RTI convention to work out modalities to get information in PPP projects

ONE of the very few things no Indian bureaucrat can afford to avoid these days is a new development on Right to Information (RTI). With the fifth convention on RTI beginning in New Delhi on Monday, the officers of various cadres are waiting to find what is in store next.
The two-day RTI conference is likely to discuss among others the ways of using RTIs in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The convention, to be inaugurated by Union minister of law and justice Veerappa Moily, will also discuss responsibility of political leadership in promoting RTI, the role of media and civil societies and use of RTI in Unique Identification Project among others.

The technical sessions of the convention, which are being attended by delegation from SAARC countries, will be chaired by AN Tiwari, IC, CIC, Jaswant Singh, MP, Lok Sabha, Wajahat Habibullah, Chief IC, CIC and Ms Mrinal Pandey, chairperson, Prasar Bharti. The Central Information Commission has been organizing the annual convention every year since 2006.

CAG to inaugurate international training programme for 45 audit officers

Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India will inaugurate the 96th International Training Programme on ‘Performance Audit’ at C and AG Office, New Delhi on Monday. The training programme will be attended by 45 participants from 36 nations. Georgia is a new country for this programme.

In fact, 95 international training programmes have been organized so far and 2,815 middle and senior level officers from Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of 121 countries of Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia, Far East, Middle East, Pacific and East European region have participated in these training programmes. Most of the trainees are funded under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and Special Commonwealth Assistance for Africa Programme (SCAAP) and Colombo Plan.

An international police meet to begin in Kochi on Nov 3

A major international police conference is beginning on Kochi from November 3, 2010. About 120 delegates from countries like USA, Canada, UK, South Africa and Germany are expected to participate in the mega meet which will deliberate on community policing initiatives around the world. Kiran Bedi, Dr RK Raghavan and Hormis Tharakan, DGPs and top police officers from different states are expected to participate. It is expected to work out modalities of PPP in policing among others. 

4000 Indian government officers to be trained on PPP in German bank KfW-supported programme

ABOUT 4000 Indian government officials will be imparted special trainingns on public private partnership (PPP) as a part of the government's newly designed National PPP Capacity Building Programme with funding from German government's development bank KfW. Officials from state government and local bodies level will also be benefitted as the trainings will be delivered through state administrative training Institutes and central training institutes. The KfW and the India PPP Capacity Building Trust (I-Cap), signed an agreement on November 23, 2009 to develop the Programme, a government release said. The German government through KfW will provide a grant of Euro 700,000 (approx Rs 5 cr) to support the programme. The agreement was signed in the ministry of finance on Friday in the presence of Govind Mohan, joint secretary, department of economic affairs (DEA) under ministry of finance. The national PPP capacity development programme will be implemented in two phases and is expected to be completed at the end of 2012.

Action & Appointments Saroj Bala, a retired Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official and former Member (Revenue) Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has joined Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as a Member. The BIFR, which was set up in 1987, has K Cherian Varghese as chairman with five members including Ms Bala. Ms Bala had earlier served as the Director General of National Academy of Direct Taxes at Nagpur. During her tenure at Board in North Block, she was instrumental in initiating the process of making IPL (Indian Premier League), the 20:20 version of cricket, a money spinner for the department. Saroj Bala's Contact No: (91) 011-23701029

Nath wants his officers to change attitude, appeals them to aspire for recognition

UNION minister of road transport and highways Kamal Nath’s appeal to his officials to change in attitude to have a sense of fulfilment and recognition is believed to be well in line with a few UPA ministers’ “make it or break it” policy to bring in changes in their ministries or departments. Setting an ambitious target of building 20 km of highways per day, particularly in the backdrop of virtual roadblocks to progress of highway project during the last government, Mr Nath is aware that targets would be achievable only if officers put in their extra bit. As many as 38 public private partnership (PPP) projects bid out by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) before the last Lok Sabha polls received no bid at all, explaining the state of affairs of the road programme which was successfully rexecuted by the earlier regime of the BJP. Mr Nath, who visited the NHAI office in Delhi’s Dwarka area a couple of days ago, stressed upon complete sense of urgency and asked the officials to bring the issues to his notice which require his intervention. He called upon every official to have one common objective and to play their role in keeping India on a growth trajectory by building good highways. He urged NHAI officials for a change in the work culture to speed up the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP).

Govt to amend RIT to facilitate better disclosure, says Chavan The government has proposed to amend the laws to provide for disclosure by government in all non-strategic areas. It is proposed to review the number of organizations in the second schedule to the Right to Information Act, 2005 and make rules for more disclosure of information by public authorities, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions, Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, July 8. Non-Governmental Organisations and Social activists, which have largely expressed doubts about the proposed amendments, will be consulted. Significantly, no time-frame has fixed for completion of the process. Stats for 2008-09 No. of RTI cases disposed of : 13322 No. of RTI cases pending as on April 1, 2009: 8924 Action & Appointments

The tenure of Kumar Sanjay Krishna, a 1985 batch Assam cadre IAS, and joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), has been extended for a period of three months up to November, 15, 2009 or until further orders. Mr Krishna had earlier served as a joint secretary in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).