NEW DELHI, Mar 29:
Aiming to eliminate direct discharge toilets from its entire fleet of passenger coaches by 2020-21, Railways has drawn up an action plan to replace them with environment-friendly bio-toilets.
“While 17,338 existing toilets in trains have been replaced with bio-toilets till date, our aim is to equip the entire coaching fleet with bio-toilets,” said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
According to the action plan, all new coaches would be fitted with bio-toilets by 2016-17, while the retrofitting of existing coaches with bio-toilets will continue.
For the 2015-16 fiscal, Railways has set the target to fit 17,000 bio-toilets in long-distance trains as part of its ‘Swachh Rail – Swachh Bharat’ programme.
Direct discharge of human waste from the existing toilet system in trains causes corrosion of the tracks, costing the public transporter in crores to replace the rail tracks.
The new-age green toilets have been designed by Railways along with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) keeping in mind the requirements of Indian trains.
The bio-toilets are fitted underneath the lavatories and the human waste discharged into them is acted upon by a particular kind of bacteria that converts it into non-corrosive neutral water.
While the process of fitting 10,500 bio-toilets in new coaches is in progress, the target for the 2015-16 fiscal is 17,000 bio-toilets.
The Railways is also working towards improving the condition of toilet facilities at stations and in trains as it has been receiving several complaints from passengers regarding lack of cleanliness at these facilities.
The official said the aim is to make Swachh Rail the driving force behind the governments flagship programme – Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Railways, which have launched a cleanliness drive across the country, has collected a fine of Rs 4 crore in the last six months against spoiling and littering railways stations across the country. (PTI)
Railways aims to eliminate direct discharge toilets by 2020-21
FCI ESU elects office bearers
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: FCI Executive Staff Union (ESU) held general body meeting under the chairmanship of Sukhdev Singh and conducted elections to elect office bearers.
Hazi Nissar Ahmed Dar has been elected as State chairman, whileas Dharm Pal as State working chairman, Natha Ram as State secretary, Amit Gupta as State working secretary and Karam chand as State treasurer.
Kulvinder Singh has been elected as chairman, district committee Jammu, Keshav Sawhney as senior vice president and Hardeep Kumar as district secretary.
Abdul Qayoom Bhatt has been elected as chairman, district committee Srinagar, Parvez Ahmed Bhatt as senior vice president and Sartaj Ahmed Mir as district secretary.
Kamaljeet, Balbir Singh, DK Langer, Vishwinder Singh Jamwal, Mazaffar Ahmed Zargar, Sharan Singh, Sat Pal, Vinod Kumar Malakee, KK Kakpuri, Anil Verma, Baldev Singh, Amit Mehrol, Raj Kumar, Surinder Singh, Mohinder Singh, Jang Bahadur, Rakesh Gupta, Satish Kumar, Mohit Sangra, Dharm Pal and Rajiv Salean were elected as union active official bearers.
Apart from the above, the advisory committee of the office bearer was also constituted, which comprised of Bhupinder Singh (Patron), Sukhdev Singh (Advisor), Devinder Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Sita Ram, Rattan Lal Sharma, Joginder Singh, CL Verma, Madan Lal Behal, Deepak Arora, Karnail Singh, Rakesh Gupta, Tarseem Raj, Krishan Dev and Sat Pal Sharma.
JKAACL organizes Punjabi Mushiara
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages organised Punjabi Mushiara at Miran Saheb, here today.
The mushiara was organized in a felicitation function organized by J&K Punjabi Sahitik Sabha, RS Pura.
Kanwal Kashmiri presided over the function, while Dr Arvinder Singh Amn, Additional Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages was the chief guest.
Pritpal Singh Betab, S Bhagat Singh Zandik and S Parmatam Singh Inqalabi were also present in the presidium.
