On 15th anniv of RTI Act, report card shows massive backlog

On 15th anniv of RTI Act, report card shows massive backlog

Ambika Pandit@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:12.10.2020

A report card on the performance of the Information Commissions in India shows that over 2.21 lakh appeals and complaints were pending as on July 31 in 20 information commissions. What is more worrying is that 9 out of 29 information commissions (31%) are functioning without a chief information commissioner. Even the Central Information Commission has been without a chief since August 27 this year.

Currently, the CIC is functioning with only five commissioners as besides the post of the chief, five posts of commissioners are also vacant. The backlog of appeals/complaints has been steadily increasing and currently stands at more than 36,500 cases in case of CIC, says a report by voluntary organisation Satark Nagrik Sangathan and Centre for Equity Studies. It is pointed that the State Information Commissions of Jharkhand and Tripura are defunct in the absence of any information commissioners. Monday marks 15 years since the implementation of the Right to Information Act. The report shows that 1,78,749 appeals and complaints were registered between April 1, 2019, and July 31, 2020 by 21 information commissions. During the same time period, nearly two lakh cases (1,92,872) were disposed of by 22 commissions for whom information could be obtained. When TOI sought a response on appointments and pendency, a senior govt functionary said that the process of appointment of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) and ICs is in the conclusive stages. The PM-led selection committee had met on October 7 to consider the names recommended by the search committee for the posts of CIC and five vacant IC posts. However, the meeting was inconclusive and a second round of meeting is expected soon.

What is more worrying is that 9 out of 29 information commissions are functioning without a chief information commissioner. The Central Information Commission has been without a chief since August 27 this year

Trains running at 130kmph will now have AC coaches only

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:12.10.2020

Railways will phase out sleeper coaches on mail and express trains that will run at130kmph or above on its tracks. Such trains will have only AC coaches as it plans to upgrade the network.

While railway ministry officials said trains running at less speed will continue to have the sleeper coaches, the railways has set the December 2023 deadline to complete the upgradation of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah to enable trains to run at 160kmph. This means most of the future long distance trains on these corridors won’t have sleeper coaches.

Sources said though the railways have had this plan for quite some time, this has gained pace recently and more particularly when the Indian Railways is finalising the zerobased time table for future trains.

A railway ministry spokesperson said the ticket prices of such trains will be affordable and it should not be “misconstrued” that all non-AC coaches will be made into AC coaches.

He added AC coaches have become a technical necessity wherever the speed of the train is going to be above 130kmph. “Non-AC coaches will continue to run in trains running at 110kmph…It will be ensured that while the price of tickets of modified AC coaches remains very affordable for the passengers, the comfort and conveniences increase manifold and there is substantial reduction in travel time,” he said.

Doctor who went to Hathras faces inquiry by her med college admin

Doctor who went to Hathras faces inquiry by her med college admin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jabalpur:12.10.2020

Dr Rajkumari Bansal, the 40-year-old forensic specialist from MP’s Jabalpur, who has been accused by some media outlets of being a Naxalite and living with the Hathras victim’s family “posing as a relative”, will now face an inquiry by the administration of Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, where she works as an assistant professor.

“She went on leave without intimation. So, we will send her a show-cause notice on Monday. We are not concerned with where she went and why. Our concern is that she went on leave without information. The rest is police matter,” college dean Dr P K Kasar told TOI.

Dr Kasar said that he has seen videos of Dr Bansal at the Hathras victim’s house on TV. “If we get anything in writing from the police or government, we will take further action in accordance with law,” he said, adding that she had submitted a leave application only after returning from UP.

Dr Bansal, however, maintained that she had followed due procedure before going on leave. “People are spreading false news. I had a telephonic conversation with the head of my department for urgent leave application. No rules were violated,” she said. She further said that she never hid her identity before police in Hathras and had only gone to extend financial and moral support to the family. “I was driven by my conscience to reach out to the Hathras family,” she added.

Dr Bansal has complained to the cyber cell that her phone has been put under surveillance. She said she will take legal action against those spreading rumours about “Naxal” connections. “I was upset and disturbed following the incident and did not want a repeat of the Unnao case, where the entire family was targeted. Seeing women reporters putting up a strong fight and voicing the family’s concern, I got the courage to go there,” Dr Bansal had told TOI on Saturday. She took a train from Jabalpur to Agra on October 3 and reached Hathras the next afternoon. Dr Bansal said she had booked a return ticket to Jabalpur on October 5, but the family insisted that she stay back for two more days.

Why girls fail to match up to the boys in JEE Advanced

Rajlakshmi.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

12.10.2020

JEE Advanced 2020 maybe a winwin situation for the boys, but the girls are lagging in the race. Out of the 43,204 students who managed to clear the exam this year, only 6,707 are girls. They do not figure among the top 10, and while Moradabad girl Kanishka Mittal is the topper among girls, securing 17th rank, she is the only girl to have bagged a position among the top 20.

Girls, however, performed better this year as compared to 2019 when out of the total 38,705 candidates who cleared the JEE Advanced 2019 exam, 5,356 were female candidates. But as statistics go, girls do not go past the 10,000 mark, and the reason, according to Siddharth Pandey, JEE (Advanced) 2020 organising chairman and IIT Delhi professor, is rooted in their childhood.

“In the rural and suburban belts, where girls do not often have the flexibility to exercise their choices, many of their aspirations are forced to take a backseat. By the time they manage to crack JEE Main, their long years of conditioning becomes a huge roadblock. Many of them have the required aptitude and skills for technical education but what they lack is conviction in their strengths and abilities. These girls may also be deprived of better coaching facilities as their parents are more inclined to invest money on the boys,” he adds. Pandey feels the skewed gender ratio across technical institutes can best be addressed through an increase in the registrations of female candidates for JEE Main.

