The Arunachal Times - Archives

Ten Railway projects in NE declared as National Projects

New Delhi, July 3: Recognising the sentitivity of the railway projects in the north-eastern region, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee today declared ten projects in region as national projects for connecting the state capitals of four north-eastern states.

The four capitals are Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Kohima (Nagaland), Imphal (Manipur) and Aizawl (Mizoram).

The Minister, presenting the Railway Budget 2009-10 in Parliament, also said that a proposal for creation of a Northeast Regional Rail Development Fund had already been initiated to ensure necessary funds for timely completion of the projects in the region.

The projects that have been declared national projects included Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge and gauge conversion of Lumding- Silchar, Jiribam and Rangia-Murukongselek. The construction of the national project in Sikkim from Sovok to Rangpo is proposed to be entrusted to IRCON for time-bound completion. Surveys for new lines connecting Gangtok and Shillong had been completed and the proposals would be further processed for necessary clearances, she said.

The Minister conceded that the Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion was getting affected due to adverse law and order conditions in the area and the matter had been taken up with the concerned authorities seeking necessary security to ensure smooth progress. She also announced that she would entrust responsibility of monitoring all national projects to a senior officer to ensure strict adherence to time schedules for completion.

No hike in passenger fares, freights;12 non-stop trains

In a populist Railway budget, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today left unchanged passenger fares and freight tariffs, announced 57 new trains, and for the first time introduced 12 point to point non-stop trains to ply between important stations and launched a new scheme 'Izzat' for travel by unorganised class.

Ms Banerjee followed the footsteps of her predecessor Lalu Prasad in taking recourse to populist measures not only by refraining from hiking passenger or freight tariffs, but also launching more facilities for the common man, pleasing the community of journalists by extending concessional rail travel and taking special care for the poor, ladies and youth.

She said the Railways will come out with a 'White Paper' indicating its present organisational, operational and financial status, based on its performance in the last five years, the period during which Mr Lalu Prasad was at the helm. The other measures in the budget include developing 50 stations to world class level, upgrading 375 stations as 'Adarsh' stations with basic facilities like drinking water, adequate toilets and ladies dormitories, and making available computerised tickets from 5,000 post offices as well as mobile ticketting service vans.

The popular tatkal scheme has been revised to make it friendly, with the advance booking period being reduced from five days to two days. The minimum charge has been brought down to Rs 100.

To reduce the boredom on long distance travel, the budget announced the launch of on-board infotainment services on Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and important inter-city trains. The Minister also announced the setting up of an expert committee to be headed by Sam Pitroda, the telecom tycoon and IT expert, to suggest innovations to utilise optic fibre cable network for the Railways.

As many as 57 new trains are proposed to be introduced in the country this year, Ms Banerjee said.

The new inductions include 20 daily trains, six bi-weekly trains, five tri-weeklies, 12 weeklies and two trains each for five and six days a week. UNI

AAPSU apprise Govt. on state of education

ITANAGAR, July 3: All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union apprised the government of various problems facing the Department of Education in the state.

In a representation to the Education Minister, it called for proportional posting of teachers in all the schools of the state. It said that due to disproportional postings of teachers, students at interior places are suffering.

Union further called for recalling of teachers and lecturers on deputation.

Sending teachers and lecturers on deputation have compounded the problems of shortage of teachers and said that many teachers are on deputation in the office of Tourism department and various Resident Commission offices.

Union further called for posting of more teachers in all the eight government run colleges. An estimated sixty more lecturers are needed to bail out the state from poor standard of higher education, it said.

Establishment of more colleges does not carry meaning as existing colleges are battling extreme poor infrastructure facilities, it said.

The union further sought the government’s attention on mushrooming of private schools all over the state without maintaining the laid down codes. Expressing concern at these violations, it called on the govt to deal with these problems firmly.

Streamlining of Directorate of Education is also one of the demands of the union. It suggested separate Directorate for primary school and another from primary upwards and that Directors be IAS officers.

The union further drew the attention of the government to fee structure levied on students during admission while informing that fees varied from school to school and at some place it was as high as Rs 600.

DC calls for transparency, proper co-ordination and accountability in DHS meet

BOMDILA, July 3: Chairing the Governing Body cum District Health Society meeting, under NRHM to review the physical activities undertaken by the District Health Society, Bomdila, the Deputy Commissioner Swati Sharma impressed upon the Board Members to prioritize the requirements and strongly vouched for routing of the draft proposals through the District Health Society; which is done otherwise.

