Schemes for Welfare of SCs/OBCs

The implementation of the welfare schemes for SCs, STs and OBCs are monitored, inter-alia, in terms of physical and financial achievements, through Utilization Certificates, Audited Accounts, Progress Reports, interaction with State Governments at various levels, etc. and appropriate corrective measures are taken from time to time.

Details of major Schemes being implemented for the educational, economic and social development of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, funds released under them to the State Governments and the number of beneficiaries during the last three years.

(Amount Rs. in lakhs)

Sl. No.	Name of the Scheme	2009-10		2010-11		2011-12
		Funds released	No. ofbenefi-ciaries	Funds released	No. ofbenefi-ciaries	Funds released	No. ofbenefi-ciaries
Scheduled Castes Development
1.	Post Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste	101596	4018192	209721	4112466	271134	4819436
2.	Pre Matric Scholarship for children of those engaged in unclean occupations	7974	704578	5848	614143	6365	686237
3.	Babu Jagjivan Ram ChhatrawasYojana	2536	1421	4391	2506	3831	2300
	Girls Hostels
	Boys Hostels	620	735	3428	3244	2760	2656
4.	Implementation of Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989	6866	*	6983	*	7204	*
5.	Pradhan Mantri Adarsh GramYojana**	400	**	9700	**	10000	**
6.	Special Central Assistance to Scheduled Castes Sub Plan	45896	3773865	58728	3632502	65640	456493
Development of Other Backward Classes
1.	Post Matric Scholarship for OBC Students	17297	1758000	35332	1800000 (Provisional)	52799	1700000 (Estimated)
2.	Pre Matric Scholarship for OBC Students	3173	1300000	4471	2300000 (Provisional)	4069	1700000 (Estimated)
3.	Hostels for OBC Boys and Girls	2051	4000	2579	4035	1607	2578

*  The Scheme intends to effectively implement various provisions of the two Acts, by providing to States/UTs, Central Assistance for strengthening the administrative, enforcement and judicial machinery, publicity, relief and rehabilitation to affected persons. As such, the physical and financial targets are not fixable under the Scheme.

**  The Scheme was launched in March, 2010 and aims at integrated development of selected 1000 villages with more than 50% SC population into “Model Villages”.  The Scheme is presently being implemented in Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri D. Napoleon in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha

Measures to Regulate Emigration of Indian Workers

        

            Emigration of Indian workers seeking employment in 17 Emigration Check Required (ECR) notified countries is regulated under the Emigration Act, 1983.  Despite the existing framework to facilitate legal migration and the efforts made by the Government to prevent irregular migration, complaints regarding fraudulent offers of overseas employment and cheating of job seekers are received by the Ministry from time to time.  Such complaints include fraudulent advertisements for jobs abroad, fake recruitments for non-existing employers or for foreign employers who never authorized the agents, thus rendering the workers without jobs; and offers of exaggerated benefits to lure job seekers.  These complaints are received against registered Recruiting Agents, unauthorized intermediaries as well as some Foreign Employers.  The details of the complaints received against unregistered agents during the last four years and the current year ending July, 2012 are given below:

Year	No. of com-plaints	Prosecution Sanction issued	Cases referred to State Government /POE for action
2008	93	56	37
2009	136	14	136
2010	166	10	166
2011	225	9	225
2012 (31stJuly)	183	10	171

The Government has taken steps to monitor and regulate the emigration of Indian workers, to reform and simplify the emigration process and to prevent illegal emigration. These, inter-alia, include the following: -

(I) Emigration Check Required (ECR) passport holders need to obtain clearance from any of the 9 POE offices located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Jaipur, Cochin, Kolkata andChandigarh before emigrating for overseas employment to any of the 17 ECR notified countries.

(II)  The Ministry has amended the Rules vide Emigration (Amendment) Rules 2009 on 9th July, 2009. The important changes are as under:

·                  The amount of security to be furnished by the Recruiting Agent (RA) in the form of Bank Guarantee has been increased to twenty lakh rupees for all, in place of the three earlier categories, on the basis of the number of workers to be recruited by the RA.

·                  The application fee for Registration Certificate has been increased from Rupees Five thousand to Twenty five thousand rupees.

·                  In order to obtain a Permit for direct recruitment of workers from India, the Foreign Employer will have to furnish a Bank Guarantee of Ten thousand rupees per worker subject to a minimum of One lakh rupees and a maximum of Twenty lakh rupees, valid for a period of one year over and above the duration of the employment contract.

