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social audit on post matric scholarships

carped — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:40:17 +0000

స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లపై సామాజిక తనిఖీ!
బీసీ సంక్షేమశాఖ సన్నాహాలు
ప్రయోగాత్మకంగా మూడు కళాశాలల్లో
హైదరాబాద్‌, న్యూస్‌టుడే; స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లు, బోధనాఫీజుల చెల్లింపుల్లో అక్రమాలకు అడ్డుకట్ట పడనుంది. ప్రభుత్వ పథకాల్లో అవినీతిని అరికట్టేందుకు తెచ్చిన సామాజిక తనిఖీ(సోషల్‌ఆడిట్‌) కార్యక్రమాన్ని ఇకపై స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌ పథకానికి వర్తిపంచేయనున్నారు. బీసీ సంక్షేమశాఖ మొదటిసారి ఈ కార్యక్రమాన్ని ప్రయోగాత్మకంగా చేపట్టేందుకు సన్నాహాలు చేస్తోంది. ప్రస్తుతం రాష్ట్రంలో గ్రామీణ ఉపాధి హామీ పథకంలో గ్రామీణాభివృద్ధిశాఖ సామాజిక తనిఖీని ప్రవేశపెట్టింది. పథకం అమలులో పెద్దఎత్తున అక్రమాలు చోటుచేసుకోకుండా నివారించ గలిగింది. ప్రజల సమక్షంలోనే సామాజిక తనిఖీ చేపట్టడంతో ప్రజల్లో చైతన్యం పెరుగుతోంది. ఈ విద్యాసంవత్సరంలో ఎస్సీ, ఎస్టీ, బీసీ, మైనారిటీ, వికలాంగులైన విద్యార్థులందరికీ కలిపి రూ.1200 కోట్ల మేరకు స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లు మంజూరుచేయాలని ప్రభుత్వం నిర్ణయించింది. పెద్దఎత్తున నిధులు వెచ్చిస్తున్నప్పుడు లబ్ధిదారులకు అవి సక్రమంగా అందాయో లేదో పరిశీలించడానికి సామాజిక తనిఖీకి ఉన్నతాధికారులు శ్రీకారం చుట్టారు. బీసీ సంక్షేమశాఖ ముందుగా ఈ కార్యక్రమాన్ని అమల్లోకి తెస్తోంది. సామాజిక తనిఖీ బృందాలను ఏర్పాటుచేసే సన్నాహాల్లో ఉంది. ఇప్పటికే ఎంపికచేసిన విద్యార్థులు, బీసీ సంఘాలు, స్వచ్ఛంద సంస్థల ప్రతినిధులకు శిక్షణ పూర్తిచేసింది. ప్రయోగాత్మకంగా హైదరాబాద్‌లోని మూడు కళాశాలల్లో ఈ కార్యక్రమాన్ని చేపట్టాలని అధికారులు నిర్ణయించినట్లు తెలిసింది. కార్యక్రమంలో భాగంగా ముందుగా సమాచారహక్కు చట్టం కింద ఆయా కళాశాలల్లో బీసీ విద్యార్థులకు మంజూరుచేసిన స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌ల వివరాలు తీసుకుంటారు. వివరాలను సామాజిక తనిఖీ బృందం అధ్యయనం చేసిన అనంతరం సంబంధిత కళాశాలలో బహిరంగంగా తనిఖీ కార్యక్రమం చేపడతారు. విద్యార్థులతోపాటు యాజమాన్యాన్ని ఇందులో భాగస్వామ్యం చేస్తారు. అక్రమాలు చోటుచేసుకున్నట్లు తేలితే చట్టపరంగా చర్యలు తీసుకునే అవకాశాలున్నాయి. ప్రయోగాత్మక కార్యక్రమం విజయవంతమైతే లోటుపాట్లు సమీక్షించి మిగిలిన ప్రాంతాలకు విస్తరిస్తారు.
source : eenaadu 12 Jul 2008

One crore Indians starve as grains rot in FCI godowns

carped — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:15:32 +0000

2 Jul 2008, 1025 hrs IST,

NEW DELHI : Over 10 lakh tonnes of foodgrains worth several hundred crores of rupees, which could have fed over one crore hungry people for a year, were damaged in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns during the last one decade.

The damages were suffered despite the FCI spending Rs 242 crore while trying to prevent any loss of foodgrains during storage. Ironically another 2.59 crore was spent just to dispose off the rotten foodgrains.

These startling facts came in reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by a Delhi resident. FCI informed that 10 lakh tonnes of foodgrain was damaged in the godowns of government owned agency which is responsible for procurement and distribution of foodgrains across the country.

The FCI informed that 1.83 lakh tonnes of wheat, 3.95 lakh tonnes of rice, 22 thousand tonnes of paddy and 110 tonnes of maize were damaged between 1997 to 2007.

The FCI said in the northern region -- UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi -- the damage incurred was seven lakh tonnes and the PSU spent Rs 87.15 crore to prevent the loss besides spending over Rs 60 lakh to dispose off the damaged foodgrain.

Keeping in view the amount of money spent by the FCI for preservation of foodgrains in its godown, the quantum of damage is huge. Is it not a national shame?" the RTI applicant Dev Ashish Bhattacharya said.

Similarly in eastern India -- Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal -- the damage incurred was 1.5 tonnes of foodgrains while the FCI spent Rs 122 crore to prevent it from rotting. But the damaged lot was disposed off after spending another Rs 1.65 crore.

In southern region -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala-- the damage incurred was 43,069.023 tonnes despite spending Rs 25 crore. This damaged foodgrain was disposed off after spending another Rs 34,867.

While damage in Maharashtra and Gujarat mounted to 73,814 tonnes, the FCI spent Rs 2.78 crore to prevent the loss. However, this lot was also disposed off later at a cost of Rs 24 lakh.

In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the damage incurred was 23,323.57 tonnes of foodgrains and the amount spent to stop the damage was Rs 5.5 crore.

The story was no different from other go-downs as the FCI spent Rs 10.64 lakh for disposing damaged foodgrains.

"The data given by FCI seems manipulated. In case of Jharkhand, the foodgrain damage is 3,699 tonnes which is comparatively low than other states. But the money spent to dispose off the damage is Rs 1.4 crore, which is high when compared to the other states," Dev Ashish said.
Source : Times of India

Passaparola di Marco Travaglio - Lunedì 2 Giugno 2008

Doc Brown — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:39:35 +0000

Riporto di seguito il testo dell'intervento di Marco Travaglio.
"Buongiorno a tutti. Spero si possa ancora dire che l’intervento del Capo dello Stato in occasione della festa del 2 giugno tenuto ieri è stato tutt’altro che soddisfacente. Io per esempio non l’ho condiviso per niente. Non perché i principi che ha enunciato non siano giusti: basta con l’intolleranza, basta con le ribellioni allo Stato. Dipende da che cosa sta dicendo e a chi si sta riferendo. Si riferiva a Bossi? Che ha di nuovo minacciato che se non si faranno le riforme che vuole lui di marciare su Roma con cinquecentomila padani, peraltro tutti da individuare. Non si sa se questa volta armati, disarmati, travestiti da Obelix, o come diavolo si presenterebbero. Si riferiva a Berlusconi, che si è appena ribellato allo Stato, cioè agli arresti disposti dalla magistratura napoletana per lo scempio dei rifiuti, per le discariche truccate, per la monnezza non trattata che veniva nascosta sotto lievi coltri di monnezza trattata e magari anche profumata con la calce viva come dalle intercettazioni dell’enturage di Bertolaso e dalla immarcescibile FIBE-FISIA del gruppo Impregilo che hanno continuato a lucrare soldi nostri senza smaltire un grammo di rifiuti? Si riferiva a ..? Chi sono quelli che si ribellano allo Stato? Sono quelli che vogliono abolire le intercettazioni perché funzionano troppo, come hanno dimostrato anche in questo caso? Berlusconi ha approfittato del ricevimento al Quirinale per primo giugno per annunciare una legge contro le intercettazioni, cioè per disarmare una magistratura che già è stata messa in ginocchio da quindici anni di riforme di destra e sinistra che ormai provocheranno a ben breve il risultato della chiusura di alcuni tribunali e di alcuni uffici giudiziari che dichiareranno fallimento. Chi si ribella allo Stato è per caso chi manda a fare carotaggi e analisi a Chiaiano e poi dà i risultati prima che siano finiti i carotaggi medesimi dicendo che va tutto bene e che quello è il posto giusto per portarci l’immondizia? In una delle poche oasi incontaminate, dove si coltivano frutti di eccellenza, dove a pochi passi ci sono gli ospedali, nel centro della città. Quelli che si ribellano allo Stato chi sono? Sono quelli che dal 1999 calpestano le sentenze della Corte Costituzionale, del Consiglio di Stato, della Corte Europea di Giustizia, le messe in mora e le procedure di infrazione della Commissione Europea sulle frequenze concesse a Rete4 senza concessione, anziché a Europa7, che la concessione ce l’ha? Chi si ribella allo Stato chi è? Quello che stava facendo fallire definitivamente Alitalia dopo aver messo in fuga i francesi di Airfrance che l’avrebbero probabilmente salvata? Chi si ribella allo Stato è per caso il senatore Schifani, presidente del Senato, che oggi regala le costituzioni ai bambini e che ha dato il suo nome, Schifani, a una delle leggi più incostituzionali che si ricordino, il “lodo Schifani”, che garantiva l’impunita alle cinque più alte cariche dello Stato, soprattutto a una, la più bassa, e che fu incenerito dalla Corte Costituzionale nel 2003? Chi si ribella allo Stato sono i politici campani, di cui Napolitano fino a prima di essere eletto presidente della Repubblica faceva parte, perché è li che aveva il suo collegio elettorale, che hanno creato per quindici anni l’emergenza immondizia e che adesso pretenderebbero di farla risolvere dagli stessi che l’hanno creata, compreso Bertolaso, che due anni fa era commissario alla monnezza e che non ha combinato niente, come tutti gli altri e che adesso viene riproposto, come la peperonata che ritorna sempre su, a risolvere un problema che anche lui ha contribuito a creare e ad aggravare? Chi si ribella allo Stato è chi non ha dato la protezione a questo imprenditore che aveva cominciato a parlare e che per questo è stato ammazzato, come tutti quelli che parlano in Campania, come in Calabria, come in Sicilia? Chi si ribella allo Stato è forse chi ha definito in campagna elettorale “eroe” Vittorio Mangano, cioè un malavitoso che non ha parlato? Allora, se in questo Paese gli eroi sono i mafiosi che non hanno parlato, allora questo che è stato ucciso per ha parlato non era un eroe. Dobbiamo decidere...

