Releases...........pt2

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Railways Rajya Sabha
47,068 vacancies in Railways filled during 2008-09
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

In a large organization like Indian Railways, vacancies are likely to
exist at any point of time. The policy of the government is to fill up
these vacancies promptly. General Managers of all Zonal Railways have
been instructed to place indents with Railway Recruitment Boards
(RRBs) to fill up Group 'C' vacancies and Railway Recruitment Cells to
fill up Group 'D' vacancies.
As per figures available in Ministry of Railways, a total number of
47,068 vacancies were filled on the Indian Railways from April 1, 2008
to March 31, 2009.
Creation and filling of vacancies is a continuous process. Action has
been taken by the Railways as necessary from time to time.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of
Railways, Shri E. Ahamed in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

aks/hk/lk/tr/dk/kol/14:18 hrs.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Railways Rajya Sabha
Change in Unreserved Ticket System
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

As per recent instructions issued by the Ministry of Railways,
unreserved tickets involving journey upto 200 kilometers are issued
through Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) on the day of the journey
and those involving journey of more than 200 kilometers are issued
upto three days in advance excluding the day of journey.
This change has been made after observing the trend of booking as well
as to avoid misuse of short distance unreserved tickets booked much in
advance. Through UTS, passengers can purchase unreserved tickets from
the cluster of stations in that area of journey commencing from any of
these cluster stations to any destination.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of
Railways, Shri E. Ahamed in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

aks/hk/lk/tr/dk/kol/14:18 hrs.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Defence
Armed Forces Tribunal to be inaugurated tomorrow
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

The men in uniform will have another reason to cheer when their
long-pending demand for justice becomes a reality with the launch of
the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) tomorrow. Befitting the momentous
occasion, the long-awaited tribunal will be inaugurated by the
President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil.
Set up by an Act of parliament in December, 2007, the Armed Forces
Tribunal will have its Principal Bench in New Delhi and eight regional
benches spread across the country. The Tribunal will have 15 courts in
all, - three each in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Lucknow and one each in
Jaipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai and Kochi.
Aggrieved armed forces personnel will now be able to appeal against
sentences handed down by the court-martial. The Tribunal will also
have powers to grant bail to any person in military custody. It is
expected to be functional soon once the government issues the relevant
notification. The AFT will provide a judicial forum for redressal of
grievances of about a 1.3 million strong armed forces personnel and
another 1.2 million Ex-Servicemen. At present about 9,000 such cases
are pending before various courts across the country, most of them
with the high courts. The AFT will not only result in speedy and
affordable justice to the men in uniform but also save the Armed
Forces' resources in terms of manpower, material and time. The
decisions of the AFT can be challenged only in the Supreme Court.
The Tribunal will have a Chairperson who has been or is a judge of the
Supreme Court or Chief Justice of a high court. Justice AK Mathur, a
former judge of the Supreme Court, has been appointed the AFT's first
Chairperson and has assumed charge since Sep.01, 2008. Besides, each
court consists of a judicial member and an administrative member.
There will be in all 30 members in the 15 courts of the nine AFT
benches, - 15 judicial including the Chairperson, and an equal number
of administrative members. The judicial member must be, or have been,
a judge of a High Court while the administrative member would be
officers of the rank of Major General or equivalent in either of the
three Services or an officer not less than the rank of a Brigadier or
equivalent who has rendered not less than one year service as the
Judge Advocate General of the Army, Navy or Air Force.
The government has already appointed eight judicial members and 15
administrative members, while seven judicial members are yet to be
named. The eight judicial members appointed to the Tribunal alongwith
the location of the bench are: - Justice AK Mathur (Chairperson, AFT,
Principal Bench, New Delhi, Justice Manak Lall Mohta (New Delhi),
Justice Ghanshyam Prasad (Chandigarh), Justice Janardhan Sahai
(Lucknow – yet to join), Justice SS Kulshrestha (Lucknow), Justice
Bhanwaroo Khan (Jaipur), Justice AC Arumugaperumal Adityan (Chennai)
and Justice K Padmanabhan Nair (Kochi). The 15 administrative members
are: Lt. General ML Naidu, Lt Gen. ZU Shah and Lt. Gen. SS Dhillon
(all New Delhi bench), Lt. Gen. Amrik Singh Bahia, Lt Gen. HS Panag
and Lt. Gen. NS Brar (all Chandigarh bench), Lt. Gen. PR Gangadharan,
Lt. Gen. RK Chhabra and Lt. Gen. BS Sisodia (all Lucknow bench), Lt.
Gen. Susheel Gupta (Jaipur), Vice Admiral RF Contractor (Mumbai), Lt.
Gen. Madan Gopal (Kolkata), Commodore Mohan Phadke (Guwahati), Lt.
Gen. S Pattabhiraman (Chennai) and Lt. Gen. Thomas Mathew (Kochi).

