The Arunachal Times - Archives

Capital MLA writes to CM for funds, warns of public anger

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Citizens can look forward to some improvement in basic infrastructure including pathetic roads conditions in Capital Region, provided the government agrees to the demand of the local MLA.

Techi Kaso, who has been rather silent despite churning out “My Vision For Capital” Vol 1 earlier this year outlining his vision for the proper and planned growth of the capital, shot off a letter to Chief Minister demanding his personal intervention and attention for adequate allocation of funds in the Annual Operating Plan for the current financial year 2010-11 for the proper development of the state capital in a most planned manner.

It is off-putting to perceive that no fund has been allocated in the draft Annual Operating Plan for the financial year 2010-2011, as approved by the State Planning Board in its meeting held recently, said the MLA.

As per the approved draft Annual Operating Plan for year 2010-11, it is seen that all the ministers have taken the lion share of funds for their respective constituencies and nothing are left for the infrastructural developmental activities of the state on important sectors like, roads, health and education, he said.

“I have done my duty as the elected representative of the state capital Assembly Constituency by bringing out a vision document and will continue to do so. It is purely up to your political lordship to have a look on it and start action from the scratch to develop state capital, Itanagar-which is the property of the people of the state”, the MLA wrote in his three paged letter to the CM.

Inadequate water supply, improper drainages system, dilapidated sector road conditions, NH-52 A, lack of maintenance of government quarters and solution to growing traffic problems found mention in the letters.

He further said that despite high revenue generated by the Capital region, not enough has been allocated to the capital.

He further said that today, “there is a public opinion being generated against the state government for not giving proper attention for development of the twin capital city. I anticipate public anger may grow in near future if the people first government being headed by you do not pay adequate attention to mitigate the growing problems of the state capital”.

He went on to add that “the people's anger would be justified because, districts roads are better than the NH52-A passing through the state capital, water supply, electric supply, traffic problems are far better in districts than state capital.

He further called for creation of capital development agency/authority consisting of experts and to make it functional with 10% per cent of funds allocation of all departments be placed with the agency/authority for proper and planned development.

He requested that at least 10% per cent of the total revenue generated from direct and in direct taxes from state capital be kept aside for the capital region.

Buddha statue shifted

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The statue of Buddha which was placed very close to Bum La Pass has been shifted approximately 300 meters towards Indian side of Line of Actual Control near an Army Post, where it is under constant observation after it was desecrated.

Responding to a question by MP Takam Sanjay, whether a Buddha statue installed at Bum La, Tawang in October 2007 was desecrated by the Chinese Forces, the Minister of state for Defense informed the Lok Sabha that on 30th October, 2007, a portion of the nose and two fingers of the statue were found slightly damaged. He said that, the statue has since been repaired and the cause of the damage could not be ascertained.

Govt has to act: NCP

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), while condemning the death of Jumchi Nguso at Naharlagun and Miti Mepo at Roing, said few police personnel are in the make-believe world of impunity as the Home department has failed to instill in them the sense of responsibility and duty towards the civil population. We believe that for long our security forces and police have been over-protected, which has encouraged a few gullible personnel to think themselves as above law. This has to be stopped and the government has to act, said its spokesperson MLA Bamang Felix.

NCP demanded that exemplary punishment be meted to the personnel and officials involved in both the tragic deaths so that similar misadventure is not repeated by others in the department. Government must realize that two innocent deaths are enough and henceforth, not a single civilian should be subjected to police brutality. A message should be sent across in clear terms within the police force that they wouldn’t be spared if they misuse the power of the uniform. It should be made crystal clear that law is same for all, the party said.

“It pains us to witness unprecedented scenes of mob fury in recent times triggered by highhandedness and unbecoming behavior of few police personnel, when they are supposed to be the caretakers of law and appointed to protect the civil society”, the party added.

However, it appreciated the prompt action taken by the government to compensate the irreparable loss of the two bereaved families. However, only compensation without punishing the guilty personnel would be meaningless, it added. Meanwhile, the party appealed the people of Dibang Valley and Lower Dibang Valley to maintain peace and avoid resorting to violence that would only create more bloodshed and destruction of public property. NCP respects the courage and anguish of the people as they were pushed to the wall and hence, had to react. The administration, while dealing with the agitated people, should observe restrain and be sympathetic to bring in normalcy, it added.

Meanwhile, All Lower Subansiri Students Union (ALSSU) has condemned the inhuman killing of Miti Mepo at Roing by IRBn jawans. Union has sought exemplary punishment for the offenders and wondered where the state is heading with so called protectors of society becoming killer. ALSSU also appealed to the authority to look into August 2nd incident in which one Arunachalee resident Talla Joram was mercilessly beaten up Assam police at Laluk for no fault of his.

Bad weather prevent Mra from conquering Mt Denali

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Bad weather prevented Everester Tapi Mra and his team from scaling Mount Denali as he and his co-climbers returned halfway due to bad weather.

The team named ‘Glacier Ninjas’ had members from Belgium, USA, Sweden, India, Norway and four guides from Alaska Mountaineering School. They started their expedition on July 7.

Mra, who returned here from USA yesterday, said that the summit point 20,320 ft. was not so far from the camp-III (14,200 ft.) where they were held for 10 days due to bad weather. "It could take only one or two days, but weather did not allow us to progress further," Taro Chatung, Chairman, Taro Opey Foundation, said in a release.

Tapi said that Mt. Denali was much more easier to climb than Island Peak (6,150 meters) of Khumbu valley in Nepal. There was no steep wall except a point at the height of around 14,600 ft. and thereafter, nothing such steep portion was found in Mt. Denali route. Therefore, any climber can reach up to the Summit point walking along the glacier valley and through ridges at high place until the Summit point. But the main factor was unpredictable weather, the release quoted Mra as saying.

Tapi will resume this expedition next season, the release informed.