Ma temo che non intendesse parlare di queste categorie e di questi suoi colleghi il Capo dello Stato in questo suo, per così dire, infelice discorso per la festa della Repubblica. Temo che si riferisse alla gente di Chiaiano che difende la sua oasi, che difende la sua qualità della vita, che difende la possibilità di andare prima a verificare se un sito è o non è idoneo a ricevere rifiuti, e poi dopo utilizzarlo. E non viceversa. Ma è tutto sconvolto, non solo il vocabolario delle nostre istituzioni. È sconvolta la logica, è sconvolto l’ordine pubblico, è sconvolta la Costituzione. Di fatto vengono sospese le garanzie costituzionali, vengono vietate le manifestazioni come simboli di complicità con la monnezza e viene espropriata la magistratura del suo diritto-dovere di perseguire i reati e presto non avremo più nemmeno il controllo delle intercettazioni. Avremo l’esercito che andrà a militarizzare sempre più spesso, come peraltro Beppe Grillo aveva previsto, le situazioni che la politica non riesce più a governare se non con la forza, con i manganelli e con l’uso delle armi.
Stefano e Luigi, nel blog di Beppe Grillo, mi chiedono di spiegare la sentenza del Consiglio di Stato, sul caso Europa7. Che sarebbe il caso di chiamare “caso Rete4”, in realtà. Diciamo lo scandalo delle frequenze negate a Europa7 da nove anni da parte dello Stato, al quale qualcuno si è ribellato, ma non era la gente di Chiaiano e non era nemmeno l’imprenditore di Europa7, Francesco Di Stefano. È l’azienda del nostro presidente del Consiglio, che non ha nemmeno bisogno di ribellarsi perché è da 25, 30 anni, fin dai decreti che Craxi faceva su misura per il Cavaliere, riesce a comandare in materia televisiva sia prima, sia durante, sia dopo la sua permanenza al governo. Le leggi in materia televisiva, da 25 anni a questa parte, le scrive sempre Berlusconi. Solo che prima era costretto a pagare Craxi per sdebitarsi, mentre adesso le fa direttamente lui e quindi non deve più pagare nessuno. Diciamo che risparmia. A me piacerebbe molto poter spiegare questa sentenza del Consiglio di Stato, ma questa sentenza del Consiglio di Stato non c’è. O meglio, c’è, ma i vertici del Consiglio di Stato hanno pensato bene di chiuderla in una cassaforte sabato mattina, poi se ne sono partiti per il weekend lasciando ai giornalisti un comunicato scritto in ostrogoto, forse in sanscrito. Nessuno ha capito cosa voglia dire, quindi dobbiamo andare a tentoni. Diciamo, fidandoci di alcune parole chiave che emergono in questo comunicato. Domani speriamo di avere finalmente la sentenza sotto mano. Qual è il problema? Il problema nasce nel 1999 quando lo Stato italiano decide di riassegnare, secondo dei criteri previsti dalla legge, per gli otto soggetti che hanno titolo a trasmettere su scala nazionale. Si presentano vari pretendenti: si presenta la Rai con le sue tre reti, si presenta Mediaset con le sue tre reti, si presenta l’allora Telemontecarlo, si presentano vari soggetti presenti all’epoca - Telepiù, c’era ancora Telepiù nero – si presenta anche questo nuovo editore, Francesco Di Stefano, con due reti: una è Europa7, l’atra è 7plus. Vince la concessione a trasmettere su scala nazionale con una di queste due reti, Europa7, mentre perde la concessione nazionale Rete4. Perché? Perché fin da cinque anni prima la Corte Costituzionale aveva stabilito che Mediaset, come tutti i soggetti privati, non può possedere più di due reti sull’analogico terrestre, cioè sul nostro telecomando classico che utilizziamo per cambiare canale. Quindi, una delle reti o viene ceduta, o viene trasferita sul satellite liberando le frequenza dell’analogico terreste, che sono limitate e che quindi devono andare a chi ne ha diritto. Nella fattispecie, Europa7 ha vinto la concessione e quindi dovrebbe avere le frequenze. Chi c’è al governo in quel periodo? Massimo D’Alema. Il governo D’Alema fa un bel decreto ministeriale in cui dice Europa7 ha diritto, anzi davanti all’authority che si è occupata di esaminare i requisiti delle varie televisioni che chiedono di poter trasmettere, Europa7 ha addirittura vinto su tutte le altre per la qualità dei programmi del suo progetto di palinsesto che ha presentato. In questo decreto c’è scritto che quindi Europa7 ha diritto di trasmettere, ma si dimenticano di precisare su quali frequenze esattamente, perché? Perché le uniche frequenze libere sono quelle che sono ancora occupate da Rete4 e da Telepiù Nero. Rete4 di Berlusconi, Telepiù Nero degli amici di Berlusconi, i quali naturalmente non hanno alcuna intenzione di liberarle se il governo non glielo imporrà. E il governo non glielo impone, anzi, consente a Mediaset di continuare a trasmettere su quelle frequenze anche senza concessione per Rete4, in attesa di nuovi sviluppi. Per cui Rete4, formalmente abusiva, cioè senza più concessione, ottiene una proroga che non si sa quando finirà. A questo punto interviene la Corte Costituzionale per la seconda volta. La prima volta nel ’94: principio antitrust, due reti per ogni soggetto privato, la terza, via. Dato che nessuno ha fatto niente in quei sette anni, nel 2001 la Corte Costituzionale torna a ribadire: “guardate che Mediaset deve scendere da tre reti a due. È incostituzionale non agire. È incostituzionale ogni legge che le consente di trasmettere su tre reti. Panico, ovviamente, in Mediaset, ma chi c’è al governo? C’è Berlusconi. Con l’apposito ministro Gasparri. Prima versione, viene bocciata da Ciampi perché incostituzionale. Dicembre 2003. A questo punto a Natale del 2003, Berlusconi in persona firma un decreto legge che si chiama “salva Rete4”. Cioè decide che Rete4 può continuare a trasmettere. Nel frattempo entra in vigore la Gasparri 2, questa Ciampi la firma. Nell’aprile del 2004, la Gasparri 2 stabilisce che, fino al momento in cui entrerà in vigore il digitale terrestre, Rete4 potrà trasmettere, perché tanto il digitale terrestre è dietro l’angolo. Gasparri lo prevede nel 2006. Digitale terrestre moltiplicherà il numero delle rete a centinaia e centinaia, tutti avranno centinaia di televisioni tra le quali scegliere, per cui che saranno mai quelle piccole tre reti di Mediaset? Rete4 quindi può rimanere. Naturalmente è tutta una balla. Il digitale terrestre non esiste nemmeno oggi. Siamo nel 2008. Non esisterà nemmeno del 2010. Non esisterà nemmeno nel 2012. Forse, si dice, arriverà nel 2015, ma molto probabilmente arriverà prima la televisione su Internet che lo supererà e lo renderà già vecchio. In ogni caso era una balla, era una truffa, che è servita a procrastinare sine die questa fase transitoria che non finisce mai, perché è in vista di un digitale terrestre che non arriva mai. E intanto Di Stefano continua a rimanere al palo con la sua televisione, per la quale ha investito una marea di soldi per creare un centro di produzione di 22.000 metri sulla Tiburtina, otto studi di registrazione, gli uffici, le tecnologie, la library con tremila ore di programmi. Tutto ciò era necessario appunto per ottenere la concessione. E tutto questo è una Ferrari che arrugginisce nel garage. Perché? Perché non gli danno le frequenze. Non gliele da il centrosinistra. Non gliele da Berlusconi nei cinque anni di governo. Lui si rivolge, come fa un cittadino modello, ai tribunali. Il TAR, che gli da parzialmente torto. Ricorre al Consiglio di Stato. Il Consiglio di Stato, per far passare un po’ di tempo, o forse perché non ha chiaro qual è il problema, manda tutto alla Corte di Giustizia Europea chiedendo se le normative italiane che consentono questa situazione e che sono state create nel corso degli anni da destra e sinistra, sono o non sono compatibili con le norme europee. Anche la Corte di Giustizia Europea non è che impieghi poco tempo per studiare il caso, anche perché è un caso unico al mondo, e alla fine il 31 gennaio di quest’anno, il 2008, emette la sua sentenza: le norme italiane che consentono a Rete4 di trasmettere al posto di Europa7 in questa infinita fase transitoria sono contrarie al diritto comunitario, quindi sono illegali, quindi lo Stato italiano le deve disapplicare. È come se non esistessero. Perché? Perché il diritto comunitario vale più delle normative nazionali. Quindi il governo potrebbe sbaraccare la legislazione attuale, imporre a Rete4 di sparire dall’analogico terrestre, levarle comunque le frequenze – che non sono di Rete4, sono nostre, sono un bene pubblico, che viene dato in concessione a un privato se rispetta delle regole, ora che si dice che non rispetta quelle regole, perché quelle europee valgono più di quelle italiane, toglie le frequenze e le dai al legittimo, non proprietario, ma colui che legittimamente le può utilizzare in base alla concessione vinta nel ’99. Invece il governo Prodi ormai è semi defunto, è appena caduto, è in fase – diciamo – di disbrigo degli affari correnti in attesa delle elezioni. Non se la sente di fare ciò che nemmeno prima, quando era nel pieno delle sue funzioni Gentiloni aveva mai fatto, e cioè dare le frequenze a chi ne ha diritto, e quindi viene varato un decreto per ottemperare a varie prescrizioni che ci fa l’Europa, tranne questa della Corte Europea di Giustizia. Nel frattempo la Commissione Europea, cioè il governo d’Europa, il governo Barroso tramite il commissario Kroes, ha aperto una procedura di infrazione sulla Gasparri a proposito di un altro “buco” della Gasparri, e cioè il fatto che la Gasparri garantisce l’accesso a questo mitologico digitale terrestre solo ai soggetti che sono già presenti sull’analogico, e cioè Mediaset e Rai. Invece di aprire il mercato, come ci era sempre stato raccontato, proprio la legge Gasparri, fa entrare nel digitale terrestre solo quelli che sono già presenti nell’analogico terrestre, il che significa non solo che oggi abbiamo il duopolio Rai-Mediaset, ma che ce lo avremo per sempre. Per l’eternità, perché nessuno di quelli esclusi oggi dall’analogico terrestre potrà entrare nel digitale terrestre. E per questo ci ha messo in mora nel 2006 avvertendoci che se entro un paio di anni non avessimo sbaraccato la Gasparri, sarebbe partita una multa retroattiva proprio dal 2006 fino addirittura ad arrivare a 3-400.000 euro al giorno, che se li spalmiamo su tre anni diventano addirittura 300 milioni di euro che ci potrebbero capitare se entro qualche mese la Gasparri non fosse risolta. A questo punto arriva il governo Berlusconi. Torna Berlusconi per la terza volta. Tenta immediatamente di fare un colpo di mano, cioè di rispondere all’Europa dicendo “chi ha avuto, ha avuto. Chi ha dato ha dato. Scurdammoce ‘o passato” e scurdammoce soprattutto le sentenze della Corte Costituzionale, le sentenze della Corte Europea, la messa in mora della Commissione Europea, la procedura di infrazione. Lo status quo rimane così, finché non ci sarà il digitale terrestre. Cioè in un futuro che forse arriverà tra sei, sette anni. Vogliono stabilire e cristallizzare una situazione illegale, per evitare di dare a Europa7 ciò che anche la Corte Europea ha stabilito sia suo diritto avere. Ultima puntata, sabato, il comunicato che annuncia la sentenza. Sentenza che dovrebbe chiudere questo contenzioso che è basato su ben sette cause che Europa7 ha fatto allo Stato italiano. Dice, in sintesi, il comunicato che: “il ricorso che aveva fatto Mediaset, - qui si parla di RTI, perché è la società che si chiama così – viene respinto, e spetterà all’amministrazione, cioè al governo, cioè al sottosegretario ad personam, o ad aziendam, Paolo Romani, applicare la sentenza della Corte Europea di Giustizia e rideterminare le frequenze in base alle richieste di Europa7”. Che cosa voglia dire tutto questo, non lo sappiamo. Non sappiamo se il Consiglio di Stato dice al governo: “dai le frequenze a Europa7 e toglile a Rete4”. Oppure: “decidi tu come vuoi”. Oppure: “facci sapere cosa vuoi fare, dopodichè noi stabiliremo quale sarà il risarcimento che dovremo dare a Europa7, senza che però nessuno le dia le frequenze”. Sono formule ambigue che però speriamo finiscano domani, quando arriverà finalmente il testo completo della fatidica sentenza. Quello che si può arguire fino a questo momento è che il Consiglio di Stato affida al governo Berlusconi di risolvere un problema che è stato creato dai governi Berlusconi per favorire l’azienda di Berlusconi; oltrechè dalla cosiddetta opposizione di Berlusconi che ha remato dalla sua parte, come sempre è avvenuto in materia televisiva. Vedremo che cosa dirà la sentenza. Certo che affidare a Berlusconi la risoluzione del problema Rete4/Europa7 ricorda tanto l’affidare a Berlusconi e a Bertolaso la risoluzione del problema della monnezza, d’accordo con Bassolino. Cioè d’accordo con l’altro, che con Berlusconi e Bertolaso ha collaborato a crearlo. È come se, di fronte a un delitto, si affidasse il compito di risolvere il caso all’assassino."