·      The recruiting agents have been entrusted with specific duties and responsibilities with a view to safeguarding the interests of the emigrant workers.  They will also have to maintain certain basic facilities.

(III) A National Awareness-cum-Publicity campaign is undertaken from time to time to create wider awareness among the general public and particularly among the potential migrants on the risks of illegal migration and safeguards against illegal practices by unauthorized intermediaries and fraudulent recruiting agencies.

(IV) The Government has constituted a high level Core-Group to lead and monitor action for combating and preventing irregular migration. The Core-Group is headed by Secretary, MOIA and has representatives from the relevant central Ministries and State Governments. The Core-Group has circulated a template amongst state governments to formulate action plans against irregular migration from their states.

(V) An Overseas Workers Resource Centre (OWRC) has been established which runs a 24x7 helpline in 8 languages to provide information and guidance to emigrants.

 (VI) Migrant Resources Centres have been established in Cochin, Hyderabad and Panchkula, Haryana for information dissemination and counselling of potential migrants.

 (VII) An Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) has been established in UAE. 

(VIII) The Ministry has been holding annual consultation with the major states of origin to ensure better coordination and enforcement of various provisions of Rules and Regulations.

(IX)  Attestation of work contracts by the Indian mission concerned has been made mandatory in all cases of women workers holding ECR passports, emigrating to ECR countries.

(X)   Whenever a complaint is received against a registered Recruiting Agent about cheating or exploitation of an emigrant, action is initiated for suspension or cancellation of the registration certificate of the recruiting agent. If the recruiting agent indulges in forgery of documents he is also prosecuted through the state police. Complaints against illegal agents are referred to the state police for prosecuting them. If there is a complaint against an employer about exploitation of the worker, proceedings for blacklisting of the employer are initiated.

(XI)  The Ministry has signed bilateral labour MoUs with all the GCC countries (except Saudi Arabia) and with  Jordan and Malaysia to enhance bilateral cooperation in the management of migration. Joint Working Groups have been constituted under these MoUs that meet regularly to resolve labour issues.

               This information was given by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Shri Vayalar Ravi in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha 

Plan to Develop Places along the Rivers

 Development, Promotion and implementation of tourism projects at identified tourism spots including at the locations through which major rivers pass is primarily undertaken by the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations. However, Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance for tourism projects which are prioritized in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territories. The projects which are complete as per scheme guidelines are sanctioned subject to availability of funds and inter- se priority. .

            Implementation and completion of tourism projects is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments/UT Administration. Ministry of Tourism also monitors the implementation of projects through Regional Conferences, field inspection by the officers of the Ministry, periodical review meetings with the State/UT officers, etc.

Some indicative projects for the cities/locations through which Ganga and Yamuna pass, sanctioned during the 11th Five Year Plan are as follows:-

State	Name of the Project	Year of Sanction
Bihar	Development of Ganga Ghat at Patna	2009-10
Haryana & Himachal Pradesh	Development of Yamunanagar-Panchkula-Paonta Sahib in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as a mega Tourism circuit	2010-11
Uttar Pradesh	Construction of Ghats at the right bank of river Ganga at Karnavas in Distt. Bulandshahar as a tourist circuit	2010-11
	Construction of Bathing Ghats on right bank of Ganga river at Avantika Devi Temple in Distt. Bulandshahar	2010-11
	Construction of Bathing Ghats on right bank of Ganga river at Holy River Ganga at Anupshahar in the Distt.Bulandshahar	2010-11
Uttarakhand	Development of Haridwar-Rishikesh-Munikireti-Swargashram as a Mega Circuit	2008-09 & 2011-12
	Development of Panchprayag (Vishnu, Nand, Karan, Kalimath, Kaleshwar, Gauchar) circuit, Uttarakhand	2011-12
	Development of Nirmal Gangotri Eco-Tourism Mega Circuit at Uttarakashi in Uttarakhand	2011-12
West Bengal	Ganga Heritage River circuit under Mega Project	2008-09

This information was given by the Minister of State for Tourism, Shri Sultan Ahmed  in a written reply to Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari in Rajya Sabha today.

Development of Tourist Destinations/Circuits in A.P.

       The development, promotion and implementation of tourism infrastructure projects is primarily the responsibility of the respective State Government/Union Territory (UT) Administration. However, the Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) for tourism infrastructure development projects identified in consultation with them, subject to availability of funds, inter-se-priority and adherence to Scheme Guidelines.