Topper among girls Kanishka agrees, saying that lesser number of girls apply for JEE Main and there is a significant number choosing Medicine over Mathematics. “If hypothetically, the girl to boy ratio were the same, there would not have been much difference in their performance and rank.”

Gender stereotyping exists, and it is by no means a recent phenomenon, says Ajit K Chaturvedi, director, IIT Roorkee that has around 20% of girl students. Among the UG, PG and PhD levels, the PhD programme has the highest percentage of girls, at 29.59%.

Full report on educationtimes.com

Spl treat: 10p for a biriyani in Trichy

Spl treat: 10p for a biriyani in Trichy

12.10.2020

Trichy: A restaurant here offered chicken and mutton biriyani in exchange of the10 paise coin, which is no longer in use, on the occasion of World Biriyani Day on Sunday (October 11.) The eatery also sold biriyani for Re 1 to Covid-19 frontline workers in recognition of their efforts. The restaurant saw a footfall of around 200 people as people queued up to grab the offer.

City-based KMS Hakkim Kalyana Biriyani said the low-cost biriyani offer was to highlight World Biriyani Day celebrated by some eateries across the state. The restaurant in its social media campaign launched a few days ago, said people, who have the old 10 paise coin can approach the outlet to grab a pack of biriyani each after handing over the coin. “We did not expect such a massive response. We had planned to sell 100 packs in return for the 10 paise coins. But, more than 200 people came with the coins,” KMS Hakkim, proprietor of the restaurant told TOI. TNN

HC fines health director for delay in appointment

HC fines health director for delay in appointment

K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Madurai:12.10.2020

Taking a serious view of the delay in appointing a doctor to a vacant post, Madras high court imposed a cost of ₹10,000 on the director of public health and preventive medicine as well as an official who held the post earlier for submitting misleading statements before the court. The court was hearing the petition filed by Dr B Dinesh Kumar who was working as assistant surgeon at the Vadamadurai primary health centre in Dindigul.

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) had issued a notification in 2014 inviting applications from eligible candidates for 33 posts of health officer in the state public health service. The provisional selection list showed the petitioner as placed in serial number one of the reserved list for Most Backward Class. Since a person who was employed in the said post belonging to the same community had resigned, the petitioner sought appointment to the post.

Justice R Suresh Kumar observed that the petitioner had filed two petitions before the court earlier, and this was the third, to get his legitimate right of appointment to the post which he ought to have been given long ago. The director of public health and preventive medicine in the positional note submitted before the court had stated that the petitioner’s name was not in the waitlist and he had subsequently written to the health secretary seeking to fill up the post as per the waitlist.

The judge observed that the office of the director, whether the earlier incumbent or the present incumbent, had not cared to fill up the vacancy. “This kind of lethargic attitude on the part of the officials, which is a public utility department, has indicated a caution that all is not well,” noted the judge and directed authorities to issue appointment order to the petitioner. Since the judicial time of the court was consumed due to submission of wrong and misleading information, the judge imposed a cost of ₹10,000 each on director of public health and preventive medicine Dr T S Selvavinayagam and Dr K Kulanthaisamy, the earlier incumbent of the post. The judge directed them to pay the same within two weeks to the registrar (administration) of HC Madurai bench which shall be used to augment the Covid-19 situation.

Khushbu says unhappy in Cong, mum on move to BJP

Khushbu says unhappy in Cong, mum on move to BJP

Jaya.Menon@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.10.2020

Amid persistent rumours of her joining the BJP, Congress national spokeswoman and actor Khushbu has conveyed to the party high command her unhappiness over the party leadership in Tamil Nadu. “Leaders of both Congress and the BJP have reached out to me,” Khushbu told TOI on Sunday, adding that she met AICC general secretary K C Venugopal three days ago to convey her angst.

In recent weeks, Khushbu had consistently denied rumours about her switching parties, saying she had been taking part in Congress meetings. She denied there was any political significance in her husband Sundar meeting TN BJP chief L Murugan last month. On Sunday, Khushbu indicated she had been given a raw deal by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee leadership but declined to confirm or deny if she was considering joining the BJP.

“The question is hypothetical,” Khushbu replied when asked about her joining the BJP. “I met Mr Venugopal and discussed the problems with him,” Khushbu said. When contacted, Venugopal said, “She told me she was having problems with the local leadership. We promised her that we will address her grievances and give her more responsibilities. She discussed with me her political ideology. I believe we can persuade her to remain with us.” TNCC president K S Alagiri said “I don’t believe these rumours”.

On Saturday, Khushbu had tweeted “Many see a change in me. Well as you age, you evolve n grow, learn n unlearn, perceptions change, likes n dislikes too, thoughts n ideas take a new shape, dreams are new-…change is inevitable.”

In July, the actor had set political tongues wagging when she welcomed the Narendra Modi government’s New Education Policy, which her party had stoutly opposed. Later, in a tweet, she denied rumours of her joining the BJP. "Sanghis can relax, pls do not rejoice. I am not moving to BJP. My opinion might be different from my party but I am an individual with a thinking mind of my own. Yes, #NEP2020 is flayed n flawed at some places, but I still feel we can look at the change with a positivity,” she tweeted. Later, she apologised to AICC leader Rahul Gandhi for her “contrary” views.

Khushbu took the political plunge in May 2010 by joining DMK. She campaigned for the party in the 2011 assembly elections and again in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections after which she quit saying her work was not recognized. She joined Congress shortly thereafter as the party’s spokeswoman.