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April 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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1552 workers
regularised CAG indicts HP
Govt Transparency must:
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1552 workers
regularised Shimla, April 19 Replying to a question by Mr Kaul Singh and Mr Dharam Pal, he said until March 31, 2000, there were 5417 daily-wage workers in various government departments, boards and corporations who had completed 10 years of service. Out of them the services of 1552 workers, 1442 in government departments and 110 in boards and corporations, were regularised. He said the BJP had promised to regularise the services of workers after five years of service. However, keeping in view the financial crunch, the government had now decided to regularise their service after eight years of service. He said regularisation of workers was a continuing process and the remaining 3865 workers would be regularised when formalities were completed. Referring to the delay in regularisation, he said it took a lot of time to complete documents pertaining to age, nationality and other relevant information. There was no record of age in most cases and there had been instances where the son had retired and the father was still continuing as a daily-wage earner. In case of some Nepali workers, the nationality had to be ascertained. Besides, some court cases had delayed matters. Answering a question by Mr Harsh Mahajan, Mr Dhumal said the government would provide well furnished offices and other required facilities to chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of Block Panchayat Samities. He assured Mr Virbhadra Singh that any complaint of misbehaviour by Block Officers with the chairpersons of the samitis would be inquired into and action taken against those found guilty. Earlier, Mr Ramesh Chand Dhwala, Irrigation Minister, said out of 75 Panchayat Samities, 70 already had offices. However, there was no separate staff for these samities the matter was not under consideration of the government. Mr Vidya Sagar, Agriculture Minister, told Mr Gangu Ram that there was no move to close the Seed Certification Agency. He said the state had fixed a foodgrain production target of 17.02 lakh tonnes for the year 1999-2000, which had been increased to 17.47 lakh tonnes this year. Mr Mansa Ram, Welfare Minister, introduced the Himachal Pradesh Maintenance of Parents and Dependents Bill. The Assembly had in December, 1996, passed a similar Bill but the Government of India did not give assent to it and suggested some modifications. The Bill introduced today will not applicable to Muslims. The maximum limit for maintenance has been fixed at Rs 5000 per month with a provision for payment of interim maintenance allowance. The Bill seeks to make maintenance of aged parents and grandparents; who are not able to maintain themselves, obligatory for children and grandchildren. The House also passed the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act (Amendment) Bill. |
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CAG indicts HP
Govt Shimla, April 19 Its civil report for the year ended on March 31 and was presented in the Vidhan Sabha today. The CAG observed that the quantum jump of 51 per cent in revenue receipts in 1998-99 to 70 per cent in 1999-2000 did not reflect the true picture of the state’s finances as the public debt also shot up from 15 to 23 per cent over the period. It resulted in the concealment of revenue deficit to the extent of Rs 861.5 crore and fiscal deficit to the extent of Rs 498 crore. Further, a negative balance of the current revenue and negligible return on investments adversely affected the sustainability of the finances. The financial position of the government could be termed as precarious, not sufficient to cover even the direct working expenses of Rs 4.09 crore. The net addition to the public debt as adjusted by the effect of remittance and suspense was Rs 1,569.34 crore. The growth of internal debt during 1995-2000 was 104 per cent. In loans and advances from the Centre, it was 115 per cent and in other liabilites 133 per cent. An amount of Rs 7.97 crore sanctioned by the centre during 1999-2000 for the mondernisation of the police force and reimbursement of security-related expenditure were deposited unauthorisedly by the DIG (Wireless) in police deposit fund. CAG has also pulled up the state Pollution Control Board for its failure to identify polluting industries. It was also not aware of the number of units functioning without obtaining consent for the discharge of sewage and effluents. A grant of Rs 25 lakh received in 1995-96 for solid waste management had remained unutilised as of May 2000. There were 24.81 lakh cases of water-borne diseases and 444 deaths during 1994-1999. The board had failed to discharge its statutory functions to minimise the incidence of such diseases. The report pertaining to revenue receipts revealed that arrears of revenue under principal heads as on March 31, 2000, amounted to Rs 188.61 crore, including Rs 64.23 of the forest and the wildlife departments. In 10 cases of mining leases, royalty amounting to Rs 13.4 lakh had not been realised. |
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Transparency must:
Bhan Shimla, April 19 The seminar said the subject of public administration was “young” and the study of business management “still younger”. Administration continued to suffer from ineffectiveness and lack of efficiency because the posting and promotion of senior officers was done not on the basis of competence or performance, but loyalty. Promotion was mainly by seniority and there was no reward or punishment for performance. Prof S.K. Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of the university, presided over the seminar. |
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