Villagers demand legal agreement

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The 52 effected families of Silli Village, East Siang District conducted a meeting at Silli recently and as per the unanimous decision of the meeting, the villagers led by ASM Ageng Tayeng submitted a memorandum to state Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu regarding Lower Siang Hydro Electricity Project today.

The villagers claimed that the entire Silli village along with agriculture and Horticulture fields, flora and fauna of the area will be submerged with the construction of the dam.

Therefore, a legal agreement should be in place involving JayPee Arunachal Power Limited and the villager with state government as its guarantor for protection of the people of the effected village before commencement of the project.

The villagers demanded special package of Rs one crore fifty lakhs to each family of the village before completion of the ongoing survey and Rs 15 lacks for one acre of WRC field as compensation which should be paid to the villager at least one year prior so that the villager could develop new WRD field. It further demanded that resettlement of Silli Village should be made at least one year ahead before uprooting the village with facilities like model village, children’s play ground, sports and other recreational, medical and shopping.

It also demanded 100 percent job and contract works to the villagers of Silli village, free electricity for at least 50 years and Equity share of three percent.

Efforts for impartial selection of CIC, IC

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Twenty Two information commissioners are retiring in the next few months. Appointments to these posts have been dogged in controversy since the enactment of RTI Act. People close to political party in power have been appointed to protect the interests of ruling party rather than provide justice to ordinary citizens. Recently, retiring Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister was appointed as Chief Information Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh while a sitting Secretary of ruling Left party was appointed as an information commissioner in Kerala.

All these have serious implications on RTI implementation.

A meeting of RTI activists from across the country met yesterday to discuss what should be the process of these appointments. Officials from seven state governments also participated.

It was decided the process for filling up a post should start a few months before the post falls vacant.

Applications for the posts of Information Commissioners should be invited through an open advertisement in newspapers. People can apply themselves or they can nominate others, with the nominee’s consent.

RTI Act requires that the candidates should be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance. The application form shall also contain a detailed questionnaire seeking as much information as possible about their past activities and their views on certain issues.

The names of all candidates, along with their application forms, should be put up by DOPT on a website for a month inviting public feedback both positive and negative on these names. In case of nominations, the names of people who nominated the person will also be made public.

The suitability of each candidate appearing in the first shortlist will be discussed by the SC on the basis of material provided by applicants and also the feedback received from public. The Screening Committee (SC) will also be free to get its own enquiries done.

SC may decide to request each candidate to make a presentation before the committee on the issues affecting RTI in the country and how would he/she address those issues.

Meetings of Screening Committee should be open for public and media, who can only attend it but not intervene at any stage. The meetings shall also be video recorded.

This shortlist shall be presented to the Selection Committee consisting of the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and a Cabinet Minister. They shall select finally from this list.

It was felt that the above suggestions can be implemented by the government through simple rules. It would not require any amendments to the law. Though, there was a disagreement on this from some state officials.

The officials present at the meeting made it clear that they cannot commit anything on the spot whether they agree or not with these suggestions. They will take these suggestions back to their respective governments and try to initiate discussions on them.

Aruna Roy said that she would try to initiate discussions in NAC on this issue and encouraged activists to request their respective state governments to implement this process.

In the light of a series of murders of RTI Activists, Roy underscored the need for an effective Whistleblowers’ Act.

Arvind Kejriwal pointed out that there was no agency independent of the political executive which could be entrusted with the responsibility of providing protection to whistle blowers. The CVC had failed to provide protection to whistle blowers in the past because of lack of resources and power. Therefore, there was a need for strong and effective Lokpal at the center and Loyayukta in the state which were completely independent of political executive. They should be entrusted with providing protection to whistleblowers. Else, whistle blowers protection would remain only on papers.

Wangcha Rajkumar Govt College at Charju

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The College Development Committee and Land Donors appealed all not to be confused about permanent site of Wangcha Rajkumar Govt College as Charju (Khela) is the permanent site duly approved by the State Government. However, the college will continue to function from Deomali till all infrastructural facilities are created at its permanent site Charju (Khela), a press statement issued by the CDC and land donors said.

The college has been shifted from Charju to Deomali after three years of its establishment without the knowledge of elected leaders of Tirap as well as land donors and general public of the district for the reasons best known to those people who were involved in shifting of the college, the press statement mentioned.

The college has been deprived of funding during the last 12 years on the pretext of non-availability of its permanent site which is contradictory to the Govt Gazette notification declaring Charju as its permanent site. Adding insult to the injury, a girl hostel was constructed at Deomali instead of Charju out of the fund sanctioned last year which goes against the interest of government policy, the press statement claimed. They, however, appreciated contributions of legislators of the district in college development in the last five years and informed that Rs.50 lakh was sanctioned for construction of college infrastructure by DoTC in 2006 which is now completed.

It is pertaining to mention here that the villagers of Khela, Bunting and Lamsa donated 200 acres of land free of cost to the government for establishment of the college. As such, the PWD Khonsa division brought out blue print as per the UGC norms and huge amount of funds had already been spent for jungle clearance, construction of college approach road and administrative block upto its plinth level.

Shift naka from model Village

Dear Editor,

I being a senior citizen of Model village, Naharlagun, has been observing the Naka activities in the checking point being set up at the middle of our village along the NH 52A for last one year.

As per my observation, the Naka at same point for last one year is meaningless, for, naka in a particular place for long days may make the miscreants desperate to find their own modus operandi to deceive the security personnel. Therefore, Naka should be fixed at different locations for proper management of security system.

Furthermore, some Naka security personnel are often found in drunken condition during night, they sometimes mistreat our villagers. Of course few of them are very good.

More often than not, the villagers and all school going children are witnessing the shameful activities of the security personnel. No one can rule out any big problem that may occur between the security and the villagers in near future.

Therefore, I request the authorities concern to shift the Naka from model village to somewhere for smooth functioning of the security system and to avoid any unwanted situation in near future.

