Country declared free of bird flu

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

*****

50 years of Directorate of Field Publicity

WORKSHOP TO TAKE DEVELOPMENTAL MESSAGE TO MASSES

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

 

Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) is completing 50 years of its inception. To mark this occasion, the Directorate is organising a three-day National Workshop, which would be inaugurated by Honourable Minister of Information & Broadcasting Smt. Ambika Soni on October 28, 2009. The Workshop would be held at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) auditorium in New Delhi.

 

The Workshop would be attended not only by 22 Regional Heads but also personnel of all 207 field units. They would be trained in new techniques in inter-personal communications and the flagship programmes of the Central Government. This Workshop is organised also to enable DFP to take the developmental message to the grassroots. The Workshop would also devote a full day on A (HINI) swine flu. Dr Shashi Khare, Head (Microbiology) and P Ravindran, Head (EMR) of National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) will train field personnel about creating awareness among the masses about the disease. UNICEF and WHO are also participating in the event to enlighten the officials.

 

The Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) started functioning with 32 Field Publicity Units and 4 Regional Offices in 1953 as Five Year Plan Publicity Organisation under the control of the Ministry of I&B. Renamed as Directorate of Field Publicity in 1959, with the passage of time many Field Publicity Units and Regional Offices have been opened. There are presently 22 Regional Offices and 207 Field Publicity Units, which are doing extensive publicity coverage in rural areas. The reach of the Directorate is quite extensive and the effort is to reach even the remotest and most inaccessible villages by the Field Publicity Units.

 

The Field Publicity Units use a variety of publicity techniques such as film shows, song and drama, photo exhibitions, group discussions, seminars, symposia, rallies and various competitions like debates, drawing, rural sports etc. All these programmes are targeted specially for the welfare of the people and to educate the masses, particularly those living in the rural and tribal areas. The DFP is also mandated to promote the people's participation in the development activities, particularly at the grassroot level, and to provide a forum to the people to express their views and reactions on the various national programmes and project the feedback to the Government.

 

Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Shri Choudhory Mohan Jatua will give away awards to the best Field Publicity Officer/Field Publicity Assistant of respective regions at the valedictory function.

 

 

SBS/RS  /spandey

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Sports Minister Inspects Commonwealth Games Stadia

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

 

 

Dr. M.S. Gill, Union Sports Minister today visited Jawaharlal Nehru and Talkatora stadia to take stock of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games 2010. Dr. Gill was accompanied by senior officials of Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Sports Authority of India (SAI) and they briefed the Minister about the progress.

 

Briefing the media after the inspection, Dr. Gill said "I came here to see preparations and also had thorough discussions with the SAI officials and the CPWD engineers. I can assure you that these two stadiums will be technology and engineering marvels. Engineers and all others are fully motivated towards the timely completion of the work" He said that the entire work would be completed on time and also assured that there would be enough time to hold the Test events before the Games.

 

The Minister further said "for Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, we have experts from Germany, America and South America. Roof Fabrication for the Stadium has been done from Mexico. For the Swimming Pool Complex, experts from Germany, France, Belgium, Australia and from India also involved in the working. We will produce a world class event", Dr. Gill told the Media persons.

 

Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium will host the Opening and Closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2010 and will also have separate facilities for conducting Weightlifting and Lawn Bowling competitions.

 

Status of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium:

 

• Construction of Lower Tier completed • Construction of Hostel Building completed.

• Construction of Roof work along with state of the art sports lighting under progress.

• Renovation and upgradation of Inner spaces as per the requirements of Games are under progress.

• Installation of Electrical Substation under progress.

• Construction of state of the art Multipurpose hall for weightlifting under progress.

• Construction of 4 nos synthetic surface for Lawn Bowl under progress.

• Construction of Boundary wall along with periphery of Stadium is under progress. Around 60% boundary wall completed.

 

Present Status of Roof Work – JNS

 

• Foundation completed.

• Shear wall completed.

• 100% (44 Nos.) of Shear key for V Column installed.

• 100% (44 Nos.) of Shear Key for X Column installed.

• 8200 MT of Fabrication and erection of Structural Steel completed.

• 44 ns. (100% of total quantity) of V Column and Lower Compression Ring (LCR) erected on site.

• 44 Nos. of X frame and Upper compression Ring (UCR) erected. • 100% of fully locked cables and its castings procured from Pfifer Germany.

• 100% cable laying completed.

• PTFE Membrane material procured from USA and fabrication done from Mexico. All (88 nos) PTFE membrane panels fabricated and dispatched to site. 68 panels received at site 6 panels at Mumbai port and 4 panels at Tughlakabad and 10 panels on sea expected to arrive soon.

• Arrangement for lifting of Jacks in Progress.

• Lifting of cables will finish by 25th November, 2009.