     

             The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has given Central Financial Assistance for the following projects during the year 2011-12.

(Rs. in lakh)

Sl. No.	Name of the project	Amount Sanctioned
1.	Development of Tourism Infrastructure at Warangal Fort	437.37
2.	Mounting of Sound & Light Show at Warangal Fort	500.00

                         

The details of projects proposed by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh for  prioritization for Central Financial Assistance during  2012-13 are as follows:-

Sl. No.	Name of the projects
1.	Mega Projects (One of following two):
	(a)	Vishakapatnam  Beach Circuit
	(b)	Pileru
2.	Circuits:
	(a)	Araku, Jwalakhut, Machkund
	(b)	Paderu, Chintapally, Narsipatnam, Etikoppaka, Kondakarla
3.	Destinations:
	(a)	Kakinada Beach Park
	(b)	Vodarevu Beach Destination – Prakasham
	(c)	Eco Tourism in Srisailalm Sanctuary
4.	Wayside Amenities:
	(a)	Hyderabad – Nagarjunasagar Road
	(b)	Chittoor – Bangalore Road
5.	Rural Tourism Clusters– One cluster of 5 villages in one financial year
6.	Large Revenue Generating Projects:
	(a)	Sea Cruise Terminal at Vizag
	(b)	Tourist Train to Araku
	(c)	Aqua Marine park at Vishakhapatnam
7.	Others:
	(a)	Budha Vanam Project – Nagarjunasagar
	(b)	Mahaboob Nagar Circuit
	(c)	Charminar Area Development –Phase II
	(d)	East Godavari Circuit
	(e)	Hamsaladevi
	(f)	Koringa
	(g)	Machilipatnam
	(h)	Kakinada Beach Park

This information was given by the Minister of State for Tourism, Shri Sultan Ahmed  in a written reply to Smt. Gundu Sudharani in Rajya Sabha 

E-Tickets Booked Per Day During June 2012

3.44 lakh E-Tickets Booked Per Day During June 2012

A large number of e-tickets are booked every day through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. In the month of June 2012, on an average 3.44 lakh tickets were booked per day. In the month of June 2012, the numbers of completed transactions were 103.61 lakh out of a total 138.79 lakh. The reasons for incomplete transactions included non-availability of lower berths, entry of wrong password, entry of wrong Personal Identification Number (PIN) by customer, insufficient balance and network failure etc.

The working of the system is regularly monitored. The following measures have been taken to improve the functioning of the IRCTC website: 

 Capacity of the servers has been upgraded to meet the demand. 

 Agents have been restricted from booking Tatkal tickets and on the opening day of the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) between 0800 hours and 1200 hours. 

 Internet Bandwidth has been increased to 450 Mbps. 

In case of failed transactions, IRCTC does not withhold the amount and sends the advice of refund immediately upon the receipt of advice of such transactions. Payment of interest is not contemplated. 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha .

Disinvestment of Sail

The Minister of Steel, Shri Beni Prasad Verma has said that the Government has decided to disinvest 10.82% of paid up equity in the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) out of its shareholding of 85.82% through Offer for Sale of Shares through stock exchange mechanism as per SEBI Rules and Regulations. 

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha , he said, the present proposal for disinvestment is in line with policy regarding disinvestment and approach to disinvestment approved by the Government which, inter-alia, envisages further offerings by listed Central Public Sector Enterprises taking into consideration their capital investment requirements with Government simultaneously or independently offering a portion of its shareholding. 