While speaking on the occasion, Kanwal Kashmiri congratulated all the participating poets for their best poetry recitation and for making the mushiara a success. He also applauded the efforts of J&K Punjabi Sahitik Sabha, RS Pura for felicitating the senior most poets and writers namely S Manohar Singh Chakar and S Parmatam Singh Inqalabi for their life time achievements and contribution in the field of Punjabi poetry and literature of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Arvinder singh Amn while delivering his address said that the literary NGOs working for the betterment and development of the Punjabi literature in particular should document the works and contribution of the senior writers and poets through the print media and journals publishing their literature and contributions.
Yaadan Di Mehak, a collection of Punjabi articles penned by Late S Ujjagar Singh Mehak, and edited by his son S A P Singh was also released in the inaugural session. S Devinder Singh Vishvanagrik presented review paper on the book released today.
Sh Pritpal Singh Betab and S Bhagat singh Zandiq also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Baljit Raina conducted the proceedings of the programme while S Bhupinder Singh Bhargwa, President, J&K Punjabi Sahitik Sabha, RS Pura presented welcome address.
The Poets who recited their poems included V N Dil, Bachan Bharti, Sewa Singh Sheetal, Nirmal Singh Gobindpuri, Bhupinder Bhargwa, Hardeep Kaur Deepak, Manohar Singh Chakar, Balwinder Singh, KK Shakir, Rajpal Singh Mastana, Amar Singh Kooka, Bhagat Singh Zandik, Saran Star, Suraj Singh Suraj, Devinder Singh Vishvanagrik, Suraj Prakash Rattan.
J&K Powerlifting Asso team brings laurels
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: J&K Sports Powerlifting Association team brought laurels to the State.
The team participated in North-India Powerlifting and Bench-Press Championship at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and excelled by winning a galaxy of medals.
Tajinder Singh won gold medal in Bench-Press Powerlifting Championship, while Rakesh Kumar bagged silver medal in Powerlifting and in women category, Irvinder Kour clinched bronze medal in full Powerlifting Championship.
The team was honoured by the Managing Committee of the Association including Rajan Jain, general secretary, Anil Saini, secretary, Preet Dutta, joint secretary and Faisal Paul, joint secretary.
Peepal Tree School celebrates Annual Day with pomp & show
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: Peepal Tree School, Jammu organized its Annual Day celebration “Shinning Stars“ with pomp and show here today.
The chief guest on the occasion was Dr Dipinder Kour, Medical Officer at Mishriwala.
The programme began with a tilak ceremony and the lighting of the ceremonial lamp, which was followed by Saraswati Vandana. Bhawna Baloria, Principal of the School in her opening speech introduced the chief guest and guest of honour to the audience.
The cultural programme by students this year revolved around the theme “Save Girl Child”.
The cultural bonanza with 100 percent participation of students enthralled the parents.
The pre-schoolers swayed to the tunes of nursery rhymes in ‘The Animal Kingdom’ – a journey well taken to the wild. This was followed by a play by the primary and middle school children called, “Together we can” which enforced the importance of community work.
During its course of storytelling there were also a few dance performances entailed in between like Jazz, Dance & Bhangra that left the audience spellbound at the students’ caliber and poise.
Later-on, Mrs Kour gave away prizes to various students who had excelled in academics and various competitions. For their dedicated efforts, school teachers Vandana Sharma and Jyoti Shabotra were awarded as best teachers in Pre-Primary and Primary wings respectively.
Tax shortfall: Finmin asks banks to deposit March TDS by month end
NEW DELHI, Mar 29:
Worried over the shortfall in the overall direct tax collection kitty, the government has asked banks, both public and private, to not delay remitting of TDS funds of the current month into state coffers and do the same within the current financial year ending in March.
The Income Tax department and its apex policy making body, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), are wary that the growth registered this time under the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) category is less than half as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.
According to official data updated till March first week, TDS collections stood at 7.49 per cent as against 16.69 per cent in the same period last year.
“The situation of tax collection under TDS category remains challenging even at the end of March now. There is a big slowdown in construction, manufacturing and other physical work projects in the country which is taking a toll on TDS and Tax Collection at Source (TCS) categories.
Meeting the direct taxes revenue collection target this time is looking quite challenging, perhaps it may not be met even and miss by a whisker,” a senior I-T official said.
