Africa our natural partner: Kalam
Calling Tanzania and South Africa India's natural partners, President APJ Abdul Kalam said "networking Africa' could be a win-win situation for both the continents. "With focus Africa, India sincerely believes, we have to go all out and strengthen relationships as Africa is our natural partner', the President said, after a …
Curb on use of water
The Delhi Jal Board has banned the use of its domestic water supply for washing cars and driveways and gardening with pipes. Using drinking water for construction activities has also been disallowed. DJB chief P K Tripathi has asked builders to buy water or use groundwater where drilling is not …
Help women PU chiefs play bigger role, NGOs told
Non-governmental activists need to play a bigger part in making elected panchayat heads, especially women, conscious of their rights and role in administration to improve monitoring of schemes and ensure transparency. They can also promote participation of more women in the gram sabha meetings and make them raise questions about …
Awards for implementing schemes, says Chautala
Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala announced Rs 5 lakh award for a panchayat with outstanding performance and Rs 10 lakh would be awarded to the district for its outstanding performance in implementation of various schemes. The Chief Minister was addressing a sammelan of panches, sarpanches and members of Gram …
NABARD sanctions Rs 63.25 cr for State govt projects
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned an amount of Rs 63.25 crore to the State government for construction of 12 minor irrigation projects of Water Resource Department (WRD) and one road project of Public Works Department (PWD) along with 33 KV rural power transmission system improvement …
South Asias four play
The road to Indo-Pakistani cooperation flows through four key areas of the economy. For a start, New Delhi can trade its IT expertise for Islamabad's energy. There are four areas in particular in which regional economic cooperation holds considerable promise. They are information technology, energy, water, and research and development. …
Special package for Bihar soon: PM
A special package of developmental schemes for Bihar will be announced soon, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said in Lok Sabha today. "When Bihar was reorganised, it was decided that special attention will be paid to the State. That decision is now being implemented," he said.
Transporters obtain 3-month extension for engine conversion
In what appears to be a short reprieve for Mumbai's transporters, the Bombay high court granted a three-month extension to the phase-out deadline of December 31, 2002. About 20000 diesel-run transport vehicles, which include trucks, buses and vans older than 15 years, now have time till March 31, 2003, to …
Biodiversity draft
An excellent draft report of the National biodiversity strategy & action plan (NBSAP) makes a number of radical suggestion,s such as declaring "no-go" areas that are ecologically sensitive, phasing out of "perverse incentives", such as subsidies for fertilisers and pesticides and packages that encourage monocultures.
Caste and class play crucial role in Haryana PRIs
Village development planning process is missing in the Gram Sabha meetings of Haryana.The rural development planning in fact, never assumes significance in the agenda and the participation of people, especially women and marginalised sections, is amiss in such forums.Most of the 6000 Gram Panchayats in Haryana have poor fiscal base. …
Remove these trade barriers
A slowdown in the global recovery is focusing the attention of economic policymakers on short term measures to ensure a strong and sustained recovery. Such efforts are important, but they should not distract the international community from the pressing need to remove barriers to trade and investment that hurt poor …
Inter-state disparity may stay despite 8% growth
While projected decline in overall poverty is 19.2% by 2006-07, from around 36% in 1993-94, the document admits that most poor would continue to be concentrated in the States of Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and the Northeast.
Rs 22.77 crore for Lahaul development
Dr. Ram Lal Markanday, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry and Public Works said Rs 22.77 crore was being spent in Lahaul division on various developmental activities under a tribal sub plan during the current financial year.
Over 27% of rural people under BPL
As per the Planning Commission estimates, 27.09% of the rural people were below the poverty line of Rs 327.56 per capita per month during 1999-2000, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Annasaheb M K Patil, informed the Rajya Sabha.
Cauvery: stalemate persists over distress-sharing formula
Consensus eluded the Cauvery technical committee meeting held in New Delhi today for arriving at an acceptable distress-sharing formula among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry.The meeting, headed by R.K. Sharma, Commissioner (Projects0 in the Union Water Resources Ministry, was convened to narrow down the difference and to recommed a …
World Bank riders for funds to states
The World Bank said while the medium term fiscal reforms package drawn up by the Centre would be the basic framework for providing financial assistance to deserving states, the bank would also look into issues relating to governance and policy measures adopted by the states to improve the investment climate.
Panel to give more powers to panchayats
The Himachal Pradesh Government has given adequate funds and powers to the Panchayati Raj institutions in the state over the past four years and already 23 out of the total 29 subjects mentioned in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution have been given to these institutions.
President's nod for Library Bill
The President, A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, has given his assent to the Imperial Library (Indentures Validation) Bill 2002, which comes into force with immediate effect. With this, the Bill as passed during the ongoing winter session of Parliament has been notified in the Gazette of India. The Imperial Library (Indentures …
States fail to get debt relief
The National Development Council will meet in New Delhi on December 21 to finalise the Tenth Five Year Plan amid sharp differences between States and the Centre over the issue of debt waiver sought by the former to augment their flagging resource position. The Finance Ministry is understood to be …