Computerisation of Functioning of Gram Panchayats

The Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo has said that the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is implementing the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) that addresses all core aspects of Panchayats’ functioning viz. Planning, Monitoring, Implementation, Budgeting, Accounting, Social Audit, etc. Under e-Panchayat MMP, 11 Core Common Software applications were planned which collectively constitute the Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES). Four of these applications namely PRIASoft, PlanPlus, National Panchayat Portal and Local Governance Directory have been rolled out and are in public domain. These can be accessed at http://Accountingonline.gov.in, http://planningonline.gov.in, http://panchayat.gov.in and http://panchayatdirectory.gov.in respectively. Six more applications namely Area Profiler, ServicePlus, Asset Directory, ActionSoft, Social Audit and Trainings Management were launched on 24th April, 2012 on the occasion of National Panchayat Day and are in the process of adoption by the States. Since PES adoption is not complete in all Gram Panchayats, the computerization of the functioning of the Gram Panchayats is yet to be achieved. Lack of internet connectivity, power, hardware and insufficient number of trained manpower at Gram Panchayat level are contributing factors in the slow progress of computerization of Panchayats.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha , he said, for effective implementation of the Project, workshops/trainings are organised to demonstrate the applications to the State Govt. functionaries. Ministry of Panchayati Raj is also providing trained faculty to provide trainings on all applications. Consultants were provided to 25 States to initiate the rollout of the project. During 2011-12, Rs. 38.5 Crores were released to all States/UTs for setting up of Programme Management Units (PMUs) at State and District levels for adoption of PES applications. Furthermore, States are also incentivized to adopt the PES applications through the annual e-Panchayat Puraskars. 

Shri Deo said, in Jharkhand, over 300 functionaries have been imparted trainings on PRIASoft and PlanPlus. 380 Panchayat functionaries and elected members were imparted trainings in basic ICT literacy. During 2011-12, 23 Zilla Panchayat, 125 Block Panchayats and 2464 Gram Panchayats made voucher entries in PRIASoft, whereas 9 Zilla Panchayat, 67 Block Panchayats and 1559 Gram Panchayats adopted PlanPlus in Jharkhand. 

Expert Panel to study consequences of Cellphone tower radiation

Government is constituting an Expert Panel to develop terms of reference for mounting a Nation-wide campaign to study the consequences of radiation from cell phone towers on human health and ecology in a time-bound manner. The expert panel will consist of former Director General, Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR); Director, IIT-Madras at Chennai; Director, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), Lucknow and include members from Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of Health Research. 

Prime Minister has instructed Secretary, DST to look into the issue and report to Prime Minister’s Office. Department of Science and Technology held an Expert Group meeting on July 3, 2012 and reported to PMO. 

The Expert Panel has been constituted for drawing up Frame of Reference for calling for Request for Proposals. Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) has approved the proposal for calling for Request for Proposals, for undertaking scientific studies. Department proposes to bring out status reports once in two months. 

The above information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Ashwani Kumar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today. 

I&B Issues Directive to Protect Identity of Juveniles

to TV Channels for Protection of Identity of Children in Need of Care and Protection and Juveniles in Conflict with Law

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting today issued a directive to all TV Channels regarding Protection of Identity of Children in need of Care and Protection and Juveniles in Conflict with Law’. 

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was set up in March, 2007 under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, with the mandate to ensure that all laws, policies, programmes, and administrative mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Any person contravening these: provisions is also "liable to penalties, as prescribed under the provisions of Section 21 (2) of the said Act. 

On the subject matter, the Commission has recommended that necessary directives/set of protocols be issued to the entire print and electronic media to refrain from publishing the names, pictures, home address, school address and other parameters of their identity of such children who need to be reported upon by media on account of certain circumstances including difficult circumstances. As such disclosures only tend to leave their imprint and affect the social and mental health of children in their crucial stage of development. 

All News & Current Affairs TV channels are required to abide by the provisions contained in the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 and Rule 6(1)(l) thereof provides that no programme should be carried in the cable service which denigrates children. Thus by virtue of this provision the channels are already required to carry the programmes involving children with due care, maturity and sensitivity. 

Accordingly, all News and Current Affairs TV channels are hereby requested to ensure compliance of the aforesaid directives of NCPCR as also the provisions of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 while telecasting any content involving children. Any violation may entail stringent action as per the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, rules promulgated thereunder and the terms and conditions of uplinking and downlinking guidelines. 

Indian Scientists Involved in the Research for Higgs Boson

Indian scientists are also involved in the research for ‘Higgs Boson’ (popularly known as 'God Particle'). A group of 80 Indian scientists including 30 Ph.D. students from 8 institutions are currently working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment, which is one of the two experiments that have led the research on the Higgs Boson. These institutions are — Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, University of Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Mumbai, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. Earlier, Indian scientists also participated in the construction of the massive particle accelerator at Geneva [viz. the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)], detector system for the CMS Experiment and the LHC Grid Computing System using which research on Higgs Boson is being carried out. 

This research falls in the domain of Particle Physics. It is the Higgs particle which imparts mass to all fundamental particles in the Universe. With this finding, therefore, a major milestone in the human understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter and their interaction will be achieved. 

The above information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Ashwani Kumar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.