Yours,

K That

Model Village,

Naharlagun

Come together for justice

Dear Editor,

When the people of the state are expecting no other incident that happened with Late Nguso, a shocking incident of brutal torture by IRBN resulting in death of one Miti Mepo came to light. I don't understand what is going wrong with personnel.

Observing the prevailing law and order scenario, a writer in Readers Forum A Doka correctly said IRBn personnel should be declared as terrorists of the state Govt.

Everybody is equal in the eye of law but when law keepers become the law breaker then who will take the responsibility for a peaceful society? It is seen that instead of rewarding exemplary punishment to erring personnel, they are being transferred.

Democratic system of government does not permit any machinery to beat the human being like beast. I appeal student bodies; other NGOs and general public to come together under one umbrella and fight against the atrocities for justice.

Yours,

Tania Tariam,

Itanagar

Postal dept should mend their ways

Dear Editor,

"Post office that never delivers", "A boy deprived of chance of life time because of postal delays" and "Irregular postal service in Lohit and Anjaw" in Reader’s Forum reminded me of an incident that happened with me.

There have been not many changes in the last many years.

16 years back when I was a class X student in the Govt Sec. School Bhalukpong, I got the NERIST entrance examination admit card on the same day of entrance examination test and I could not make it on time.

In this land locked state where the common citizen depends on the postal service, it is important that those who are entrusted with the duty do it religiously not only because they are paid for, but also because the task they are handling is a very delicate as there is a common saying that communication gap create all the uninvited problem. Hence, it would be better on the part of the postal department to rectify their ill service before people lose faith in the oldest mode of communication

Yours,

Concern citizen,

(on email)

Thank You

Dear Editor,

Till recent past the Dikrong River became a river of sorrow for the people of Doimukh town, particularly Huto village. The people of Huto village spent sleepless night as the flood water of the Dikrong inundated the village and destroyed hard-earned properties during monsoon. Now with the implementation of flood protection scheme on the bank of Dikrong River the entire Doimukh Township including Huto village is saved.

Credit goes to MLA cum parliamentary secretary, Industries Nabam Rebia for his initiatives to protect Huto village including Doimukh town.

Yours,

Nabam Saper

Huto village

A joint dialogue for peace

Dear Editor,

Apropos the editorial "Kashmir call"( 5 August), the problems engulfing Kashmir can be solved amicably if the Governments of India, Pakistan, China, given its stake at Aksai Chin; regional Government of Jammu&Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir jointly initiate a dialogue. However, to achieve any positive result, all concerned parties needs to shed their respective egos and bear the best interests of Kashmir and the society in heart, which is very unlikely as vested interests of many overwhelm the traits of humanity and the sincere urge to attain world peace.

Yours,

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata, (on email)

It’s time to renovate Capital roads

Dear Editor,

It is a matter of shame on the part of the state Govt that the NH 52 A is going bad to worse day by day. The road damage caused by last year torrential rain is yet to be renovated to make the road worthy of vehicular movement due to reason best known to authority. The condition of the Capital road is worse than that of the roads in district headquarters. It is not the VIPs but the commoners travelling by auto rickshaw; two-wheelers and other mode of transportation who are bearing the brunt of bad road condition.

I request the chief minister and PWD minister to intervene for renovation of capital roads for the general people at the earliest.

Yours,

Manoj Singh

E Sector, Itanagar

Entrance for B.Ed course

Dear Editor,

Rajiv Gandhi University should introduce Entrance Test for the B. Ed course as practiced in other Universities from upcoming academy session instead of existing basis Selection.

It is my view that it will immensely benefit aspirant candidates and there will be more competition. I hope authorities will think over it and will implement it from coming year.

Yours,

Koj Kapa(on email)

********************************

All email and surface mails must be accompanied with contact numbers and full postal address. Do keep writing but please make sure that letters are short and to the point.

----Editor

Re-Training Programme for Group ‘D’ employees

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: On the direction of the Government, Administrative Training Institute, has successfully conducted seven Batches of “Re-Training Programme for Group ‘D’ employees of AP Civil Secretariat” of three days duration each from June 16-Aug 4.

234 Group ‘D’ employees were trained & this training programme is imparted for those Group ‘D’ employees who do not posses minimum qualification of class-X pass as prescribed for entry into Group ’C’ pay band. After attending the Re-training Programme, these Group ’D’ employees has become eligible for up gradation of their pay scale from the existing Group ‘D’ Pay Band- IS of Rs.4440+Rs.7,440 + Grade pay of Rs.1300/- pm only to Group ‘C’ pay band –I of Rs.5200/ + 20,200/- + Grade pay of Rs.1800/- per month as per the 6th Central Pay Commission’s Recommendation.

The Training Programme was inaugurated by Special Secretary Swati Sharma on June 16.

It is worth mentioning here that during the valediction function of each concluding training batches, most of the Group ‘D’ staff expressed their profound happiness for getting an opportunity to learn & understand many important things pertaining to their duties.

Most of the participants had put in more than fifteen years of service & large numbers of them were on the verge of retirement.

Director (TRG) Pema Tshetan while addressing the participants, exhorted all the Grade-IV employees said that they should inculcate good work culture & discharge their duties with sincerity & dedication.

Director (TRG) further added that ATI will be soon taking-up the next phase of similar training for Group ‘D’ employees of the other departments.

Bring back the lost glory: DC tells students

SEPPA, Aug 5: One of the oldest Educational Institution in the district, Govt. Hr. Sec. School, Seppa which has produced top and high ranking Officers & public leaders has lost its earlier reputation, said DC, Seppa, Tope Bam today while attending the Morning assembly accompanied by DDSE, DIPRO and officials of Education department. He said that to restore the reputation of the school practice of un-fair means in exams has to go and there has to be smooth teacher – student relationship and congenial atmosphere with parents, teaching staffs, students and the general public. He also advised the students to abstain from unlawful activities rather work hard to compete with other in this age of competition.