Tratto da Beppe Grillo

RTI Handbook update on the Blog

Parashuram Shalgar — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:48:20 +0000

Dear Friends,

At the 4th NEX at Kathmandu, Nepal a detailed road map for the RTI Handbook update was laid out. I had explained at the meeting the route which I felt comfortable taking. In continuation, I kindly request you to visit the RTI handbook update BLOG.

www.rtihandbookupdate.wordpress.com

It should be self explanatory. This exercise can reach its logical conclusion only if I get some feedback. I have only circulated to the RTI group and Area 7 group. On your feedback, I will change the structure and would then request RTI to mass mail the link to all the Tablers. I feel that we are at a cross road and let’s use this opportunity wisely. Members of NEX, I request you to take some time out and help achieve this. I sincerely know that this is a very dry subject.

I would keep on updating the BLOG and post the additions to Updates Page, so that you know if something new has been added. If you need to email me off this forum, please do so. But any comments / suggestions / corrections regarding the RTI Handbook, please do so as a comment and it will get tagged on to the post and will become a permanent record.

Cheers,

Tr. R. Balakrishnan
Chairman – RTI Handbook Update Committee

An appeal to save the Right to Information or RTI Act 2005

india2 — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:08:43 +0000

http://www.petitiononline.com/savertia/

★★★Voyagers: ATI/RTI Vibes Shuttle★★★

sauber — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:05:20 +0000

★Hotel - Booked!!!
★Clothes - Bought!!!
★Negril Arm band- Covered!!!
★Friends - READY TO HAVE FUN!!!
(hmmm......what is it, i'm forgetting, thats so important to be in Negril???)

DRIVE - OK???????
GAS MONEY -Ahh, anybody have an extra $150 for the toll???

Thought you were ready for negril, but dont have a car, cant find the rental money for one, or cant bother fi squeeze with your friends for another year and when you ready to NUH LINGA, you back cramp and ankle twist???

WE'RE HERE FOR YOU!!!

THE VOYAGERS presents
★★★ATI/RTI VIBES SHUTTLE ★★★

Bus Leaves Kingston :
★THURSDAY JULY 31ST, 2008

DESTINATION :
★NORTH COAST, NEGRIL

BUS CENTERS:

★SCOTIA BANK, UWI @ 6:45 PM
★BURGER KING, HALF WAY TREE @ 7:45 PM
★BOULEVARD SHOPPING CENTRE @ 8:30 PM

RETURN TRIP: SUNDAY, AUGUST 3rd, 2008. JUNGLE NIGHT CLUB 4:00 PM SHARP

WE WILL GET YOU TO NEGRIL FOR THE KICK-OF OF THE PARTY WEEKEND ON THURSDAY & BACK FOR WORK BY MONDAY.

REGISTRATION FORMS AVAILABLE AT:

★SHOPPERS DEN, CHANCELLOR HALL, UWI MONA

★PARADISE COlLLECTIONS,SHOP 8B BOULEVARD SHOPPING CENTRE. KINGSTON 20
Phone: 934-1495

★PARADISE COLLECTIONS
SOVEREIGN CENTRE, 106, HOPE ROAD
Phone: 978-0841

COST: $3500 To & FROM NEGRIL

WHATS IN THE PACKAGE:
★MIX DRINK INCLUSIVE
★CRANBERRY INCLUSIVE ( FOR THE DRIVER & SUBSTITUTE DRIVERS.)
★ROAD TO NEGRIL GAMES
★'NUH MEK NUH TROUBLE'
★'A MI FI TELL YUH'
AND MUCH MORE!!!!!!!!!

WE WILL ASSURE YOU:
☻RESPONSIBLE SHUTTLES!!!
☻RESPONSIBLE DRIVERS!!!
☻RESPONSIBLE FRIENDS!!!
☻RESPONSIBLE DRINKING!!!

☺UNLIMITED FUN & VIBES☻

★★★SPECIAL NOTE★★★:
WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE VOYAGERS, STAYS WITH THE VOYAGERS. GUARANTEED.

SO PACK UP GET READY & GET ON BOARD

FOR MORE INFO CALL 419-5221 or 321-3869

or message me ( A.J 'TUMBLE' B) on facebook for more info.

FOR ONLINE BOOKINGS EMAIL:
voyageentertainment@gmail.com

Stating your name, address, contact, number and email, and we will get back to you.

★★★VOYAGE ENTERTAINMENT★★★
We don't do trips, because life is a VOYAGE.

Drink Responsibly, Negril Fight

sauber — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:58:19 +0000

Don't end up like this fucking fool lmao!!, Hear the lady bout the man haffi buy back her rake lol.

All Roads Point To Negril!!!

sauber — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Don't be the only person in Kingston this Independence Weekend, You'll be like Will Smith in I Am Legend, you better lock up when night fall!! lol, But on a more serious note here is the party line up for R.T.I., we haven't gotten the full details on all the parties yet nor have we listen info. on the Temptation Live series, so if your really interested check back in a week or so. The parties we do have information on are as follows.

Thursday July 31st J.D.H.P and Renaissance will hosting TEMPTED Hawaii, which is Delano's Birthday Party and the official Negril Welcome Party. This all inclusive party will cost you $1,500, but it is surley worth every dollar, with Musical selections by Renaissance, ZJ Liquid and Black Chiney, expect a night fill with good vibes and top quality entertainment

Saturday August 1st marks arguably the most anticipated party of the R.T.I. lineup, David Wrights' Day Dreams has set the standard for day parties (which have been on the rise eg. Tease, Taboo, Malibu Sunset etc.). With a sexy and sophisticated all white theme Day Dreams transforms the Solaris Estate into an immaculate escape. Although we haven't been prompted on this years DJ line up, Kurt Riley and Jazzy T graced the wheels of steel along with Mr Shaun. Day Dreams 2008 is expected to be just as extravagant if not more than last years, so all you party goers, if you have never already heard of or attended this event (You need help!) be sure to this year check it out this year.