The official said keeping in mind this situation, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Finance Ministry has asked all public sector and private banks to “ensure that tax deducted during the month of March, 2015 is remitted to the government account in March itself”.
“The CMDs, MDs of public banks and the Indian Banks’ Association have been asked for compliance in this regard by the DFS.
Also, the Revenue Secretary has written to Chief Secretaries of all states, requesting them to suitably direct the officials concerned to ensure proper tax collection at sources (TCS) on lease/license/contract for mining and quarrying and for parking lot and toll plazas,” the officer said, quoting official communications made in this regard by the Finance Ministry and the CBDT recently.
Sources said the CBDT has asked the IT department to conduct special drives against TDS defaulters and advance tax payees so that the revenue under these heads reflects in the total collection figures which will be capped on March 31.
Laying stress on special drives against TDS defaulters, the officer said, “Take for example, the action done by Principal Chief Commissioner of I-T for Karnataka and Goa where it detected TDS default in the current fiscal of Rs 117 crore by various business sectors in the two states. A total of 16 prosecution cases against willful defaulters were also launched under this drive.”
The CBDT has asked all its offices in the country to monitor and keep in touch with all the banks and other service sectors in their assessment zones for compliance of the above orders.
The budgeted target under the direct tax category is fixed at Rs 7.36 lakh crore for the current fiscal and as per the CBDT it has collected Rs 5,53,373 crore till March first week as gross collections.
In order to ensure better TDS and Advance Tax collections, the sources said, IT officials have been asked to make on-spot visits to defaulting organisations and also interact with officials and individuals responsible under the established official mechanism in this regard.
“The contribution of TDS to the overall gross direct taxes collections during 2013-14 fiscal was Rs 2,71,069 crore. This is a 17.88 per cent growth over the collections shown under this head from Rs 2,29,943 crore during 2012-13.
Thus, the TDS category contributes over 37 per cent to the gross direct taxes collections, emphasising its ever growing importance,” a vision statement of the IT department has said.
The department is also facing a big challenge to collect better more and more revenue because of the issuance of large amounts of refunds. (PTI)
Record 93,013 MCG crowd for World Cup final
Melbourne, Mar 29:
A ground record crowd of 93,013 watched the World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
That shattered the venue’s previous record attendance for a cricket match of 91,112, according to officials.
The massive final turnout had already surpassed the biggest cricket crowd at the vast stadium, set on the opening day of the 2013 Boxing Day Ashes Test against England. (PTI)
Top IPS officers knock Govt’s door on salary issues
NEW DELHI, Mar 29:
In a unique case, some top IPS officers heading important posts of border security, intelligence and investigation have moved the Government claiming “anomalies” in their salary packages, which they contend, lower their dignity and morale.
The officers have been bracketed in the second top pay scale of Rs 75,500-Rs 80,000 as compared to the highest salary of Rs 80,000 fixed pay scale, despite they being the top police officers in the country as either being Directors General (DGs) of paramilitary forces or being the senior-most in the serving ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS).
Those affected include two DGs, Border Security Force (BSF) chief D K Pathak and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) head B D Sharma, NIA DG Sharad Kumar, two Special Directors in the Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and Surender Singh and National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) DG R R Verma.
While 1978-batch Bihar cadre officer Verma is the seniormost among these officers, National Investigation Agency chief Kumar is of the 1979-batch, the two IB officers are of the 1980-batch while for Pathak (1979) and Sharma (1980), the Government rules stipulate that DGs of Central Paramilitary Forces will get Rs 80,000 fixed salaries.
Sources said while some officers have made written representations to the Union Home Ministry, some have “verbally” made their grievance known to the top security establishment including former Home Secretary Anil Goswami and his successor L C Goyal.
“The officials have made their grievances known to the Government. This has never happened earlier. Their cases are being actively processed,” a source in the Home Ministry privy to the development said.
The officials, sources quoting their representation said, have said that these anomalies in their appointment orders are completely “arbitrary in nature and in complete contravention of IPS (Pay) Rules, 2007 and amendment Rules, 2008…And this undermines the dignity” of the post that they hold.