Later DC interacted with the teaching staffs and appealed them to discharge their duties with outmost dedication and sincerity in spite of problems like accommodation and other logistics.

Meanwhile, Principal Hortum Loyi gave a brief note on some of the major issues pertaining to school developmental activities for which DC assured to take up the matter with the Govt. level. (DIPRO)

Association opposes move

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: All Kurung Kumey District FPS Welfare Association (AKKFPSWA) opposed any move from the authority for diversion of BPL/AAY food-grain quotas of Land Route Locations to Head Load Locations of the district. The present BPL/AAY quotas allocated to Kurung Kumey district by the State Government is exclusively for Land Route Locations only and is in accordance with the overall number of beneficiaries, AKKFPSWA, which met recently to discuss various issues pertaining to Fair Price Shops of the district, observed.

The meeting further viewed that presently there are 18 CPO centres in the state and so far the State Government has not made any provisions to provide BPL/AAY food-grains in those CPOs or Head Load Areas. The FPSs license were granted to those areas when the PDS Head-Load Carriage system was in operational, and presently the PDS Head-Load Carriage system is not operational in Kurung Kumey District, even if the Head-Load Carriage system is introduced the items to be included is exclusively APL food-grain only and the testimony to this effect is reflected in the State Govt’s district wise allocation of the previous periods when the Head-Load Carriage system was in operational in Kurung Kumey.

The BPL/AAY rice meant for Land Route Locations of the district were diverted in 2007 without approval or directives from the competent authority by the then DF& CSO. The system continued till February 2010. However, the diverted quotas of food-grain never reached FPSs rather used to be sold out in the open markets of unauthorized locations by FPSs of Head-Load Areas at high prices resulting in artificial shortage of food-grain in the district. The system was streamlined by the present DF & CSO (i/c) in March 2010 after a complaint lodged by AKKDFPSWA president by restoring the diverted quota to original locations and the initiative has yielded results. Presently there is no shortage of food-grain in the district wherever PDS is being implemented, the meeting opined.

The meeting also viewed that in case there is separate additional quota from the Govt side for Head-Load Locations, the association will not oppose. But it would not allow to sell food-grain meant for Head-Load Areas in Land Route jurisdictions which is likely to affect the interest of the genuine Land Route Location FPSs, the meeting observed.

Meanwhile, the meeting decided to oppose the 11-member committee constituted by the Food and Civil Supplies Minister for resolving the vexed PDS issue of the district claiming that out of 11 members six of them are exclusively complainants who also happens to be the ZPM cum FPS holders of Head-Load Areas only. At the same time the factual reports regarding the complaints lodged by these members recently has been submitted by the Kurung Kumey DC to the state government and the final outcome is still awaited. In such circumstances, what is the need of constituting a committee for the same purpose?, they questioned.

IDEA prog on local resource management

Tanihapa, Aug 5: Itanagar Diocesan Empowerment Association (IDEA) conducted a one day training programme on Local Resource Management and Livelihood Development for all the SHGs of Pichola and Tanihapa under Balijan Block at Tanihapa in collaboration with NABARD.

The training was organized to facilitate community based local resource management and promote local NRM initiatives for ensuring livelihood security and sustainable development in Tanihapa.

Major thrust areas were sustainable agriculture, off season vegetable and seed production, organic farming, non-perishable cultivation, horticulture, green cover management, protection from wild animals, animal husbandry, water management and harvesting, herbs, etc.

Sr. Merin Toms, the Dy. Director of IDEA, following participatory approaches, avowed that tribal communities have adequate capacity to plan for their own development being better resource managers than the external agencies to address myriad of problems and challenges they face.

After imparting know-how of the major thrust areas Sanjiv Tirkey, the Project Coordinator of IDEA drew the participants to assess personal and societal levels of consumption with a concern for the environment and for social justice.

Anya, the IDEA Area Animator demonstrated multiple land based strategies to maximise the resources.

The training concluded by identifying landscape based strategies for ecologically sustainable local alternatives and conservation friendly utilization practices.

NEC to fund paramedical education in the PPP mode

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The North Eastern Council will establish a Para Medical Institution for Paramedical Education in the PPP mode in Nagaland. This was decided in a review meeting of NEC chaired by Minister of Mines & DoNER Bijoy Krishna Handique, in New Delhi recently. The institution will be established in the Regional Referral Hospital Campus in Nagaland where adequate land is available.

The Regional referral Hospital was funded by Ministry of DoNER through it Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) Fund. The MOU between NEC and the Government of Nagaland will be formally signed on Sept 15 this year.

In the review meeting, Handique emphasized on the issue of a study on the Health Infrastructure Gaps in the North Eastern Region was also discussed. NEC has approached Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation Limited under the Ministry of Health & Family welfare, Government of India to do a gap analysis of three aspects including Manpower, Referral Services and Health Infrastructure in the North Eastern Region. The study will not cover the primary health sector but restrict itself to secondary and referral services. It was also decided in the meeting that NEC will conduct the study on the operationalisation of assets in the Health Sector in the two states of Nagaland and Tripura.

The up gradation of the nursing college in Regional College of Nursing, Imphal was also discussed. It was also decided in the meeting that the North Eastern Council is going to sponsor students of the Down town Hospital which has started its health education facilities recently.

Handique further reviewed the status of the studies / Action Plans in various sectors of Vision 2020 for the North Eastern Region. The action plans for the Inland Waterways and Telecommunications sectors are ready for implementation. The Action Plans for other sectors like Railways, Tourism, Civil Aviation, Border Trade and Power Transmission are also in the Pipeline. The North Eastern Council has commissioned a Master Plan on Circuit Based Tourism in NER by Tata Consultancy Services. This study is supported by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. NEC is also funding a study commissioned by the Director General of Civil Aviation for a comprehensive study and road map for Civil Aviation in NER. A study on the Border Trade by Research and Information System for Developing Countries has also been commissioned by NEC. In the power sector, NEC and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited have jointly funded the preparation of DPRs for strengthening of transmission, sub transmission and distribution systems in NER.