• Fixing of membrane panels will start from 1st December 2009 and be completed by February, 2010

 

RM/AS  /spandey

 

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

*****

ICT Ministers meet tomorrow for Speeding-up Delivery of e-Services

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

 

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2006 is a significant initiative with few parallels anywhere in the world in terms of its size, complexity and breadth of coverage. Recognising the importance of NeGP and its vision of making all Public services accessible through Common Services Centres to the common man in his locality, the Hon'ble President of India, in her address to the Joint Session of the Parliament on 4th June 2009 declared that the Scheme for Common Service Centres (CSCs) or e-Kiosks will be suitably re-positioned to be a network of panchayat level Bharat Nirman CSCs. The President also pledged to initiate steps within the next 100 days on measures to provide e-Governance through Bharat Nirman CSCs in all Panchayats in next three years. For this purpose, an additional 150,000 CSCs will be planned to cover all Panchayats bringing the total number of CSCs up to 250,000. These CSCs will not only deliver services under Bharat Nirman, but also provide support to other flagship programmes such as NREGA, SSA, NRHM etc.

 

Given the critical role the States play in the implementation of the delivery of government services and the collaborative vision & efforts required to achieve the above objectives a Conference of ICT Ministers for Speeding-up Delivery of e-Services is being organized at Vigyan Bhavan , on 27th October, 2009. The Conference is being organised under the chairmanship of the Hon'ble Minister of Communications & IT, Govt. of India, Thiru A Raja. The participants include Hon'ble Chief Ministers & IT Ministers of States, Nodal Officers of Mission Mode Projects of Line Ministries, IT Secretaries of States, and Industry Partners.

 

The Conference will dwell on the topical issues related to Speeding-up Delivery of e-Services, Institutional Framework for e-Governance Projects, & speeding up of e-Infrastructure required for the delivery of e-Services.

 

Information Technology holds tremendous promise to extend delivery of public services to all levels of society far more efficiently and effectively electronically than through traditional channels. e-Governance can change the way people interact with the government in a definite though substantial manner. Implementation of e-Governance in India has already transformed the way public services are now being sought and delivered e.g. Railway ticketing & reservation, issuance of certificates, driving licences, land records etc.

 

However, those who use the government services most heavily, have the lowest levels of access to electronic service delivery channels at present. The vision of effective delivery of Public Services is to develop strategies and applications that will enable benefits to percolate down to the common man in India. This will further help in bringing in inclusive growth for millions of citizens who live in the rural and difficult remote areas of this country.

 

GG/AT/PB  /spandey

 

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Country declared free of bird flu

STATES TO CONTINUE VIGIL

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

 

India has declared itself free from the notifiable Avian Influenza (H5N1) and notified this to the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health). The notification to this effect has been issued on 22nd October, 2009.

 

India notified outbreaks of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Assam (18 epicentres), West Bengal (11 epicentres) and Sikkim (1 epicentre) during November, 2008 to May, 2009. The last outbreak was notified on 27th May, 2009 in Uttar Dinajpur District of West Bengal. There has been no further outbreak thereafter.

 

The control measures adopted in all the outbreaks were stamping out of entire poultry population, including destruction of eggs, feed, litters and other infected materials in a radius of 3 to 5 kms around each outbreak location, restriction on movement of poultry, poultry products to and from the area of outbreak, disinfection and cleaning up of infected premises. The final disinfection process was completed on 8th June, 2009.

 

Surveillance was carried out throughout the country as per article 2.7.12.4 of OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code (2008). Surveillance around the area of the outbreak since completion of the operation (including culling, disinfection and clean-up) and surveillance in rest of the country has shown no evidence of the presence of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1).

 

It is, however, emphasized that the surveillance against Avian Influenza will have to be continued throughout the country, especially in vulnerable areas bordering infected countries and in areas visited by migratory birds. In a communication to the States, the Centre has reiterated that States should not be led into complacency due to declaration of country freedom from notifiable Avian Influenza and must maintain their vigil against the disease.

 

MP:SB:CP:avian influenza (26.10.2009)  /spandey

 

 

 

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Reddy Inaugurates Workshop on Centres of Excellence

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

 

Establishing the Centres of Excellence for promoting various facets of urban development and management will go a long way in improving the financial management of urban local bodies, efficiency in service delivery, effective planning process, citizen interface and public participation, transparency and accountability. This was stated by Shri S.Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Urban Development while inaugurating a Workshop on Centres of Excellence on Urban Development and Urban Transport, here today. He further said that all these identified Centres of Excellence established within reputed professional institutions should emerge as resource centres in varied aspects of urban development, urban trasnsport and urban governance etc.

 

He opined that project and studies taken up by these centres will help in developing managerial, technical and analytical skills which can gainfully be deployed by the Urban Local Bodies.The Centres of Excellence should concentrate in those areas which are devoid of capacities and should be demand driven. The Minister advised that outcome of the projects should be followed by wide scale awareness programme so as to replicate the results on a larger canvas. He further said that the core expertise of Centres of Excellence needs to be well reflected in projects and studies assigned to these centres. India is a vast country with diverse physical, social, cultural and urban settings. The outcome of the projects taken up by Centres of Excellence should therefore meet the requirements of urban sector across the country, he added.