Underscoring the need for transparency, proper co-ordination and accountability, the DC asked for certain changes in the proposals and suggested the same be forwarded by the District Health Society to the Govt. of India for consideration. Emphasizing on the need to conduct the health related activities in the far-flung and inaccessible areas where the need and necessity is felt more, DC Swati Sharma directed the Chief Executive Officers of the Governing Body and the District Health Society to immediately take up the follow-up action for positing of a Technician in the district headquarter as the Medical Mobile Units (MMU) with all the requisite facilities are lying unused for the last two years.

Gearing up the Administrative officers, the DC called for a more vigorous and pro-active role from them and proper supervision of the NRHM activities in their respective circles. Earlier, the DFWO cum the CEO District Health Society Dr T. D. Namsa, made the power point presentation in detail on the physical activities undertaken by the District Health Society beginning from 2006-2009 and also apprised of the District Health action plan 2009-10. (DIPRO)

Umbrey advocates contingency fund for District hospital

Bishnu Rana

ROING July 3: MLA Laeta Umbrey advocated for contingency fund from MPLAD and MLALAD for the District Hospital Roing so that the poor benefit.

Umbrey, DC Y W Ringu, SP T Karga, Zilla chairperson Chiliko Meto, DMO A Yirang, other health officials, all HoDs and PRI member deliberated on the unhygienic and depleting condition of the district hospital at Roing Anchal Samiti Hall on July 2.

Dr. Ista Pulu Gynaecologist (SMO) put fore various shortcoming and financial constraint that the District Medical is facing owing to which the management is unable to maintain the minimum standard of medical hygiene.

He opinioned that introduction of minimum operation and registration fees from patients would help in developing the corpus fund needed to meet the daily expenses of the hospital.

However panchayat members gave a mixed opinion on introduction of operation and registration fees as it could burden the poor patients.

MLA Laeta Umbrey anticipated that imposition of fees would bring difficulty for the poor patient who avails treatment at government medical.

Those who can afford treatment go to AIIMS, Apollo and other big hospitals for treatment but the poor depend on the district medical and any imposition of fee is bringing burden to them, he added.

Y W Ringu suggested evolving certain policy which should not create trouble to poor and downtrodden in availing the benefit of the health delivery system.

Iduli block ZPM Anjite Menjo while condemning the unhygienic condition of the District Hospital especially toilet and patient wards said that the district Hospital has failed to maintain the basic amenities and hygiene.

There is a serious need for better toilet condition and immediate supply for clean drinking water he added.

West Siang gets garbage management system

Aalo, July 3: District Urban Development Authority introduced Solid Waste Burnt Unit for Garbage Management at Aalo and Basar of West Siang.

DC Amjad Tak under whose initiative the Garbage Management technique was started along with DUDA demonstrated on how to operate the solid waste Burn Unit on July 1.

While briefing about the merits of the solid waste Burn Unit, he said that the method of garbage Management has been adopted in line with the system used at Alaska (USA) which is supposed to be the easiest and cheapest way of cleaning non-bio degradable plastic and medical waste.

He advocated for both moveable and another immovable Waste Burn Unit System. He said that moveable ones could be used smaller towns and villages.

He said that Waste Burn unit technique has been used for the first time in India.

Er. M. Potom Dy. Director DUDA appreciated the Deputy Commissioner for innovative technique and ideas given to the department which will go a long way in garbage management.

The Deputy Commissioner also had a meeting with the Govt. Officers at ADC Office, Basar and discussed about the issues pertaining to the departments. He also took an account of the progress of the works started during his tenure as ADC. (DIPRO)

Singa awaits road connectivity

Eleng Nokar

Aalo, July 3: Singa Circle under Tuting Sub-Division continues to face harsh life because of lack of road connectivity which in turn has left the rural economy almost non existent.

Apart from normal fund and schemes from the State Govt, nothing seems to have really taken off.

Because of lack of connectivity, people of the area are forced to feed the surplus to the domestic animals.

Siang River Festival beckoned hope and people were happy with the activities in Tuting which was off course was short lived.

VVIPs poured in at Tuting and people saw ray of hope as there were talks of getting some road connectivity from Yingkiong to Jido, Circum to Singa and so on. These hope also died a natural death. Today, when the people of this area, come down to Yingkiong and other advanced places, they cant help but wonder why the area continues to be so backward.

I must say, if there are any initiatives to solve the problem of road connectivity in these villages, it will always be remembered by the people of the area for a long time to come.

Training of trainers on IUCD

PASIGHAT, July 3: A six days long Trainers’ training on IUCD (Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Device) started on June 29 which was organized by the District Health Society under supervision of Dr. M. Perme DRCHO at the General Hospital, Pasighat.

