NEW DELHI, May 17:
Government has proposed to do away with the “primitive traits” criterion to accord Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to a particular community, saying it is “derogatory”. The proposed changes are part of the Government’s process of revising the entire procedure and criteria in order to ensure that only deserving communities get the status and reap the benefits given to the STs, said a senior official from the Tribal Affairs Ministry.
“We have proposed to do away with the criterion, ‘indications of primitive traits’, as the word ‘primitive’ is a derogatory term,” he said.
Also, the aim of changing the procedure is to include a few new communities with proper criteria in the ST list as the Tribal Affairs Ministry everyday receives many such requests from several states, he said. According to sources, the criterion of ‘Geographical isolation’ could be also removed keeping in mind the migration of various members of certain communities in search of livelihood.
The proposal which also suggests some procedural amendments have already been sent to the Cabinet. The Tribal Affairs Ministry had constituted a Task Force on scheduling issues (scheduling of communities as STs), which had submitted its recommendations last year and those recommendations have also been incorporated, said the official. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 17:
Noting that there is lack of coordination between local administration and the Central Water Commission (CWC), a parliamentary panel has “strongly” recommended for upgrading the present flood forecasting infrastructure.
The report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources, which was tabled in Parliament recently, said the Committee is amazed to note that though CWC faces no bottlenecks in providing forecast to the local administration as well as uploading on CWC website, still there is “lack of coordination between the local administration and CWC in the matter flood forecasting”.
“The Committee, therefore, strongly recommend the ministry to take steps so that the present flood forecasting infrastructure of CWC is upgraded effectively to disseminate the news of impending floods well in time so as to avert havoc caused by floods,” the report said.
Further, the Standing Committee also felt that timely warnings do not reach people, while adding that there has been no decline in the number of casualties occurring due to sudden onset of floods.
“The Ministry in its reply has admitted that in areas which do not experience frequent floods or where the flood generation time is very less, the flood forecasting network of CWC is not considered and therefore, no warnings are formulated by CWC in event of unprecedented floods in such areas,” the report stated.
The Committee observed that the present flood forecasting infrastructure needs to be modernised and broadened to the entire country such that tangible improvements are visible even in non-flood prone states.
This apart, the report said that around 219 stations of existing flood forecast networks are yet to be modernised by the Government. The Committee recommended that all stations should be modernised with telemetry system. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 17:
Over 11,000 women will soon be recruited in central security forces for combat duties like border guarding and law and order assignments.
The Government has taken this decision to enhance representation of women in these forces.
It has already set in motion its plan to hire 8,533 women constables in paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF, CISF and ITBP after it recently announced one of its biggest recruitment drives to hire over 62,000 young men and women as constables this year.
Also, sanctions have been granted by the Union Home Ministry for raising 21 new companies or a total of 2,772 women personnel in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) which guards open Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan by 2017.
“The recruitments are being done to take the representation of women in central forces to at least 5 per cent of the total strength in the coming days. At present, women constitute about 2.15 per cent of the total strength of these forces,” a senior officer said.
Under the mega drive to hire a young workforce for these forces, a special sanction has also been accorded to the CRPF to raise two exclusive ‘Mahila’ (women) battalions within its establishment to bolster the strength of the existing three such units.
The Home Ministry, the officer said, has made its policy clear that women personnel should be at least 5 per cent of the total strength of these forces and this could only be done after conducting fresh hirings.
While in border guarding forces like BSF, ITBP and SSB, the women personnel are being actively deployed to undertake patrols at frontier locations, they are also deputed to guard the crossing gates at international borders like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal as forces they are deployed to interrogate and escort female apprehendees.
“The CRPF has tasked its women units with rendering extensive law and order duties apart from their recent and small-scale induction in anti-Naxal operations theatre in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. They are also being increasingly deployed for static guard duties and escorting pilgrims of Mansarovar and Amarnathji yatras,” the officer said.
At present the maximum women personnel are in CISF at 4.89 per cent of the total strength (6,203), CRPF 2.13 per cent (6,120), ITBP 1.75 per cent (1,570), SSB 1.50 per cent (1,186) and BSF (3,534) 1.42 per cent.
The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will hold a three- tier examination for these posts with the stages being physical tests, written efficiency and medical tests.
Candidates, who have passed Class X and are between 18-23 years of age are eligible to apply for these posts.
The expected salary for those hired would be around Rs 20,200 apart from other salary benefits that the Government extends to the Central Armed Police Forces. (PTI)