Handique hoped that the measures being taken would hasten the process of implementation of the action plans under Vision 2020. He urged for a better coordination between the Ministry of DoNER, North Eastern Council and the related line Ministries and agencies.

In service training of teachers

ITANAGAR, Aug, 5: The in-service training of the teachers of Sagalee & Mengio block on the Quality Aspect and Financial Management organized by SSA District Mission, Yupia began yesterday at the community hall and was attended by 127 teachers.

Speaking as Chief Guest on the occasion during the inaugural function, Obang Dai, ADC Sagalee called teachers to be sincere dedicated toward their duties in order to achieve the quality outcome in all round development of the children. Education without quality has no essence, he added. He thanked DDSE Papum Pare for organizing the training at block and circle level for the teachers of remote area.

Dy. Director of School Education, Papum Pare, T.T. Tara while directing the teachers to be punctual, responsive and dutiful he advised the teachers to get ready in accepting the challenges and do their best. He further said that right to education requires records of performances and others of every child of the school failing which teachers should be imposed financial punishment as per the norms said he in his key note address.

District Coordinator RMSA Gollo Tatang gave details of the incentives being offered to the ST girl student at Secondary level in the scheme of universalization of secondary education. He requested the Principals & Head Masters of Sec. Schools to submit the real data in due time.

Human Resource in Public Health Sector

Issues and Concern in Arunachal Pradesh

GR Biswakarma

Even though Government initiatives in public health have recorded some noteworthy success over the time, the Indian health system is ranked 118 among 191 WHO member countries on overall health performance. Health is a priority goal in its own right, as well as central input into economic development and poverty reduction. In adopting the Millennium Declaration in the year 2000, the international community pledged to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty and health issues.” India is committed to achieve the reduction in maternal and infant mortality rates. So, to operationalization of all health institutes for providing 24 hours x 7 days obstetric (maternal) and child health services including the management of common obstetric complications, emergency care of sick children and referrals round the clock.

So, to provide the services to the citizens, in public health sector, Human resources are the most important input to health system and play a critical role in delivering health services to the population. It is one of the three principle health system inputs, with the other two major inputs being physical capital and consumables. Many of the issues facing India’s health sector today can be traced to distortions in the area of human resources in health, in which our state is also not untouched.

Human Resources in Health in India

and our state… the demand and supply

A large training infrastructure is available at national and state levels in both public and private sectors. There are 229 medical colleges (annual intake of 25, 600), several nursing colleges (747 general nursing and midwifery schools, 235 auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) training schools, 254 nursing colleges conducting graduation courses and 40 colleges conducting postgraduate (PG) courses) and 56 multipurpose worker (MPW) training centres functioning in the country. At present, there are 358 approved institutions imparting diploma in pharmacy to 21 200 students per annum and 212 approved institutions imparting degree in pharmacy to 11 670 students per annum. The AYUSH system has about 437 colleges with annual admission capacity of nearly 87130. (Annual Report (2004-2005).

As on March, 2008 the overall shortfall within India, in the posts of HW(F) / ANM was 12.4% of the total requirement, HW(M), a shortfall of 56.8%, Health Assistant (Female)/LHV was 29.1% and Health Assistant (Male) was 39.1%. For Doctors at PHCs, 15.1% of the total requirement. At the Sub Centre level 6% of the Sub Centres were without a Female Health Worker / ANM, 41% Sub Centres were without a Male Health Worker and 5% Sub Centres were without both Female Health Worker / ANM and Male Health Worker. 12.4% of the PHCs were without a doctor, about 37.8% were without a Lab technician and 16.3% were without a Pharmacist. Out of the sanctioned posts, 55.3% of Surgeons, 48.2% of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, 54.5% of Physicians and about 47.2% of Paediatricians were vacant. (MoHFW, Bulletin Rural Health Statistics, 2008).However, The human resource for health showed significant growth in the numbers of staff overall, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. The number of allopathic doctors possessing recognized medical qualifications (under IMC act) and registered with state medical councils for the years 2006 and 2007 were 682646 and 696747, respectively. Number of Dental Surgeon Registered with Dental Council of India in 2005 was 78096. Total number of registered AYUSH Doctors in India 2007 was 725338. There is an increase in availability of Allopathic Medical Practitioners, Dental Surgeon and Nurses per Lakh Population over the years.

In Arunachal Pradesh, there is no medical college and no institute for Nurses (GNM) in public sector as on date, however, the state has medical seats yearly quota in other states of India. There is only one institute for midwifery which provides basic training courses for ANMs in public health sector in the state. In this situation the state is dependent on other states for the production and supply of technical human resource for health. As on 1.1.08, the state has 405 allopath doctors in position serving 2923 populations per doctor, 131 dental surgeons, serving 29500 per dental surgeon as per Indian Health profile 2007.

Key HR issues in the health sector in our state :

In general, the critical shortages of Human Resource are one of the biggest concerns in the health sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the current HRH workforce at 59 million and its global shortage at 4.3 million. The writer could establish 18 nos. of HR issues in this study that confronting the health sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The critical shortage of the human resource in health sector is the most important among confronting issues.

1. Health worker shortages (particularly nurses and physicians): A major reason for Arunachal’s weak health sector performance is due to the crisis in the health workforce. There is a critical shortage of skilled manpower like doctors, nurses and midwives. There are also shortages of personnel trained in concerned disciplines like various specialists. The health systems of the region were characterized by an insufficient number of medical specialists, MBBS doctors, and other professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, public health specialists, epidemiologists, health economists, communication experts etc. The most concerning group are the physicians and nurses.