Saturday August 1st D.N.A. Entertainment present Pretty In Pink, a Super Drinks Inclusive party, by which it name suggest carries a pink theme. First 100 ladies in pink enter free, then it's $1,500 for both males and females. Musical selection from Razz and Biggie, Tony "Dutty Wine" Matterhorn and ZJ Liquid. As always there will be lost of prizes and give away, this year the promoters will be giving away a Black Berry Pearl an L.G. Shine and Round Tickets To Miami

Saturday August 2nd Absolute Entertainment will transform the Long Bay Football Field into STAGES Club Rio. This Ultra All-Inclusive party will featuring musical selections by Renaissance, DJ Prostyle, DJ Renegade, DJ Entyce, DJ Lennox and Black Chiney. With a price tag of $3,000 Pre-sold and $3,500 at the gate Absolute Entertainments' STAGES never fails to please.

Saturday Augst 2nd Mardi Gras comes to Negril. Jokers Wild presents COLOURS Jouvert Flavour at Long Bay Beach Park, 10pm-Until. Musical sections by DJ XCaliber (from Trinidad), Bambino (from Miami), Renaissance (DJ Smoke and Jazzy T) and DJ Rengade (from Miami). Admission $1,500, Drink Inclusive. Jouvert Truck on the road at 5am.

Sunday August 3rd is official date of WILD SIDES 7th Anniversary, "Foam Feva". Music by Stone Love, Renaissance Disco, XCalibur Disco, Kurt Riley and many more. At MargaritaVille from 12pm-until, Drinks Inclusive.

Sunday August 3rd it's FUSION The Negril Clash at Chances. this party will feature a clash between R.T.I. Promoters and R.T.I. DJs. Admission $1,000

Coming Soon : Bruk Pockets' Guide To Enjoying R.T.I./A.T.I.

www.atiweekend.com

A.T.I. and DAYDREAMS flyers were printed by independent agencies. Sauber™ Takes No credit for their designs.

BE AWARE!

shanksmart — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:52:40 +0000

AIDS

No other word engenders as much fear, revulsion, despair and utter helplessness as AIDS. Despite increased AIDS awareness, the terror persists. AIDS is, in fact, rewriting medical history as humankind's deadliest scourge. With 40 million deaths forecast in this millennium, statistics tell their own sordid tale.

THE RED RIBBON EXPRESS

The Red Ribbon Express or train itself comprised of seven coaches, equipped with: educational material, primarily on HIV/AIDS, interactive touch screens and 3-D models, PPTCT services in the context of RCH II, HIV-TB co-infection, an LCD projector and platform for folk performances, counseling cabins and two doctors’ cabins for providing counselling and syndromic treatment for STI and RTI cases, an office, dining area and pantry.

The RRE Project was flagged off from Delhi by the Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Hon’ble Chairperson, UPA & Chairperson, at 10 AM on World AIDS Day, which is 1st December 2007. The project focuses on youth groups, women self-help group members, adolescents/student community from schools and colleges, PRI members, youth in uniformed services and out-of-school/non-student youth, particularly in the rural areas.

OUR OUTLOOK.

Well, the class was very much keen to visit the place. It was intriguing. Everybody made their visits to the place at their respective times. The express was there in agra for two days.. 18-19 of December.

Everyone snapped photos of what they found informative. We even had to write bout the visit to the place.. so in a way we were pushed into the whole thing for our benefit. Thanks to Sir Ulrick, who hustled us.. and didn't come with us.. for our own good. :)

[caption id="attachment_76" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="SURAKSHA CHAKRA"][/caption]

The trip was fantastic.

[caption id="attachment_77" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Women Power!"][/caption]

Quite knowledgeable.. i must say!!

" Your comments are welcome. "

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Welcome to the RTI Town Hall

insenar — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:53:47 +0000

This is BlogCity's RTI Town Hall. Within these walls are individuals whom wish to dialogue, debate, and collaborate. Parents may wish to have questions answered about the RTI process. Teachers may want to collaborate about teaching practices specific to RTI. Administrators may want to make remarks or give additional information to the "group" as a whole. Whatever the case may be...this is the forum. Any comments, please come to floor and be acknowledged.

Welcome to The Parent Penthouses!

insenar — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:29:19 +0000

Parents play a vital role in the education of their children. They are on the forefront of education along with teachers and administrators. That is why you deserve a special place of your own...The Penthouse Suites. As you probably already noticed, it comes with a view.

As I stated before, your opinion, concerns, and feedback are important. This forum is for you. I hope it proves to allow you the space to ask questions and dialogue with other parents and educators. This part of the neighborhood will be addressing, RTI: Response to Intervention. For some of you this may be a new term that you are unfamiliar with right now. My goal is to inform you about the process and give you further resources so that you "remain in the loop".

If you haven't had the opportunity to read through my InfoSite - RTI: Response to Intervention, I ask that you take advantage of it's resources. It will prepare you to ask questions and dialogue more with others on this page. When you think you are ready...start typing!

RTI APPEALS

nagmysr — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:52:30 +0000

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e - Voice Of Human Rights Watch - e-news weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraj.M.R....vol.4 . issue.26......28/06/2008

Editorial : AN APPEAL TO HONOURABLE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSIONER , NEW DELHI & STATE INFOR MATION COMMISSIONER , BANGALORE.

We at e-voice of human rights watch has requested for following information ( ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ) from honourable CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF INDIA , NEW DELHI , UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI , DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE , COMMISSIONER , BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY , BANGALORE & COMMISSIONER , MYSORE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY , MYSORE , as per RTI Act . All of them have failed to provide complete truthful information to us.

Full Case details are given at following web page,

RTI APPEAL TO HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

RTI APPEAL TO UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

RTI APPEAL TO DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,

http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

RTI APPEAL BDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE

http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/ ,

http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,

RTI APPEAL TO BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE

http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,

Hereby , we do once again request you to order the said public servants - to comply with RTI Act & to provide the full information to us at the earliest. JAI HIND. VANDE MATARAM.

Your's sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

INDIAN JUDICIAL & LEGAL SYSTEM INDIRECTLY IN THE CLUTCHES OF MAFIA

In India , justice , equality & democracy an illusion . all those words are only there is in statuette books , but not in practice . the rich & mighty crooks are committing gravest crimes & escaping from the hands of law by manipulating evidences , by bribing the public servants to create favourable government reports , records. Poor
people who have suffered injustices are not getting justice due to lack of evidences & government reports , records to prove their case.

CORRUPTION IS THERE RIGHT FROM GOVERNMENT MATERNITY HOSPITAL UPTO
GRAVEYARD , THROUGHT THE WALK OF ONE'S LIFE.

The corrupt public servants are more cruel , damaging criminals than our previous british oppressors or dawood ibrahim & other under world dons. The gravest threat , damages to india's security & national integrity is more from these corrupt public servants than Pakistan or china or other terrorist outfits. These corrupt public servants can stoop to any level in their greed for money. The present state affairs is a shame to our political & legal system and a barometer , indicator to their efficiency.

Recently , we have seen in the media , how people of bihar meated out mob justice to a criminal , that will be the fate of corrupt police , doctors , other officials in the future. But the violence is not the answer , that will only lead towards anarchy. We must establish true democracy of bapuji's dreams , true freedom , equality for all in practice for which so many of our fore fathers , freedom fighters sacrificed their life for.

THE ANSWER LIES IN ACCOUNTABILITY OF PUBLIC SERVANTS , ALL CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES INCLUDING JUDGES , TO THEIR PAY MASTERS - MONARCHS OF DEMOCRACY ie CITIZENS OF DEMOCRATIC INDIA. Hope this will dawn on our public servants that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS NOT PUBLIC MASTERS.

Failure of RTI Act in India

- In the clutches of corrupt public servants mafia

In the courts of law , every statement to be valid must be supported by evidences. That too, the statements of public servants / government officials & their reports in government records are considered as sacrosanct , the ultimate gospel truth by courts of law.

The corruption has spread it's tentacles far & wide in the public service. The bribe booty is shared by lower to higher officials. If an official is complained against , his higher official conducts a formal investigation & reports in the record that lower official is not guilty.

The vigilance authorities / Karnataka lokayukta has recently raided on police , tax officials & seized illegal wealth amounting to crores of rupees. Take the recent case where in senior IPS officer , superintendent of police chamarajanagar , mr.srikantappa was arrested by Karnataka lokayukta. The victims spoke to media that he used to threaten them with false cases. In this way , how many victims / innocents were arrested & tortured by his arrest warrants ? how many innocents suffered in false cases ? how many rich criminals got scot free , by srikantappa's filing of B reports leading to closure of cases ?

In the past how many suffered by srikantappa's actions ? has the court subjected to review all the previous actions of srikantappa throught his corrupt career ? if not , why ?

The courts of law has taken the official reports , records of mr.srikantappa as gospel truth & indirectly aided rich criminals & harmed innocents. It is the same case with respect to reports of all government officials ï¿½ police , labour , tax , etc. the rich criminals buy out government officials & make them write favourable report about themselves. Whereas the poor , innocents suffer from adverse reports & injustices. The courts of law takes the government records at it's face value & meat out injustices to the poor , innocents while aiding the rich criminals.

When a commoner requests for information as per RTI Act , the government officials either give incomplete information , false information or decline to give information under one pretext or the other. The officials are damn sure that the truthful information will be detrimental to themselves & will be taken as evidence against themselves in the courts of law. So information , truth is not given. Even information commissions are failing here. Thereby, the public are denied to seek justice in the courts of law , by lack of evidences.

The courts of law before accepting the records of government officials , must subject it to a "test of truth". When a government report is contested against , a fact finding team comprising members of public , complainant , respondent & the court , must check it out at the ground level. Orelse when a complainant says that the report of a government official ï¿½ police , labour , tax , etc as false that government official must be subjected to lie detector test , narco-analysis, ertc by court of law. The questionnaire ie the questions to be asked during the scientific test are to be prepared with feedback from both complainant & respondent's side. In that way , impartially truth can be found out. After all , the objective of courts of law is "Quest for Truth", not just giving out judgements based on reports of corrupt officials.