pk/raj/dk/kol/14:19 hrs.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Tourism Lok Sabha
National Desert Park
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

The Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja has said that Ministry of Tourism
does not declare any area as National Park, including Desert Park.
However, the area of 3162 sq. kms. falling under Jaiselmer and Barmer
districts has been declared as National Desert Park by the State
Government of Rajasthan.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today, she said, the Park has been
protected to conserve the bio-diversity of the desert in the condition
in which it exists at present.

ad/db/dk/kol/14:19 hrs.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Lok Sabha
Property Prices in India
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development Shri
Saugata Roy has said a downward trend has been witnessed in the
property prices in the global realty markets. As per the National
Housing Banks, Residential Housing Price Index (NHB RESIDEX), a fall
in the property prices has been observed in some of the cities covered
under the Index. Out of the 15 cities covered, the index has shown
marginal decline in prices of residential properties in nine cities,
viz., Hyderabad, Patna, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune,
Surat and Kochi.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today, he said, the Union
Government formulated the National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy,
2007 with the aim of providing 'Affordable Housing for All' with
particular emphasis in meeting the housing needs of the Economically
Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG). This policy seek to
promote sustainable development of the urban habitat with a view to
ensuring equitable supply of land, shelter and services at affordable
prices to all sections of society.

In 2005, Government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNRUM), to make provision, inter-alia, of housing
and basic services for the urban poor by a holistic and integrated
development of slums in 65 specified cites under the Sub Mission Basic
Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and 839 projects under Integrated
Housing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) have been approved all
over the country so far envisaging construction/upgradation of
9,93,523 and 4,61,887 dwelling units respectively.

In December 2008, Government started a new scheme-Interest Subsidy
Scheme for Housing for the Urban Poor (IHSUP) for providing interest
subsidy to make housing loans affordable and within the repayment
capacity of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) /Low Income Group
(LIG). The scheme makes available loans upto Rs. 1 lakh through
Commercial banks/Housing Finance Companies for the purposes of
construction/acquisition of houses with an interest subsidy of 5%.

The Minister said with a view to encourage allotment of land for EWS
housing, another scheme for 'Affordable Housing in partnership', was
started under which Central Government assistance is available for
infrastructure connectivities for housing projects which provide
houses upto 80 Sq. mt. carpet area of which at least 25% are for
EWS/LIG.

In June, 2009, Government announced the intention to comprehensively
address the issues of slums and to provide a Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)
for housing in urban areas wherever states are willing to assign
property rights to people living in slum areas.

ad/db/dk/kol/14:19 hrs.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
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Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Lok Sabha
Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana
New Delhi: August 7, 2009

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development Shri
Saugata Roy has said the Scheme of Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar
Yojana (SJSRY) has been comprehensively revamped with effect from 1st
April 2009.

The revised SJSRY has following five major components:-

(i) Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) – Targeting individual
urban poor for setting up of micro-enterprises.

(ii) Urban Women Self-help Programme (UWSP) – Targeting urban poor
women self-help groups for setting up of group-enterprises and
providing them assistance for their thrift & credit activities.

(iii) Skill Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor
(STEP-UP) – Targeting urban poor for imparting quality training so as
to enhance their employability for self-employment or better salaried
employment.

(iv) Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP) – Assisting the urban poor
by utilizing their labour for construction of socially and
economically useful public assets, in towns having population less
than 5 lakhs.

(v) Urban Community Development Network (UCDN) – Assisting the urban
poor in organizing themselves in self-managed community structures so
as to gain collective strength to address the issues of poverty facing
them and participate in the effective implementation of urban poverty
alleviation programmes.

Answering another written question in the Lok Sabha today, the
Minister of Housing and Urban poverty alleviation Kumari Selja said,
under the revamped Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) the
funding pattern for 11 Special Category States viz. Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam, Manipur, meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu &
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand has been revised to be
shared in the proportion of 90:10 between the Centre and States. For
the rest of the States/Union Territories, funding is to be shared
between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25. However, for
the Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman
& Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, the entire funding (100%) is met by
the Centre.

ad/db/dk/kol/14:20 hrs.