 

Shri Reddy mentioned that due to rapid population growth many urban areas are hard pressed to provide infrastructure, housing and other services. Urban Development is inseparably linked to provision of civic amenities to all the citizens living in urban areas as well as empowerment of urban local bodies to enable them to become financially sustainable democratic institutions capable of providing good quality civic services. He said that the Ministry of Urban Development has been in the forefront to usher in critical reforms in urban sector as well as creation of infrastructure through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and other initiatives like Service Level Benchmarking, National Urban Sanitation Policy, NERUDP etc. The Minister informed that amount worth Rupees 95,500 crores have already been sanctioned for various projects like Solid waste management, Water Supply, Sewerage projects and Storm water drainage under JNNURM which means 90% of the money has been spent on basic services. Referring to the Second Economic Stimulus Package, which was to provide desired Stimulus to the automobile industry, the Minister said that the Ministry sanctioned 15000 Buses - Low floor, AC, Semi - Luxury Buses for urban transport under (JNNURM). Funds for the sanction of the buses were provided as additionality over the Statewise/citywise allocation under JNNURM. Similarly, the Minister said that Metro projects for Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi were sanctioned to provide safe and quick public transport to the commuters.

 

Shri Reddy stated that Developed urban land needs to be used very judiciously and optimally. The Centres of Excellence should develop land use models for intensive use, re-use and re-cycling of urban land. He also emphasised on need to develop a comprehensive urban information system including urban land records for multipurpose application and to facilitate quick decision making. Models are also required to be developed to synchronize environmental and disaster management concerns in the urban planning and development process, he added.

 

With a view to augment capacity for addressing various challenges in the urban sector like wastewater management, water-use labeling, public private partnership, climate change adaptation, benchmarking of service delivery, municipal financial management, energy efficiency in the building sector, rationalization of user charges, urban planning, solid waste management, urban transport etc, the Ministry of Urban Development has established 13 Centres of Excellence within reputed academic institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi, Chennai and Guwahati, the India Institute of Management, Bangalore, Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), New Delhi, Centre for Environment and Development, Thiruvanthapuram, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Centre for Environment Planning and Transport, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Technology, Warangal and the Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi. The mandate of the centres is to produce cutting-edge research, carry out capacity building activities and improve the domain's technical knowledge base. The deliverables would include collation and dissemination of best practices in the area of municipal service delivery and reform, development of a dynamic integrated land-use planning model, preparation of climate change adaption plan for two cities, development of design guidelines for comprehensive decentralized waste water management systems, preparation of policy research papers etc. Setting up of Centres of Excellence is a part of the 100 Days Action Plan of the Ministry of Urban Development.

 

TFK/KS  /spandey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

*****

Mineral production during July 2009

 

New Delhi : October 26, 2009

j

The mineral production from mining and quarrying sector in July 2009 was lower by 2.13% compared to that of the preceding month. However, the mineral sector has shown a positive growth of 7.49% during the current financial year i.e. April- July 2009-10 as compared to that of the previous year. The mineral production in June 2009 was higher by 9.93% as compared to that of the corresponding month of previous year.

 

The total value of mineral production (excluding atomic & minor minerals) in the country during July 2009 was Rs. 8304 crore. The contribution of coal was the highest at Rs. 2916 crore (35%). Next in the order of importance were: iron ore Rs. 1793 crore, petroleum (crude) Rs. 1554 crore, natural gas (utilized) Rs. 1138 crore, lignite Rs. 201 crore and limestone Rs. 215 crore. These six minerals together contributed about 94% of the total value of mineral production in July 2009.

 

Production level of important minerals in July 2009 were: coal 362 lakh tonnes, lignite 24 lakh tonnes, natural gas (utilized) 3669 million cu. m., petroleum (crude) 28 lakh tonnes, bauxite 1030 thousand tonnes, chromite 249 thousand tonnes, copper conc. 6 thousand tonnes, gold 202 kg., iron ore 177 lakh tonnes, lead conc. 12 thousand tonnes, manganese ore 210 thousand tonnes, zinc conc. 109 thousand tonnes, apatite & phosphorite 161 thousand tonnes, dolomite 379 thousand tonnes, limestone 185 lakh tonnes and magnesite 23 thousand tonnes.

 

In July 2009, the output of gold increased by 22.42%, bauxite 9.68%, manganese ore 6.32%, natural gas (utilized) 5.67%, magnesite ore 3.49%, limestone 2.81% and petroleum (crude) 1.34%. The production of iron ore remains at the level of previous month. However the production of copper conc. decreased by 0.14%, zinc conc. 2.03%, lead conc. 2.81%, apatite & phosphorite 5.27%, coal 8.94%, dolomite 9.3%. chromite 11.60%, and lignite 21.1 percent.

 

NSK/AK/spandey