Nowadays , we are even seeing reports of corruption among the judiciary itself. If a complaint against a judge is made out that a level ground is not provided to put up one's case in the court or cross examination of one party is not allowed or lie detector test / narco analysis of one party is not allowed ( in turn taking the lies of that party as truth ), the judge making a varied interpretation of law, the judge not safe guarding the health & life of the complainant in the custody of police leading to 3^rd degree torture of complainant by police , etc, in all such cases the supreme court of India must change the presiding judge of such cases , the cases must be thoroughly reviewed & the guilty judge must be subjected to narco-analysis , lie detector test , etc & legally prosecuted. In this back drop , accountability of police & judges to the public ie citizens of India ï¿½ kings of democracy , is a must. After all , the kings of democracy / citizens of India / taxpayers are the paymasters of all public servants.

We at e ï¿½ voice of human rights of watch have utmost respect for the judiciary & all government institutions. It is the corrupt few in those institutions who are themselves bringing disgrace to the august institutions they occupy , by their corrupt deeds. The saving grace is that still honest few are left in public service & it is an appeal to them , to legally prosecute their corrupt colleagues.

In India , the private enterprises are the wealth creators of our economy. However , some private enterprises are violating labour laws , tax laws , human rights & fundamental rights of people. In turn harming the public , looting the tax dues. This is creating black money causing various social evils in the society. These huge private enterprises take loans from public sector banks ie take public's money as loans , collect money from public in the form of shares , debentures , sell their product to the public. Still , they are not covered by RTI Act, they don't give truthful information to the public nor allow public inspection of their sites , why ? they buy out concerned government officials & gets them to write favourable report about themselves. There are wide differences between the ground reality & these government reports. If the aggrieved person , victim of injustices meated out by these private enterprises , tries to legally seek justice, these criminal private enterprises buy out police , concerned officials & fixes up the victim in false cases. The police in total disregard to law violates the human rights & fundamental rights of the victim in custody , subjects the victim to 3^rd degree torture in custody. The presiding judge of the case doesn't safe guard the rights , health , life of victims in custody. The judge doesn't check out the truthfulness of government reports & passes on judgement making varied interpretation of just remember the case of "local citizens vs coca cola company" in plachimada , kerala.

Is it not right & just in such cases , to subject the presiding judge , police , concerned government officialds & most importantly key officials of that criminal private enterprise to lie detector , narco- analysis tests , to know the truth ? is it not right to conduct the inspection of alleged site , review of all company's records , by a team comprising of members from public , court , complainant & respondent ?

Some of these criminal enterprises threaten to finish off the poor victims . as these company's have money power they can buy out rowdies , police & capable of doing anything. In such cases , if anything untoward happens to the victim or his family , are not the officials of such criminal enterprise liable to pay compensation to the victims's family or survivors ?

In India , do we truly have democracy & freedom ? is this corrupt India ï¿½ what our freedom fighters dreamt of & fought for ?

History of Corruption in Indian Judiciary since Independence: 1947 - 2003

1949: Mr. Justice Sinha only Judge impeached; courtesy Good Judges & Constitution Framers: Our Fore-Fathers represented by Constituent Assembly of India framers of Constitution of India then in 1949 (year before Consitution came into existence) impeached Mr. Justice Sinha; finding him "guilty of improper exercise of Judicial functions, the cumulative effect of which was to lower the dignity of his office and undermine the confidence of the public in the administration of justiceâ€¦" [008.07].
Such/ similar acts/ behaviours by whom-so-ever including Judges is since 1971 is covered as an act of Criminal Contempt of Court [041.05 ]. Not a single Judge is either Impeached or hauled-up for Contempt till 1991.
Peoples' Inner Hope Courts to maintain their Majesty & Dignity will prosecute 1000 Judges in context, who have tarnished & undermined the Fair image of Judiciary.
Let Judges relish Jail for months if not years ; to asses personally the convinences-N-comforts provided even to innocent citizens or persons who were not having Rs. 100 to give as Bail. Then they will be in better position to Transform Jails into Reformation Centres. Jailing corrupt Judges by Judges , we hope will instill confidence of people in Courts & law. Who-is-who of India then only will scare to get into any scam nor Criminals will think of becoming Legislators.

1979 : Chief Justice Mr. K. Veeraswami ; Chief Justice of India permitted Central Bureau of India to file case of Dis-proportionate of Income / wealth against Chief Justice Madras High Court Mr. K. Veeraswami ( father-in-law of Mr. Justice V. Ramaswami ). 30 years elaped. Sheltered by Courts' easy-go-tactic. [049.04] [059.05 ]

1991-93: Mr. Justice V. Ramaswami ( son-in-law of Chief Justice Mr. K. Veeraswami [049.04 ] ) : SAWANT COMMITTEE REPORT had held he is guilty of several charges. Supreme Court of India also upheld guilty of 3-4 charges ; & recommended to Parliament for further action. Parliamentarians failed in their Duty to Impeach the Sitting Judge of Supreme Court Mr. Justice V. Ramaswami ; not rising to the Heights of Eminent Constitution makers ; but chose to have unholy alliance with Corruption in Judiciary vis-a-vis Legislature & Government.[008.00 ].
Supreme Court which upheld Charges of Mis-Behaviour also , we opine , failed to prosecute him under Contempt of Court Act & relevant Laws . It also failed " To Do Complete Justice" by invoking Article142 . Criminal Judge was allowed to go scot-free; both by Parliament & Supreme Court !
Good precedent for other Judges ? If so What kind of message to we-innocent-Citizens ? For almost complete proceedings in SC & Parliament: [008.00 ]

1995 A.M. BHATTACHARJEE: The chief justice of the Bombay High Court was forced to resign in 1995 after it was found that he had received Rs.70 lakh as book advance from a publishing firm known to have links with the underworld.

1996 AJIT SENGUPTA: The Calcutta High Court judge made it a routine to issue ex parte, ad interim stay orders on anticipatory bail pleas from smugglers having links with the Mumbai underworld. He was arrested in 1996 for FERA violations after retirement

1994 to 1997: A.M. AHMADI: When he was Chief Justice of India (October 1994-March 1997), his daughter, a lawyer in the Delhi High Court, caused eyebrows to be raised for getting "special" treatment from certain judges. When some members of the bar sought a resolution banning lawyer relatives of judges from staying in the same house, the CJI got members to defeat the motion.

2000 A.S. ANAND: As Chief Justice of India. (a) He was accused of using his position to get the subordinate judiciary to rule in favour of his wife and mother-in-law in a suit that had been barred by limitation for two decades.For more: [049.05] [049.05A] [049.05B] [049.05C] [049.05D] [049.05E ] called as TANGLED PLOT. Also read Ram Jethmalani's " BIG EGOS, small men ". (b) Supreme Court , while he was CJI,directed a CBI probe after a dispute arose over his age in 2000. The investigation report was not made public.This arose due to scan copy published in Ram Jethmalani's " BIG EGOS, small men ".

2002: SEX FOR ACQUITTAL
In November 2002, Sunita Malviya, a Jodhpur-based doctor, alleged that a deputy registrar of the Rajasthan High Court had sought sexual favours for himself and for Justice Arun Madan to "fix" a case in her favour. Justice Mr.Â· Arun Madan . Case of Lady Sunita Malviya.STATUS: A committee set up by former CJI G.B. Pattanaik found prima facie evidence against Madan, who does not attend court anymore. Judge Resigned

CASH-FOR-JOB :Three judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court sought the help of disgraced PPSC chief R.P. Sidhu to ensure that their daughters and other kin topped examinations conducted by the commission . Judges are M.L. Singh , Mehtab Sing Gill & Amarbir Singh
STATUS: Two inquiry panels indicted the judges. Gill and Amarbir Singh have resigned M.L. Singh continues, though no work is allotted to him.

2002-03: 3 Judges Mysore Sex Scandal ( alleged ) : On Sunday, November 3, 2002, three judges of the Karnataka High Court, along with two women advocates, allegedly got involved in a brawl with a woman guest at a resort. The police arrived but reportedly didn't take action. Judges are N.S. Veerabhadraiah , V. Gopalagowda &Â· Chandrashekaraiah .STATUS: The three-judge inquiry committee appointed by the CJI filed its report. Gave clean chit.

March 2003 - Delhi High Court Judge resigns: Suspected of collusion with Property Developers. Raids by CBI on corrupt higher officials in Delhi Development Authority (DDA), found Draft Judgement-N-Court Records

E(I)nquiry-in-camera or In-House Inquiry was & is contrary to Law . Is ultra vires Article 14 of Constitution of India: " The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India"
Following Questions / Issues, inter alia , arise

( a ) Enquiry in-camera was held contrary to the observations made by, Constituent Assembly of India in 1949. In its' Impeachment Order had held thus:"While we are alive to the desirability, in the interests of the public, of investigating charges against a Judge in open court, we held the Enquiry in-camera in view of the allegation made in the affidavits and the circumstances of the case. This mode of proceeding should not, however, be regarded as a precedent." [008.07 ].
( b) In the case of similar In-House Inquiry held under the Orders of Chief Justice of India in Jusice V. Ramaswami's case , Justice Ramaswami had held that " Inquiring Committee" as well as " Inquiry" have no basis & force of law. It is reflected in the Report , which was read-out by CJI to Advocates & publicised , submitted by 3 Judges Committee thus" Indeed Justice Ramaswami had made it clear to the Chief Justice that he did not recognise any such Jurisdiction in any body or authority."
(c) It will not be out-of place to mention here that Two of "Three Judges Committee " appointed by CJI in Re. V. Ramaswami's case are alleged to be involved in Judges Plot 4 Plot.[014.00]. It is like Criminal investigating another criminal .
( d ) If so how sure can we be that " 3 Judges Committee " appointed to invetigate " 3 Judges Mysore Sex Scandal " were un-biased or were above Board & have presented an accurate Report ?