2. Misdistribution/unequal distribution: Adding to the acute shortage of manpower in the health sector in Arunachal Pradesh, the issues and options for deploying health workforce seems a big deal of concern. Mal-distribution, characterized by urban concentration and rural deficits, but these imbalances are perhaps most disturbing from a district perspective also. Urban/rural imbalance in the distribution of health workers is a problem in the past and present also, and it may be worsening more. One of the reasons of deficit in rural and remote areas are poor communications with the rest of the main land and few amenities for health professionals and their families, lack of material resources for them, poor working and living conditions, isolation from professional colleagues and possibly less opportunities for self professionally developed and silently the education opportunities for their children.

3. Skill mix imbalance: Skill-mix imbalance is yet another issue, which is often inadequate to meet the needs of the communities, and in some extend a less-trained provider is providing the health services in rural areas in the absence of qualified staffs. The qualified staffs in health institutes lack proper in-service training and professional development opportunities resulted in imbalance skill mix in the existing workforce.

4. Poor working conditions: Poor working conditions and lack of corresponding inputs also contribute to the disillusionment of the health workforce. In the absence of proper facilities at the posting place, ill-equipments, lack of proper communication, and lack of infrastructure resulted in lack of proper working environment. Working conditions in the absence of necessities for human resource in health sector in Arunachal is yet another issue in this confront. There exists poor work environment and security at the workplace. As the health sector is the top most sector to employee woman in its workforce, and it resulted in delivering responsibilities towards the woman employees by the government. Nurses posted to remote locations may face security threat in the absence of proper residential quarters, proper health infrastructure etc. Added to the ill health infrastructure, absence of proper equipments and proper office infrastructure, there is no proper toilet facilities in maximum of the health facilities especially for the woman workforce, which may adversely affect the motivation and health of the workforce. Often poor working condition resulted in frustration, low motivation less effectiveness, and sustainability among the workforce especially in woman workforce.

5. Low- remuneration, poor compensation and retention: A low and stagnant salaries and poor working conditions are often associated with government service. The issue of low remuneration or salary is consistent for the health workforce especially for the contractual employees. The recent pay enhancement corresponding to the Pay Commission recommendation in the state has been only implemented to the regular staffs and it has also created a wide gap in the pay parity of contractual staffs and the regular staffs, but the working conditions, nature of job are same. Another, the available workforce such as doctors, specialist, nurses and other paramedical staffs do not want to join the duty and serve in rural areas for longer duration, as also there is no clear cut policy regarding duration of service in rural areas. Over all there is no financial incentive for Working in rural, remote areas.

6. Inadequate professional training and production issues: Production of health workers has not kept pace with need, especially with the GNM, physicians. Absence of adequate training institutes for the training of medical, nursing, and allied professions results in low numbers of medics and paramedics in the state. Talking about the state, there is no medical college in govt. sector or private sector for Allopathic disciplines. For the training of nursing personnel, the state runs a lone Nursing School for ANMs at General Hospital, Pasighat, East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. These training programs are for midwifery (ANM) nursing. There is no fix numbers of ANM admission seats per year in this ANM School, previous year in 2009-10, the number was 70, a year before in 2008-09, it was 47. The variation depends on Government of Arunachal Pradesh continuing changing policy. In the state there is a chronic and serious shortage of GNMs, as there is no GNM training school in govt. sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Of the most a few number of GNMs are produced in GNM School at Ramakrishna Mission Hospital, Itanagar. These issues of inadequate professional training schools resulted in insufficient numbers of professionally trained personnel to compensate the situation, which cannot be compensate with the little proportion of the health care workforce qualified outside the state.

7. Inadequate training at various levels or inadequate capacity building, limited opportunities for professional development: Besides insufficient numbers of health professionals are produced, the in service-training of health workforce is also inadequate. The prevalence of inadequate training at various levels resulted in limited opportunities for professional development, which adversely affect the professional life of the professional workforce in the health sector.

8. Rewards not linked to performance/incentives As it is mentioned earlier that the Health workforce is deficit at rural and remote areas in the state, possibly because of little support at these areas, a lack of material resources for them, poor working and living conditions, isolation from professional colleagues and possibly less opportunities for self professionally developed. To minimize these problems and keep motivated the workforce serving in these areas, there is no financial and non-financial incentive. The compensation package is same irrespective of the place of posting. Other non financial incentives such quarters with electricity, water facilities etc. are also not in the system to retain the workforce in maximum of those underserved areas.

9. Lack of motivation : Many health workers are ill-motivated because they are poorly equipped, infrequently supervised and informed, and have limited career opportunities within the health system in the state. Health workers especially in underserved areas usually have motivational problems at work which is reflected and resulted in a variety of circumstances like poor compensation packages, unsatisfactory working conditions, etc.

10. Job security: There is no provision of job security under various health programmes, as all the posts are under contractual appointment. Moreover, there is no career path for the employees in these health programs for which the motivational factor could be high.

11. Lack of availability at duty, accountability of staffs and Weak supervision at all levels : Poor working conditions and weak supervision at all levels, resulted in lack of availability and accountability of the staff at the working place. The supervision is placed in the system but it is weak as the supervisors only monitor the work of their subordinates through the reports they submit of the numerical achievements of targets at the end of the month. Many of the staff prefer to and are allowed to stay in a nearby town from where they commute to their place of work; it is obviously in the absence of basic amenities in the posting place. This means that the health services are not available 24 hours at the health centers as planned. At lower levels health institute, there is no one to provide care at the time of need after duty hours, or when staff is on leave. To add to this, many workers do not go to their place of work regularly. There are also many other interruptions in the regular work such as review meetings, various camps, and trainings. Moreover, the staffs that stay at their place of posting and provide 24 hour service get the same salary as staff that are absent or are available for only three to four hours a day. Other unavoidable situation of staff absenteeism are due to illness of themselves or their family members, some are due to chasing their salaries, allowances, and other routine tasks at the HQ, etc.

12. Performance of the workforce: First of all the staff performance is based on how motivated is the workforce. In these study findings, the motivation and moral of the employees is low due to the above mentioned reasons like poor working conditions etc. are severely limiting the capacity of health care professionals to meet the needs of their populations. These are complex issues that, if neglected further more can contribute directly to further lower standards of performance and constraints on health service delivery and thus poor health outcomes.

