Releases.........pt1

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of Railways  

Railway revenue earnings up by 15.66 per cent during the period 1st – 10th October 2009

New Delhi: October 20, 2009

 

The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during the period from 1st to 10th October 2009 were Rs. 2173.34 crore compared to Rs. 1879.01 crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 15.66 per cent.

 

The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 1227.14 crore during the period from 1st to 10th October 2008 to Rs. 1431.58 crore during 1st October – 10th October 2009, showing an increase of 16.66 per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings during the period 1st to 10th October 2009 were Rs. 663.45 crore compared to Rs. 588.45 crore during the same period last year, reflecting an increase of 12.75 per cent. The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to Rs. 62.88 crore during this period compared to Rs. 47.72 crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 31.77 per cent.

 

The total approximate number of passengers booked during the period 1st to 10th October, 2009 were 215.77 million compared to 193.33 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 11.61 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the number of passengers booked during 1st to 10th October, 2009 were 116.51 million and 99.26 million compared to 104.16 million and 89.17 million during the same period last year, registering an increase of 11.86 per cent and 11.32 per cent respectively.

 

aks/hk/lk/tr/dk/kol/13:00 hrs. 

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of Rural Development  

Joining hands for Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation

New Delhi: October 20, 2009

 

A Round Table on strategies for Rural Drinking Water Supply Program and Sanitation is being organised by the Department of Rural Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development at the Mirza Galib Hall, Scope Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi on Wednesday, the Oct. 21st,2009. The objective is to create awareness, orient and encourage the user groups and ensure wider participation of NGOs, Women Groups in the massive task of rural drinking water supply and sanitation under the Bharat Nirman program. The day long deliberations will focus on strategies which could be conducive for State Governments and the PRIs to upscale the activities under the National Rural Drinking Water Supply Program and the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).

 

The round Table will be inaugurated by Ms. Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Development and later on will be addressed by Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Dr. C.P.Joshi. The notable invitees include among others , social activists like Anna Hazre, Deep Joshi, Jean Dreze, N.C. Saxena besides representatives from several Union Ministries and from State Governments/ UT administrations, NGOs and leading educational institutions. Separate working groups would be discussing the strategies and come forward with the framework which could be adopted by the states based on their feasibility.

 

Among the issues likely to be discussed related to Rural Drinking Water Service delivery include the sector unbundling, bulk and retail water supply; Village Level/ community level decentralized systems and involvement of NGOs and CBOs; strengthening of PRIs for their future role in planning, execution and maintenance , Public-private partner ships, Restructuring of Public Health Engineering depts.; Capacity building and awareness generation of community; PRIs and technical personnel. Developing of   separate streams of funding for  PRIs to maintain their drinking water schemes; funding large schemes for drinking water areas where there are no sources or sources with limited water or where the water sources are highly contaminated; O&M requirements, limitations, advantages; Ways to allocate funds to states in  a manner in which deficit areas get high priority; MIS for drinking water status in each habitation are likely to figure in the deliberations.

 

Discussions on Water resources would be focussed on depleting ground water; Conjunctive use of water, traditional water harvesting, revival of water resources; How to protect the right of citizens to drinking water  by preventing over-exploitation of ground water for irrigation and other purpose. Besides the meeting would provide a forum to share views on Monitoring and regulation of drinking water quality; Reaching the poor, vulnerable; gender issues; How to prevent contamination of ground and surface water; No-cost, low cost, medium cost and high cost options; Accountability and fixing of responsibility to ensure quality of water in rural areas.

 

An interesting aspect of the meeting is the participation of Private parties in water supply after suitable treatment on payment basis. Since such private entrepreneurs would be using available sources created by public fund, a probable approach for such offers and preparation of Drinking water security plans is likely to be discussed.

 

The issues related to Rural Sanitation include -Successful models of IEC activities that can catalyze TSC; Scaling up of TSCs to achieve universal toilet coverage by 2012; Sustainability of sanitation coverage already achieved; Accelerating participation of stake holders such as  PRIs, NGOs, line departments etc. The technological options for different geographical conditions and region; strengthening supply chain management, Improving institutional coverage and improvement in Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism for more effective implementation is likely to figure in the round table talks. The campaign is aimed at achieving the set goals that will provide universal toilet coverage in rural areas by 2012 and coverage of all schools and anganwadies with toilet facility by March 2010. This requires provision of 6.11 core Individual Household Latrines , 2.74 lakh  school toilets and 1.5 lakh anganwadi toilets within the set target dates

 

It is expected that the outcome of these deliberations would provide a framework of the strategies to be adopted for short time and medium term planning so that basic functional requirement of providing safe drinking water to the rural population is met with ease and sustenance.

 

akt/st/sak/dk/kol/13:00 hrs.