Queries to Supreme Court , Parliament of India & Central Government
In Re. Judges' Mysore Sex Scandal
( a)" Will the Supreme Court Publicise Report of " 3 Judges Committee " ( all & sundry material); morefully to know whether any evidence adduced by many in support of Scam is informed to CJI & Supreme Court ?
(b) What is the Guarantee that despite prima facie evidence Judges of Supreme Court which consists of Few corrupt Judges seved in Karnataka are not inclined to take stern action ?
(c) Investigation of a Crime comitted by Minister or anyone lies within Executive Domain like the case Justice K.Veeraswami, in this case CBI . Is it not a case of hushing-up & messing-up of " 3 Pillars of Constitution " ?.
(d) How long will you try keeping suppressed Crimes of Judges of Supreme Court & High Courts when Union Law Minister Mr. P. Shiva Shankar , on 28th Nov.1987 said " Supreme Court is filled with FERA violators & Bride Burnersâ€¦" ( AIR 1988 SC 1208 ). When Chief Justice Of India Justice E.S. Venkataramaiaha admits that "in every High Court there are 3-4 Judges who are out every evening to Party in Foreign Embassiies or at Advocates' placesâ€¦drinkâ€¦dineâ€¦" (1990 Cr LJ 2179 ) [041.09].
(e) 20% of Judges are corrupt , indirectly said Chief Justice of India Mr. Justice S.P. Bharucha , in other words admitted that 80% of Judges of India are not corrupt & are above board to be bribed or influnced ? Then why cases are not filed against 20% of Judges ?

LOSS of Confidence in Judiciary : The Actions & Inactions of Supreme Court trying to suppress crimes of Judges has resulted in We, the People of India losing confidence in Courts & given rise to a Question whether at all People of India's Fundamental & Statutory Rights are safe in present set of Judges & Courts and Laws Governing thereof ?

Conscience of Judiciary Shaken: Supreme Court of India: "Police Raj" it said when Judges all over India went on a kind of strike; for the reason that a District Judge in liquor prohibited Gujarat State in 1991; drunk & misbehaved , police acted as per law or so. Conscience of Judiciary was shaken the Court claims. What was it to do with Judges all over India? Have they ganged-up as One to help each other & continue crimes but still go unpunished? Punish Dutiful Police?

"Police Raj" to "Judges Tyranny": Judges serving all over India have formed an Assocition called " All India Judges Association ". At the time when One Party System in Parliament managed by Congress was to give way to Multi-Party System (1989 & 1991 General Elections); Supreme Court gave Judgments in 1992 & 1993 upholding that Judges of subordinate courts of India are not Employees. They are like Ministers / M.L.A.s but not on par of Civil Servants [037.02][037.02A ]. Inter alia Court said Central Govt. should set-up " All India Judicial Services " & " National Judicial Pay Commission ". Supreme Court continuously monitored to see that Pay Commission (FNJPC) is constituted but failed to monitor setting-up of All India Judicial Services [055.02 ]. What Judges want is more Liberty / Perks / Powers but no liabilities / Duties. Un-bridled they want to be as Judges of Supreme Court & High Court. FNJPC was also given power to give Interim Relief to Judges. Non setting-up of National Judicial Academy [008.15 ] & All India Judicial Services is nothing but Fraud on Constitution & Supreme Court

Criminal Politicians Vs Criminal Judges : Hats off for the Judgment of Supreme Court striking-down of Parliamentary Act amending Representatives of Peoples Act. Court said Come Clean Mr. Politicians in relation to diclosure of their Criminal , Financial & other such antecedents so as to help electorate of India to decide whether to vote for good or bad person in elections. But this 50 years belated Judgment came as Bolt from Blue to politicians. In this perod Aliens, Anti-nationals, Criminals & all sundries had a field Day.

But then What about Criminal / Corrupt / Judgment-for-Sex Judges ?: The Supreme Court was unanimous in the Judgment of corrupt politicians. Parliament is not unanimous to Bridle Judges or judiciary. Nor is the Supreme Court ready to find ways & means to Tame / Terminate / Jail the Corrupt / criminal / Judgment-for-Sex Judges. Such inactions of Supreme Court or High Court is nothing short of giving leverage to such of them. It looks as though Supreme Court on its own is eroding faith of Public in Judiciary as a whole. Like Termites these Judges are Constitutional-Enemies-Within-India who are bent upon to disseminate corruption among other Good Judges.

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Round the Island Race

emilyboats — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:41:50 +0000

Sailing a yacht around the island of wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI).

Onboard video from Round the Island Race. Yacht sailing on the back of the island of Wight in the UK.

Yachts sailing around the island of Wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI).

Sailing round the island of Wight in the Round the Island Race (RTI). Yachts in the UK.

Destroying Public Property

thinkrational — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:08:30 +0000

So many times we see public property being destroyed in the name of protest. In fact, burning govt offices, buses has become a norm in every so called protest. We have seen this happen even in the recent episodes of farmer protests.

Somehow the populace has come to an understanding that the only way to teach a lesson to the government is by pelting stone at KSRTC and BMTC buses and burning them as well. What brought them to this conclusion is only anybody's guess. How can burning buses help any cause they are protesting for?

These people just don't seem to understand that they are hurting themselves by such actions. Usually it the local buses that bear the brunt of such protests. The likely consequence is that there will be shortage of buses plying in that route from the next day. It is so ironic that the same people will then start cursing the GOVT for not providing the service. The resources spent on repairing/replacing could have well spent on adding additional service.

Somehow, the general feeling of ownership is not imbibed into the population. People do not seem to understand that anything Govt owns is indirectly paid by them in the form of different taxes. Offcourse, most people do not pay taxes which is a totally different issue that needs to debated. Until such ownership feeling is developed, such behavior will continue to prevail.

Another issue is, there is no credible deterrence against such acts. How many times have we read about people being sent to jail for burning a bus or pelting stones on Govt vehicles? In the absence of such deterrence, there is a general feeling that anything done in the name of protests will be allowed to fade off or the matter is closed once the incidents fades off the public memory. Nobody knows what happened to all those arrested during Dr. Rajkumar's funeral procession or many such incidents. There are also news that police had made arrests after the recent violence in hubli-dharwad and haveri. But there is no official word about the status.

We also see statements by some of the politicians to take back cases against farmers who were protesting for fertilizers. Doesn't that mean that such politicians directly abet destructive behavior during such protests? Is it really good for the development of the society? What message do we give out by such statements to the general populace?

Government should strongly come out against such acts of violence both by educating the public against such acts as well as taking strong measures like enacting laws, making arrests and making sure that those arrested are sent to jail in a timely manner. If for example a person is sent jail for a year for torching a bus, then that would definitely make people think about indulging in such acts.

There are ample opportunities to set right the wrong notions in the society. The only lacking factor is the "WILL" both from the part of GOVT and the society!!!! It will be very interesting to see how the GOVT headed by CM B.S yaddyurapp and the new Home Minister Dr. V.S Acharya handle such cases. Also, in this age if RTI, why is the media not highlighting the issue by finding out the status of the previous cases?

Please tell us what you think about this issue.

NREGA - Kill for work program!

wordlyaffair — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:26:23 +0000

Recently, two people were killed in isolated independent incidents, both very alarming and revealing of an underlying untruth.

Mr. Lalit Mehta, an activist of Vikas Sahyog Kendra, was trying to organise social audits to help the NREGA function better.

We are deeply disturbed by the recent murder of Lalit Kumar Mehta, member of Vikas Sahyog Kendra (Palamau District), who was brutally killed on 14 May 2008 as he was returning from Daltonganj to Chhattarpur on a motorcycle.
The circumstances of this murder are disturbing. Lalit (aged 36), an active member of the right to food campaign and Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, has been working in this area for more than 15 years on issues related to the right to food and the right to work. He was a very gentle person and his work was widely appreciated. However he was also fearless in exposing corruption and exploitation, and often came in the way of vested interests.
At the time of this incident, Lalit was helping a team of volunteers from Delhi and elsewhere to conduct a social audit of NREGA works in Chainpur and Chhattarpur Blocks of Palamau District. Attempts had already been made to dissuade the team from conducting this investigation, particularly in Chainpur Block. Is it a coincidence that Lalit was murdered just one day after the investigation began?
If this murder was an act of intimidation, it did not succeed. Friends and supporters from all over Jharkhand gathered at Vikas Sahyog Kendra on 17 May. They unanimously resolved to continue the campaign against corruption and exploitation in this area. [link]

Mr. Kameshwar Yadav tried to use RTI to get the NREGA details, he was another activist who wanted to verify the system to help it work better.

Giridih, June 8: In a rerun of the Lalit Mehta murder case, Kameshwar Yadav, an NREGA activist, was killed by unidentified gunmen near Gaadi village about nine last night.

Kameshwar was returning to his Khatori residence — about 75km from here — after taking part in a CPI-ML bandh over the fuel price rise in block headquarters Deori.

Rajkumar Yadav, a CPI-ML state committee member, said being a morally upright person, Kameshwar had questioned — under the Right to Information Act — the nexus flourishing among officers, leaders, contractors and middlemen regarding minor irrigation work in Deori.

Kameshwar was also a block committee member of the party. CPI-ML leaders, including MLA Vinod Singh, blocked the Jamua-Koderma road for around six hours today demanding the arrest of criminals. Giridih SP Murari Lal Meena said that the killers would be arrested within June 13. [link]

NREGA is a wonderful scheme, it is aimed at guaranteeing the constitutional right to work to rural people by providing employment to one person from each household in rural areas. It is a flagship of the congress government and was flouted very proudly at the congress 4 year anniversary. But there are many skeletons in the closet. Mr. Mihir Shah writes about the discrepancies in implementation.

But even after the enactment of NREGA, things have been slow to change at the grass-roots. Displaying remarkable ingenuity, the old order is already finding ways to sidestep the radical provisions of the Act. Contractors deploy machines with impunity, even as forged muster rolls are filled up with fictitious names and thumb-marks of workers, to show as if the work was done by labour. This is especially the case in States like Jharkhand, which still do not have elected Gram Panchayats. [link]

Even Mr. Shourie in his article has raised some objections about how 'right' data is filled after initial data is pencilled in so that the performance of the flagship program of Congress remains grande.