13. Duality of roles/overburden/work load and ill-equipped: Many medical, technical, and managerial positions in health programs and facilities are needed in a health sector reform environment, and scarce medical personnel are misused for management tasks at various levels. The supply of professional staff is now severely constrained at the leadership and managerial levels. Shortage of human resource for health with ill-equipped, both technical and managerial workforce at various levels often resulted in duality of roles, overburden and workload to the existing health workforce. The formal as well as informal discussion with the staffs for this study shows that the staffs are frustrated for the duality or roles, over burden with the works and the workload, with additional with lack of equipment to discharge their duties.

14. Public health human resource policy/health sector policies and the regulation: There is little information for HR policy in the state. Absence of appropriate human resources policies, there is always a hindrance in managing people at work at various levels. Effective recruitment, selection practices are cohesively depends on the HR policies and in the absence of the same, a number of difficulties may be arising. Weak policies for decentralization, poor distribution of workforce, weak management of the workforce and other links like poor recruitment requirements and training outputs are results of the poor or absence of HR Policy in the system.

15. Personnel decisions (recruitment / hiring): In the absence of the human resource policies, personnel decisions like Recruitment, hiring and retention are the major problems arising. That in the absence of the HR Policy, the personnel decisions are too often guided by favoritism, dictates, and nepotism.

16. Health human resource planning: Planning is most important in every sectors including health sector especially in manpower recruitment and placing. Accurate information systems on staffing trends and conditions are not in place, also there is no tradition of research on workforce issues in the state. HR planning is theoretically based on decentralized system, however, in the absence of proper information, and trends of staffing makes HR planning more exhaustive and difficult.

17. Absence of electronic database on HRH/ accurate information on staffing: Human resource planning can be difficult in the absence of computerized database on present human resource in the sector. In the absence of computerized Human Resource Information system in the state, a very limited accessible HR information is present.

18. Weak Human resource management system: As there is no dedicated human resource experts present in the system, and generally makes Human resources management systems thus weak. Moreover, the performance appraisal is also very weak in the system. Appraisal systems in use basically and practically tend to be based on an assessment of personal characteristics rather than on achievements against agreed-upon work objectives or targets. The public health sector in the state is characterized by the old way of personnel management rather a strategic human resource management.

Way forward:

There are three areas and options for mitigate the shortage of health workforce and other HR issues in the health sector in Arunachal Pradesh, first to increasing the production of health workforce, second to attract and deploying health workforce, and third is to retain health workforce.

While to increase the number of health workers is linked with increasing training centers which serve as a long term solution, and with intent of enhancing their productivity and being able to achieve greater coverage through proper deployment. It is robust need in the state for the rapid development of training institutes for health workforce- Doctors, Nurses and other paramedics. But it is to keep in mind that in a study by Hall, 1998 shows that a 10% rise in the number of students registering with medical schools will produce only a 2% increase in the supply of doctors after 10 years. There should be joint effort of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, and pursuing at the Govt. of India level. If, our neighboring state ASSAM can get number of new Medical Colleges in different district HQs, than why not in our state. While interpreting the shortage of human resource for health in Arunachal Pradesh, besides the production of the skilled trained health professional, task Shifting can be better options within the system. Task system may be materialized as a chain reaction from lower level of worker to a higher level workers, if taking an example of acute shortage of Staff Nurse/ GNM, this may be mitigated in course of years by shifting of task of a educated village health worker to ANMs and Experienced, senior ANMs could shift to GNMs by providing adequate training at the state level nursing schools. While increasing the workforce, there is a need of a good HR planning and the planning should be backed up with a good and reliable HR database, it is suggestive that to creation of a database for existing HR in the health sector not in only numbers but with every relevant information that could be used for determination and HR mapping in the state. In Samoa and Fiji, the World Bank suggested that a human resource plan was needed to provide incentives to improve staff performance, including attractive salaries, in-service training programs linked to salary increments, well-structured career development paths and performance-based rewards.

Better distribution of HR for health is still a challenge in our state, maximum number of health workforce is concentrated to urban and easily accessible areas counterpart to the rural and remote areas. Interpreting this issue, suggestion could be to formulate a human resource policy to the deployment and incentives for attracting the human resource in the needy and remote places. A Compulsory service policy is required for health workers (e.g. all doctors or all nurses) who are educated in the state and outside state from Govt. of Arunachal quota to work for a period of time in an underserved area in the state; such programmes have been established in many states in India and worldwide. However, for one, the introduction of compulsory service may be difficult politically. For instance, in 2008, a strike of medical students and doctors forced the government of Kerala, India, to reduce the planned compulsory rural service for doctors from three years to one year. In reverse, for instance, in some countries practice in underserved area is not compulsory but necessary or desirable for acceptance into specialist training programmes. In Thailand, doctors are required to fulfill three years of compulsory public service after finishing their training and must pay a fine if they breach the contract. Another restrictive measure used in Thailand is a prerequisite of at least one year of public service in a rural area before specialist training can be undertaken. Costa Rica attracted the world’s attention with the Open Walls Hospital, a program that required the specialists of a regional hospital to schedule – when needed – weekly visits to dispersed rural populations. Financial-incentive programmes may be an attractive intervention to place health workers in underserved areas for a number of additional reasons. However, financial-incentive programmes are not easy to implement. Financial-incentive programmes have a number of advantages and disadvantages in comparison with other interventions to increase the supply of health workers to medically underserved areas. Unlike non-financial incentives, they establish legally enforceable commitments to work in underserved areas; however, they may not improve the working or living conditions in underserved areas, which are important determinants of health workers’ long-term retention in those areas. The salary top-up scheme should also designed to improve the working conditions for existing staff, and aims to increase retention of health workers in public service at the remote areas. To address the remote posting problems the government can propose the compulsory scheduled rotation of the employees in the system. As many research finding also suggest that health workers in rural areas should received scheduled rotations to prevent extended professional isolation. This was found to be particularly important in preventing burnout, as well as in increasing their development and sharing of skills. To improve working condition, better living condition at the remote workplace, it is suggested to improve the condition of workplace and giving them good condition quarters with electricity facilities and water supply. Living conditions are likely to be important in determining health workers’ decisions to move to and remain in underserved areas. In Ecuador, health workers fulfilling their compulsory service ranked transportation “highest as an adaptation problem, followed by, in descending order, communication, housing, food, and access to potable water and electrical power, so one can priorities.

