of tented accommodation.   During the meeting the Tourism and Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister Km. Selja said that once the projects are complete by adhering to all rules and by laws, Govt. agencies should ensure they get all facilities and completion certificates etc. speedily. However, she asked Govt. agencies to prepare a checklist to monitor violations, if any by the builders so that they can be cautioned well in time to rectify the violations.   It was also proposed that Competed hotel projects should obtain completion certificate and necessary licenses / clearances and become operational early. The State Govts. are requested to process the applications and issue and necessary completion certificates/required licenses to the hotels. The hotels are further advised to apply for classification under appropriate Star category and Ministry of Tourism would process the applications expeditiously.   The Minister said there is a requirement of additional 30,000 hotel rooms in Delhi NCR for the CWG 2010 and all hotel projects coming up for the Games should be ready and completed by 30th June 2010, to make Common Wealth Games 2010 a grand success.   AD/DB/spandey PIB Kolkata