After citing what the PM, FM, etc. have been saying about ensuring outcomes and not being lulled by outlays, Saxena asks, and ‘How is outcome delivered in the states?’, and answers, ‘By falsifying records!’ He cites the tour observations of a person in a position to know, and unlikely to state things that would embarrass the Government:

‘We discovered that all data of children at the centre for the past five months, weight, vaccinations, health records etc, were filled in with pencils. On probing further, I found it was done so that in case of an official inspection, the figures could be erased and “correct” data inserted to make the centre’s performance look good!’

The writer? The Congress MP, Sachin Pilot. Recalling such accounts, Saxena observes, ‘The practice is so widely prevalent in all the states, presumably with the connivance of senior officers, that the data reaching GOI [according to a recent study by the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development] shows only 8% as the overall percentage of malnourished children in case of 0-3 years (with only one percent children severely malnourished), as against 46% reported by NFHS-3.

What is equally astonishing is the fact that records show a steep decline in the percentage of malnourished children from 29% to 8%, which is totally at variance with the findings of the various NFHS surveys. By sending bogus reports the field officials are thus able to escape from any sense of accountability for reducing malnutrition.’ [link]

Someone had felt constrained to exclaim at the state of affairs to describe it as 'Loot for work program', and after these killings, it is tending towards a 'kill for work program'!

Lalit was killed on the 14th May, and the congress celebrated its four years on the 23rd May, touting NREGA as their proud achievement. Either the congress is cheeky enough to take us voters lightly or it is sure it wont return to power. Either way, we'll show them.

Can RTI Work? We Went To The Moon, Right?

Greg Forster — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:32:26 +0000

(Guest post by Reid Lyon)

Jay’s analysis of Response to Instruction, also known as Response to Intervention (RTI), and the need for additional reforms to help ensure effectiveness is provocative and informative. I agree with a good deal of his analysis but feel the need to expand the discussion a bit.

First off, his piece offers a wake-up call to those who are prone to fall in love with magic bullets that will close the achievement gap and reduce referrals to special education. One of my dreams is to provide policymakers and educational leaders two free tattoos to be placed anywhere they want on their persons that read: (1) “Necessary but not sufficient,” and (2) “Great policy idea, but implementation is a bitch.” Jay’s points address both tattoos.

RTI is a noble and well researched concept. One of its major goals is to reduce referrals to special education by documenting that the student’s learning difficulties are not because of inadequate instruction in general education classrooms but because of a disability. Years ago, S. Allen Cohen provided us with a more interesting term for lousy teaching which he called “dyspedagogia” (I believe this was tongue in cheek).

But the fact is most kids identified for special education and labeled as having a Learning Disability (LD) are not LD but achieve poorly because of “dyspedagogia”. In fact, our research over the past 20 years has taught us that scientifically based early reading intervention provided through a tiered approach to instruction can reduce the percentage of LD from upwards of 22% to between 2% and 10% in some states and LEAs. This is a very good thing given that LD referrals and placements constitute about 50% of all referrals to special education, and reading disabilities comprise about 80% of kids identified with LD.

Those working on the development of RTI knew that classroom teachers and special educators are from different planets, with entirely different backgrounds in curriculum and instruction and entirely different professional languages. This makes collaboration and the provision of coherent and systematic instruction impossible. In essence, RTI was developed, in part, to underscore the need to develop a common assessment and instructional language between well intentioned teachers with different specializations so that instruction was not so fragmented, and so kids would not feel like ping-pong balls when receiving entirely different types of instruction on the same day from classroom teachers and special educators. There was no other alternative - typical colleges of education would not provide the professional development necessary to accomplish the level of shared training and collaboration skills essential for effective and differentiated instruction.

Related to this, RTI as a concept was also developed to take advantage of the converging research that prevention through early identification and intervention provides a more effective approach to reducing academic failure than hanging out waiting until the kid chucks his books through the window in the third or fourth grade. RTI procedures can differ across LEAs but they typically screen all students in kindergarten or early first grade to determine which students require enhanced instruction in the classroom or more intensive instruction in smaller groups, while still under the direction of the regular classroom teacher. If the kid demonstrates little academic (or behavioral) growth following more intense instruction, then special education becomes a possibility. It is critical to remember that being placed in special education is also a tiered process. The questions are: Does the student have a disability? (RTI contributes to answering this question); and, if yes, does the student require special education? (RTI contributes to answering this question).

So we have two elements in RTI that we know can increase achievement (at least in reading): (1) collaboration/common language and (2) prevention is where it’s at. These elements are inseparable. But we know that these two elements cannot work the way they are supposed to unless the folks who run the system know all of the potential barriers to the implementation of RTI and ensure that essential conditions to support the initiative are in place. There are examples of districts implementing successful RTI initiatives that increase students' reading achievement and reduce referrals to special education. There are other examples where the initiative has not resulted in changes in achievement or referral outcomes.

So what is going on? It will be important to figure out what works in some districts and not others. Susan Hall has recently published a very user-friendly book that lays out what districts and schools did in implementing RTI in a way that resulted in substantial reductions in referrals and significant increases in reading achievement: A Principal’s Guide: Implementing Response to Intervention. I am not hawking this book, as there are others that lay out the conditions that are essential for implementing RTI and scaling it (see Dianne Haager et al. for specific evidence of effectiveness).

The bottom line is that effective implementers of RTI have had to do a tremendous amount of study and planning to ensure that the initiative actually makes a difference. Jay lays out some the barriers, including problems with implementing a program that actually takes funding away from your district or schools, and persuading educators to replace programs and procedures that they have used for some time.

But there are others as well. For example, how do you overcome the fact that intervention services in schools are often funded by separate entitlement programs, especially Title I and IDEA, that have specific eligibility criteria that make it difficult to co-mingle funds to support school-wide programs? How do you implement programs that have been typically isolated from general education? And how can school leaders and teachers avoid the mistakes that result in limited or no effectiveness, not to mention that the excitement for change and increased morale will be crushed?

If you did a factor analysis of all the crap that can derail the implementation of RTI, these are the most common errors:

–Focusing Too Many Resources on Administering and Collecting Assessment Data Rather Than Ensuring that Staff Use the Data to Inform Instruction
-Viewing Purchased Programs as Silver Bullets Rather Than Aides to Help Well Prepared Teachers Make Informed Instructional Decisions
-Confusing Awareness Training with Implementation Training
-Using Ineffective Practices to Train Teachers
-Underestimating the Magnitude of Change
-Taking on Too Many Grade Levels and Schools the First year
-Beginning the Implementation Without a Comprehensive Implementation Plan
-Failure to View the Implementation as a Systems-Wide Change

The good news is that districts and schools that have effective RTI programs in place know they can’t make the mistakes above and provide incentives that have trumped the traditional financial rewards that have potential for increasing referral rates.

I am sure that I have taken up too much space with details that may be of little interest to policymakers. But the details are what make RTI effective, and when RTI works, it really works. However, if you can’t deal with complexity, either-or concrete thinking, or have an allergic reaction to human and systems change, you might as well blow off trying to implement RTI.

Jay has done a service laying out the big picture issues. Implementing additional reforms to increase the probability that RTI can succeed is essential, as he has articulated. But the return on investment is only as good as understanding and addressing the amount of grunt work involved. It’s that "necessary but not sufficient" thing. I know this is self-evident, but we sure keep trying to do one without the other.

A Response to Intervention

Tom Smith — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:59:46 +0000

There are many issues facing educators today, which impact the academic lives of today’s students. One issue at the forefront is the organization and implementation of a Response to Intervention model within school districts across the state. A Response to Intervention (RTI) model allows all school personnel to better integrate the services offered within districts or buildings, thereby enhancing the delivery of all available services.

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RTI is composed of three main components: A tiered system of services, a problem-solving approach, and a data collection system. First, the tiered system allows each student’s individual needs to be addressed. Services are offered through tiers: universal services offered to all students, supplemental services offered to students who need some additional support, and intensive services for those students who need extensive support. Secondly, the problem solving approach allows teams of people to work together to meet those student’s needs. Finally, the data collection system is the key component to noting how the students are progressing and achieving the necessary benchmarks.

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RTI allows for districts to increase involvement from all interested parties in a student’s education including: staff, students and parents. It automatically allows for the accountability required by federal and state legislation, and also increases student achievement. However, it is not without it’s detractions. RTI requires new skills and training across the field. Often the implementation of the data collection and management is overwhelming.

I believe that using an RTI model is beneficial when implemented in a thoughtful manner. The mind-shift and perhaps personnel shift that may need to occur should be provided through staff development and the implementation of coaching. Additionally, I believe that shifting the focus from how students are performing from where students are placed is singularly the biggest step forward in pre-referral and service delivery in decades.

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Experiences with RTI

aamjunta — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:58:50 +0000

One late evening while having tea in my room we thought of experimenting RTI to figure out the root cause of some typical problems of the Research Scholars of IIT Bombay. RTI was new to us, we did not know what to do and how to go for that. Even though we were motivated, it took 15 days to execute the plan (though the execution time was hardly 3 hours). The delta force required to overcome the inertia for filing the RTIs actually came while we were having tea in my small room (even I had burnt my left hand, fingers and wrist in that process :( ). One fine day we managed to send our RTI applications successfully with our fingers crossed. As per our expectations, we received the RTI replies in time. Though we have not achieved 100% success in solving the problems, we could at least find the root cause of the problems in most of the cases. In this post, we have explained our experience on RTI; starting from preparing the questions to getting the answers.