Earlier government introduced two promising ways to prevent unplanned pregnancies, oral contraceptive- ‘Pill’ and ‘Copper-T’ a device and really it was a remarkable and lasting success. Over the decades, a stream of subtle innovations to the method has made it safer and proven to provide a variety of additional health benefits, from fighting acne to preventing ovarian cancer. IUCD is the latest, developed, very effective and safest method of contraception is being introduced by the govt. in the state.

Despite a dramatic need and promising advances in science, no new contraceptives will reach the women soon without stronger supports and creative collaborations among government, industry and the general public, added the DRCHO Dr. Perme in his keynote address. The report says that many women in the state still lack effective contraceptive protection and new methods, Dr. Perme further informed.

The Master Trainers Dr. Vinoy Viswanathan and Dr. Jayalal Mohohan both the guest-faculties/ consultants (GoI), New Delhi along with the house faculty and State level Trainer Dr. J. Darang (Gynecologist) and Deepa Neog, General Hospital Pasighat imparted the training program in the Hospital Auditorium. Trainees from 10 districts of the state are attending the training program and now they would conduct such IUCD training program in their respective districts to spread awareness in the society. (DIPRO)

Army personnel found unconscious

PASIGHAT, Jul 03: 28-years-old Army personnel, Lokesh Kalyani was found in a semi-conscious state inside an Auto Rickshaw near the Pasighat market on June 26 morning by police patrolling team.

VEC and SMC call for more teachers

ITANAGAR, Jul 03: Village Education Committee and School Management committee of Leporiang circle resolved to approach the concerned authority for posting of subject teachers at Upper Primary School Ranchi, Longte Tapu, RS Sango and secondary school, Leporiang and arrangement of students ration commodities at early as possible.

This decision was taken after a meeting headed by Circle Officer, Leporiang Datum Gadi, was held at Sagalee on June 30.

Shortage of subject teachers in various schools of the area, poor supply of students ration commodities and other school related activities were discussed in the meeting.

It also resolved to raise pupils fund and admission fees after collective VEC and SMC meeting and timely submission of SSA teachers monthly performance report by Chairperson VEC and SMC and PRIs.

BWC hails Ligu’s appointment

ITANAGAR, Jul 03: Bazar Welfare Committee, Seppa thanked state government for posting Pige Ligu as new Deputy Commissioner, East Kameng District.

While, welcoming Ligu, the committee expressed that the new DC would take up measures for the development and welfare of the Bazar area and appealed all section of the society to cooperate with District Administration in developmental activities.

AAPPTF condemns attack, calls for review of fuel price

ITANAGAR, July 03: All Arunachal Pradesh Public Transport Federation (AAPPTF) condemned the firing of Shangrila night super bus No AR-o1A 4007 that occurred near Bhalukpong threatening the lives of 60 passengers traveling from Bomdila to Itanagar on July 1 last.

The federation said though such incidents have occurred several times earlier, the state government has done nothing to safe guard the safety of its citizens plying through Assam’s notorious route.

AAPPTF urged upon the state government and Home minister to take up the matter seriously and bring out a solution so that commuters can travel safely from one end to the other.

The federation condemning the recent hike in petrol and diesel prices appealed to the government to review the price hike for the greater interest of the people of the state.

It further thanked Parliamentary secretary Takam Sorang for initiating the review of price hike with the district administration.

Meanwhile, the federation alleged that one tracker driver was assaulted by the head constable traffic police of Itanagar police Station at Bank Tinali on July 1 last.

The federation demanded immediate action against the head constable of traffic police by the concerned authority.

It further claimed that the traffic police not only assaulted the driver but also snatched away his wallet.

Poor BSNL service

ITANAGAR: Upper Subansiri Zilla Parishad Chairperson and ZPM Nacho Anchal Samiti appealed the BSNL authority to rectify the poor services at Daporijo. It claimed that the people of the area had repeatedly approached the BSNL authority but still the mobile network service is very poor in the area.

It also questioned the delay in installation of BSNL tower at Nacho and Siyum.

It further said that the BSNL tower was supposed to be opened some nine years back at Nacho and the Telecom material for the same is still lying in a building unused.

APCC appointments

ITANAGAR: BK Ghosh Dastidar has been appointed as Chairman Trade and Commerce Inter state relation cell while former Minister Thupten Tempa has been made the Chairman Media Department. Haryom Bam would be the Chairman Public Grievances Cell with ZPM Tadar Ado as Chairman Panchayat Cell, Bage Taja as Chairman Ex-Servicemen Cell and Priyodhar Khattiya Deori as Chairman Minority Cell of Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee respectively.