Incidentally, both the predecessors of the BSF and SSB DGs used to get the Rs 80,000 fixed pay scale but the appointment orders for Pathak and Sharma did not mention this authorisation being accorded to them.
The sources said the Union Home Ministry has “recognised the lacuna” in issuing these orders and some of these anomalies will be corrected on a case-to-case basis and on a priority.
“The Government would not want the morale of its top officers to go down because of some technical issues. There are no financial implications involved in granting a fixed pay scale of Rs 80,000 to these officers and this is purely an issue of respect and the senior position accorded to them. A case has been made in this regard,” one of the sources said.
Some of the officers have even briefed the Home Ministry, as it is their administrative authority, that their juniors who are heading state police forces as DGPs have been granted the Rs 80,000 fixed pay scale but they have been kept out.
An order issued by the Finance Ministry in 2008, post the 6th Pay Commission recommendations, had stipulated that the DGs and chiefs of Paramilitary Forces and Central Police Organisations will get a fixed pay scale of Rs 80,000, which permits them to obtain certain official perks and allowances.
“The apex scale for the top few IPS officers of the country heading important organisations was a honour bestowed on them for securing a high rank after putting numerous years in service. These issues should be resolved at the earliest,” said a retired official who had held a senior position. (PTI)
5 militants killed in Pak’s restive Balochistan
KARACHI, Mar 29:
At least five suspected militants were killed today in a clash with Pakistani security forces in the country’s restive Balochistan province, where a search operation is underway following a recent attack on oil tankers.
Six others were also injured besides the five militants killed during a search operation in Mastung area of the province, said Khan Wasay, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps.
The forces were backed by helicopters from the interior ministry during the search operation that was launched after five oil tankers carrying fuel for a Chinese company working on the Saindak Project in Balochistan’s Chaghi district were set ablaze on Monday.
The attackers, suspected to be Baloch separatist militants, also kidnapped four drivers of the oil tankers.
“The militants who have been killed or injured were carrying out terrorist attacks in the area and recently torched five oil tankers carrying fuel for the Saindak project in the area,” Wasay said.
The project is a joint venture between the Chinese and Pakistan government.
He said the militants belonged to a banned separatist outfit.
Mastung is considered to be a sensitive district in Balochistan. Security forces have been targets of militants in the district for over a decade, with occasional attacks on railway tracks to disrupt services and cause unrest. (AGENCIES)
‘SAVE’ Awards conferred
Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 29: On the occasion of Spiritual and Value Education Day celebrations at the India International Centre, SAVE Awards were conferred upon Dr Ravi Jyee and Dr Ghanshyam of J&K.
Dr Ravi Jyee, Vice President (Vice Chancellor) Asia Program Development Research and Academic Affairs, International University-School of Medicine, USA, was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award in the area of National Management Development.
Dr Ghanshyam, Principal, Government Medical College & Hospitals, Jammu, was conferred the National Healthcare Administration Lifetime Award for his outstanding contribution in the Healthcare Delivery System.
Amongst the schools awarded in various categories were Father Agnel School, St Paul’s School, St Thomas’ School, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, D.A.V Public School, Bhatnagar Intl School, Bal Bharti Public School, and Apeejay School, Saket.
The event was organized by the Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU), Indian Institute of Ecology and Environment (IIEE) and World Agency for Value Education (WAVE) on the occasion of United Nations Spiritual and Value Education (SAVE) Day, which is commemorated every year on March 13, the world over.
The chief guest of the program was the Governor of Chhattisgarh Balramji Das Tandon while the guest of honours were Prof Piotr Klodkowski, Ambassador of Poland, Bernhard Wrabetz, Ambassador of Austria, Miloslav Stasek, Ambassador of Czech Republic, and Bulat Sarsenbayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The welcome speech was given by Chancellor Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi, the President of Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU).
On the occasion, Dr Trivedi’s book titled “Chhattisgarh: Past, Present and Future” was also released by the Governor of Chhattisgarh. Besides the book “Narendra Modi-The Man India Needs” along with “The Indian Universities Directory 2015″was presented to the Governor.