Case 1: UGC Fellowship Problem at IITB

Background: There are some 50+ students doing Ph.D. under UGC Fellowship Scheme at IITB. Even though UGC have revised the fellowship amount twice in the last 2 years, students were not getting their fellowship at the revised scale at IITB. To our surprise, the revised fellowship scheme was implemented in various colleges of Mumbai University. When we approached the authorities (academics as well as accounts) at IITB, they simply passed on the blame to UGC; "UGC have not paid the dues for the last 3 years, how can we give at the revised scale? and who will pay for that", was the typical response we got. They were right, UGC had not released the dues to IITB for the last 3 years (which was around Rs. 2 crore). We were not sure, whether that was a deliberate act of UGC or there were some reason behind this. So, we thought to use RTI to know the reason.

Filing RTI Application: We prepared a simple RTI Application (sample application is given below) and attached one Rs. 20/- Indian Postal Order (IITB post office did not have IPOs of Rs 10/- denomination, we used Rs. 20/- instead) to it and send that through registered post with ad.

*********Start of Application***********

To
The Public Information Officer,
University Grant Commission (UGC),
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi - 110 002, India

1. Full name of Applicant: Mr Bean
2. Address: IIT Bombay

3. Particulars of information required:
(i) Subject matter of information: Enhancement in fellowship by UGC
(ii) The period to which information relates: Current
(iii) Description of information required:

How many Research Scholars have joined IIT Bombay under the UGC Fellowship Scheme since Jan 2005 till date.
How much is the total fellowship and contingency amount to be disbursed to these Research Scholars of IIT Bombay?
How much money is actually given by UGC to IIT Bombay since Jan 2005 till date for the fellowships and contingency of the above Research Scholars?
If there is a difference between the required amount and the amount paid by UGC (item no. 2 and 3 above), when will the remaining amount be sent to IIT Bombay?

(iv) Whether information is required by post or in person: Post
(v) In case by post: Ordinary, registered or Speed post: Ordinary

(4.) Whether applicant is below poverty line: No

Signature of the Applicant

*********** End of Application*************

Getting the Answers: To our surprise, we got the response on the 30th day of our application. The response was quite positive. After receiving our RTI, UGC released Rs. 2, 14,68,941/- (the actual dues for IITB was Rs.1,98,50,047/-) to IIT Bombay in 2 installments (before the 30th day :) ). We got the answers, problem got solved without running from posts to pillars.

Case 2: MHRD Fellowship Hike for PhD Students

Background: Even though w.e.f 1st April, 2007 MHRD has increased the fellowship of Ph.D. students, the scheme is yet to be implemented in many universities. All IITs did not implement the scheme citing deficiency in fund and had requested MHRD to release extra money for this. As usual, nothing happened at MHRD. Neither MHRD acted on the joint request of all IITs nor it listened to our repeated requests (we were in touch with MHRD through different channels). Hence we thought of filing an RTI to MHRD to know the status of implementation. We prepared the following questions, attached an IPO of Rs. 20/- and sent that to MHRD by registered post with ad.

The questions:

The date on which the circular has been actually implemented at each of the following institutes : Mumbai University, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and IISc. Bangalore.
The amount and the date on which the extra money (to be disbursed for the enhanced fellowship) was actually sent to each of the above institutes.
The date on which IIT Bombay, Mumbai received the extra money and the total amount.

Getting the Answers: Unlike UGC, we did not get the answers directly here. MHRD returned our application (did not process that) citing mistakes in "Pay to" of the IPO of our application. However, to our surprise, the scheme got implemented after a week (from the day MHRD received our application) in IIT KGP followed by IIT Bombay (after we showed IIT KGP's Circular to the authorities at IITB) and in other institutes. Interestingly, we got replies from IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IISc Bangalore too on the date of implementation as MHRD had forwarded our RTI application to these institutes.

Case 3: MHRD Fellowship Hike for MTech Students

Background and the questions: Same as Case 2 above.

Getting the Answers: Unlike Case 1 & 2, we sent that application through Speed Post. No one received the application at MHRD, Delhi (receipant un-available :( ) and that got returned to us. We sent that again through registered post with ad to the same address sent before. This time they received the letter. We received their reply on the 30th day. Though the answers were positive, there was no concrete answer on the fellowship hike for MTech students. To know the status of implementation, we have filed RTIs again; this time to AICTE and MHRD both.

Comments: Frame the questions properly and send your RTI applications through registered post with ad only.

RTI International: PROGRAM DIRECTOR, INDOOR RESIDUAL SPRAYING PROGRAM, Wash DC

Heather — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:48:57 +0000

RTI International is seeking Program Director applicants for its Indoor Residual Spraying Program portfolio, to include a five year, $150 million, USAID Indefinite Quantity Contract, task orders awarded under this IQC, and additional contracts supporting the use of Indoor Residual Spraying in Africa for the prevention and control of malaria. This position will be based in Washington, DC. The IRS Program Director will serve as the primary liaison to the client, program partners, and stakeholders and will provide strategic leadership and technical and managerial direction for the implementation of the IRS Program. Funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) through USAID, RTI is providing technical and financial support to 15 countries supported by the PMI to expand the use of IRS as an intervention for malaria prevention and control.

Primary program activities include:
• Introducing the appropriate, effective, and efficient use of IRS in African countries.
• Providing technical assistance to improve the targeting and effectiveness of IRS programs in countries that already use the method.
• Providing financial assistance and procurement support alone to countries that have an established capacity for implementing strong IRS programs, but lack the resources and mechanisms to fully cover their populations at risk for malaria.
• Developing the capacity of public health institutions, municipal and district governments, and (where appropriate) private sector companies to implement IRS programs by systematically transferring greater responsibility and authority to such institutions with each round of IRS supported under the IRS IQC, and by relying on host country staff to the maximum degree possible in each assisted country.
• Dramatically improving the transparency and quality of current government and industry practices for procurement, technical support, safety, and environmental compliance by setting examples of excellence and establishing clear standards for participation in work under the IRS IQC.

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Provides strategic leadership and technical and managerial direction for the successful implementation of the IRS Program;
• Responsible for the overall performance and results of the IRS program, including management and oversight of the program’s technical, operational, and administrative teams across multiple countries;
• Serves as RTI’s primary liaison to USAID Washington, PMI representatives, and program partners and regularly interfaces with USAID Missions, government counterparts, and stakeholders in host countries regarding program performance;
• Ensures that program activities are meeting client and stakeholder expectations and that results are pro-actively disseminated;
• Leads strategic planning processes, overseeing the development and implementation of annual program work plans, performance milestone plans, etc.;
• Ensures the timely and quality completion of all program deliverables and reports;
• Directly supervises senior-level staff members, including a team of senior specialists in Washington, DC, and the regional IRS office in Nairobi;
• Ensures that the country programs and regional office are operating effectively and that planned goals and objectives are proactively met;
• Represents the IRS Program on behalf of RTI in regional or global forums, networks, consultative sessions, or conferences;

Requirements:
• Masters Degree in public health, international development, business, or related field;
• 12 – 16 years of experience managing USAID-funded development and health programs;
• Demonstrated success managing and leading technical and administrative teams in the implementation of large, multi-country, development and health programs in international settings;
• Prior experience working in a number of African countries, highly desirable;
• Must have an in-depth knowledge of USAID rules and regulations, gained from experience managing USAID projects;
• Extensive experience in client relationship management, reporting, program work planning, program budgeting, program implementation, and personnel management;
• Must have a strong knowledge of program financial management, human resources, procurement, logistics and other administrative functions;
• Ability to interact effectively with all levels of internal and external clients;
• Willingness to travel frequently. At least 30%.
• Strong written and oral presentation skills
• Foreign language fluency in French or Portuguese, desirable, although not required;
• Prior experience designing and implementing malaria and/or indoor residual spraying programs desirable, although not required.

To Apply: please visit www.rti.org. Select careers / employment and enter IRS Program Director into the search bar

This is job # 11531. We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V.

RTI International: Chief of Party - HPI Vietnam

Heather — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:45:41 +0000

Chief of Party - HPI Vietnam

RTI International is seeking Chief of Party (COP) candidates for the upcoming USAID-funded Health Policy Initiative (HPI) Vietnam project. The position will be based in Hanoi, Vietnam and will focus on three key results areas to expand and strengthen HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support, treatment and policy/system strengthening services in Vietnam.: 1) Adopting and implementing national and local HIV/AIDS policies, plans and programs based on international best practice 2) Developing, strengthening and supporting effective public sector and civil society advocates and networks to assume leadership in the policy process; 3) Ensuring that timely and accurate data is used for evidence-based decision-making and advocacy.

Responsibilities:
* Serves as RTI’s key liaison to USAID, government counterparts, local organizations, and program partners;
* Responsible for providing overall technical vision and leadership to the program. Develops and implements annual program work plans and performance milestone plans and negotiates an agreement of those plans with USAID, counterparts, and partner organizations;
* Interfaces directly with USAID on management and decision-making. Ensures that project activities are meeting client and stakeholder expectations and that project results are pro-actively disseminated;
* Provide overall direction for technical and administrative operations under the contract;
* Ensure the timely and quality completion of all program technical and financial deliverables and reports;
* Supervises and provides direction to all program technical team and administrative staff.

Qualifications:
* Masters degree in public health, or advanced degree in a related field;
* Exceptional managerial and operational experience, and preferably in managing complex activities involving coordination with multiple program partner institutions;
* A minimum of ten years of experience managing USAID-funded health programs at the level of COP, including at least five years of work experience in southeast Asia, Vietnam preferred.
* A minimum of five years working on HIV/AIDS policy development and implementation; experience working with most-at-risk populations and PLWHA groups;
* Experience in client relationship management, developing program work plans, developing program budgets, managing program implementation, managing a large staff, and fielding and managing STTA;
* Proven ability to negotiate and influence policy and program decisions with senior government and donor officials;
* Strong organizational and interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team-oriented setting;
* Strong oral and written communication skills. English language fluency. Vietnamese preferred.

How to Apply: Go to www.rti.org/intljobs and click on the International Opportunities link. Submit your application letter and detailed CV with contact information (including email) to the COP-HPI Vietnam position listed under international jobs. Only short listed applicants will be contacted. RTI is proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V.