Performance-based incentives are the needs of hour and are receiving increasing interest from health systems worldwide. Remote area allowances and performance based incentives must be in position to motivate and retain employees with performance. In addition to salary incentives, other strategies such as housing, infrastructure and opportunities for job rotation must be used to recruit and retain health professionals.

Good supervision and management must be there including adequate technical support and feedback, recognition of achievements, good communication, clear roles and responsibilities, norms and codes of conduct – are critical to the performance of health systems and the quality of care (WHO-WHR-2006), along with the retention of the health workforce in the system. Staff motivation has been worsened by lack of complementary inputs and increasing workload also, and it could be minimizes be review and give feedback to staff on their conduct and performance in order to encourage improvement in performance, personal development and motivation. To retain the workforce, there is a need of need-based training and development for the workforce. A regular skill-upgradation based training should be focused on, to address the problem of skill-imbalance, the training strategies should emphasized on multi skill training to the health workforce and minimizes the skill-imbalance in the health workforce.

As we have seen, due to the nature of the health sector, human resources demand is high, at the same time the supply is less in the state. The employee shortage problem will continue to be the major challenge for health sector in Arunachal Pradesh, both at the technical & clinical level and at the management level, which should be addressed adequately and timely to achieve the health goals. Concluded

(The contributor can be contacted at drganggrb@gmail.com).

Debate competition

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) and NEDFi Itanagar will organize a debate competition on “development of entrepreneurs in Arunachal Pradesh” at NERIST seminar hall on Aug 9 next. More than 80 class XII students from various schools of the capital are expected to take part in it.

Appointments

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Tok Simon and Taw Kumar have been selected as president and general secretary of All Lekhi Youth Association.

Volleyball tournament at Yazali

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: Lower Yazali team defeated Takam Passa team in the inaugural match of the VIIIth Taba Tat Memorial Women Volleyball Tournament today.

A total of 14 teams are in the fray for the top honour. The winner and runners up teams would be given cash prizes along with trophies.

The final would be played on August 10.

Earlier, Taba Tat Foundation chairman Taba Topu inaugurated the tournament amidst gathering of sports lovers.

Further, TTF has decided to organize a free ‘mega’ health camp on August 7 and 8 at Yazali.

Tournament postponed

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The First Nyari Welly Open Women Football Tournament scheduled to begin from August Seven has been postponed to August Nine due to technical problems, according to Arunachal Pradesh Football Association (APFA).

Counseling dates fixed

ITANAGAR: The Director of Higher and Technical Education has directed passed candidates of Joint Entrance Examination 2010 (as per merit list) to attend the open counseling for degree (PCM) and diploma course in the Dera Natung Govt College, auditorium, Itanagar, for allotment of seats.

The counseling for degree in Engineering will be held on Aug 16 and for diploma in engineering on Aug 17. Candidates have been asked to attend the counseling with original mark sheet of qualifying examination and the candidates who fail to attend the counseling will be treated as not interested for the seats and shall have no claim for allotment at later stage, according to an official release. For details candidates may visit www.apdhte.nic.in

Bandh deferred

ITANAGAR: All Capital Complex Contract Workers’ Union (ACCCWU) in its executive meeting held yesterday deferred its proposed 36-hour capital bandh call from Aug 6.

The bandh was proposed in protest against the death of Late Jumchi Nguso due to police brutality.

The meeting however, appealed the enquiry committee for fair and transparent probe into Tachi Nguso’s death case.

Demanding intervention of National Human Rights Commission for justice in this case, the union further questioned the Govt for not booking the OC L R Rana and SDPO B S Mehra, allegedly involved in the incident of July 15.

Do not misuse APST status: DSU

ITANAGAR: Doimukh Students Union (DSU) has come out strongly against the non-APST persons, who in the name of their APST wives are trying to get government schemes meant for locals. DSU claim that these non APST are even trying to claim railway compensations which is gross violation of local residents’ right. Union in a letter to Papum Pare Deputy Commissioner asked her to check such illegal practice.

Arunachal is a protected land under 6 schedule of constitution and no outsider can buy property here. No non APST can be allotted land even if they marry APST girls. Keeping this regulation in mind, DSU has urged DC to immediately intervene and take appropriate action against such persons who are misusing their wives’ APST status.

Pay toilets for APST, Aalo

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: The West Siang Deputy Commissioner Amjad Tak inaugurated Toilets cum Urinal at APSTS Compound Aalo on Aug 5.

While inaugurating the Public Utility service, he appreciated the department and appealed the public to utilize the service with proper payment for its good maintenance.

Station Superintendent STS, Aalo Tuter Nima informed the gathering that an estimated cost of Rs.3 (three) lakhs was spent of which Rs. 1 (one) lakh was paid to the contractor under the fund allocation of Thirteenth Finance Commission and requested the higher authority to clear the remaining Rs.2 (two) dues lakh to the contractor.

200 SHGs to be formed

ITANAGAR, Aug 5: National Youth Project would promote 200 women SHG in all the 16 districts of Arunachal Pradesh. It informed that 56 SHGs have been formed in Lohit and while three in Papum Pare have already opened their savings account. In other districts Awareness campaign is going on for the SHGs formation.

It further informed that 5 Self Help Group (SHG) is being promoted by National Youth Project supported by NABARD Arunachal Pradesh through SHG Bank Linkage Programme.