The Delhi High Court on 20 November 2012 launched the e-court fee system at its premises to cut off the difficulty and delay in filing cases and to make the justice delivery system paperless and hassle-free.
The new system launched is a joint initiative of Delhi Government and the Computer Committee of the High Court which is headed by Justice B. D. Ahmed and it is going to allow litigants to buy stamp papers--used to file court cases online instead of having to physically stand in queue to do so. Also, the new system is fully secure as it could not be tampered with or counterfeited.
The Committee had earlier in 2008 launched a project in cooperation with the State Government to make the High Court an electronic court to reduce the use of paper and thereby making filing and disposal of cases easy.
Furthermore, there are also plans to introduce the system in the Capital’s district courts. The Computer Committee was working on it along with the Government.
The system is perfectly customer-friendly. The instant a litigant or a lawyer would make a payment for court fee, he would be immediately issued a receipt with a unique number and a bar code which could be verified at the registry at the time of filing of petitions. Once the verification is done, the number would get locked, eliminating even a remote possibility of its reuse.
Further, litigants or lawyers can make payment for court fees in cash or through cheque or pay order or draft. They could also use RTGS facility to make payment once the system goes online.
The litigants and lawyers would get a great relief as earlier at times they had to wait for several days or pay extra money to get court fee stamps of the required denominations due to their unavailability.
The court fee stamps would be available 24x7 so that filing of cases becomes easy. This is a historic step which is going to bring transparency in the administration of justice.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Delhi High Court Launched e-court Fee System making Justice Delivery System Paperless
Friday, November 16, 2012
No compromise on law and order: Akhilesh
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday took a dig at his predecessor Mayawati for describing the State as “crime pradesh,” but indicated that the law and order situation in the State needed improvement.
“Queries are being raised only on the law and order and crime situation; the opponents are unable to corner the government on roads and power, which have improved, and welfare measures like Kanya Vidya Dhan. I am hopeful that police officers will work hard to improve the law and order and U.P.’s image ( chhavi UP ki theek hogi ),” he said.
The police had been given a free hand to improve law and order and there would be no compromise on this issue.
“The common man should be safe.” Mr. Yadav directed top policemen to prepare lists of criminals and proclaimed offenders in each district.
Baat uth rahi hai, kahin na kahin koi baat to hai, kahin kuch garhbarh to hai (Questions are being raised on the law and order front, there is something wrong somewhere), Mr. Yadav said after inaugurating “Women Power Line 1090,” a police helpline service for women.
Women and girls harried by unwanted mobile calls, lewd SMSs and MMSs have to dial “1090” from cellphones and the police will spring into action.
‘Crime pradesh’
Ms. Mayawati, after a luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, questioned the Samajwadi Party government’s commitment to improve law and order and dubbed Uttar Pradesh “crime pradesh.”
It drew an immediate riposte from the Chief Minister.
He said the popularity of the SP government had baffled the BSP president.
On Thursday, without naming Ms. Mayawati, Mr. Yadav referred to her lunch with Dr. Singh and said: “After having food with the Prime Minister somebody said the law and order in U.P. was 100 per cent bad, we [Mulayam Singh and himself ] had also dined with the PM, vegetarian food was served, if non-vegetarian food had been served that somebody [who] would have said something else.”
Referring to the “Women Power Line 1090,” Mr. Yadav said he was hopeful that the scheme would help improve law and order.
NGO’s suggestion
A Kanpur-based NGO had suggested that a separate police help system for women be created.
A similar request had come during his “janata darshan” programmes.
With the number of mobile phones going up, the “1090” service would be of great help to curb the menace of unwanted and undesirable calls, he said.
Good opportunity
Health Minister Ahmed Hasan, a former top policeman himself, said this was a good opportunity for the police to strike terror in the hearts of criminals and emerge as a friend of people.
DIG, Lucknow Range, Navneit Sikeira, said complaints through 1090 would be heard by women officers and complaints on behalf of women and girls would not be entertained.
“The identity of the victim will not be disclosed, nor will she be called to the police station or office, but the police will remain in touch until the problem is solved,” he said.
The call centre and office of the women helpline has been set up in the administrative block of the Ambedkar Park built by Ms. Mayawati.
Tobacco e-auctioning platform to be inaugurated today
The Tobacco Board plans to introduce e-auctioning in all the 11 auction platforms in Karnataka by the month-end. The first tobacco e-auctioning platform located at Periyapatna in Mysore district will be inaugurated on Friday.
The e-auctioning system will be extended to all the tobacco auctioning platforms in Andhra Pradesh in the next season thus providing farmers an assured and remunerative price for their crop through a transparent bidding process.
Manju P. Pillai, Director (Auctions), told journalists here on Thursday that though farmers were getting remunerative prices in the manual auctioning system and receiving assured payments in time, there were disadvantages such as cartelisation of trade, discrimination in the allotment of bales, price ceiling, and errors in recording the price and weight. To curb such malpractices and to ensure transparency in the bidding process, it was decided to go for e-auctioning, she said.
As buyers have to physically inspect the bales and evaluate the quality of tobacco in terms of physical and chemical properties, handheld terminals in wireless networking environment will be provided at the e-auction platform.
However, given the hygroscopic nature of tobacco and variations in its physical and chemical characteristics due to changing climatic conditions, buyers prefer to physically inspect the bales before bidding and this has put certain limitations in automating the auction process, according to Ms. Pillai.
The concept was implemented as a pilot project for marking of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco at J.R. Gudern–II auction platform in Andhra Pradesh in 2008 season for a limited period and later at Hunsur for five months. The concept was well received and in the run-up to the Friday’s inauguration, farmers and tobacco cultivators have been apprised of the functioning of the system.
The board members pointed out that the bidding process would be very fast and would take only 4 to 5 seconds for sale of each bale consisting of a maximum of 150 kg. Nearly 800 to 1,000 bales of tobacco are to be auctioned every day. Each buyer will be provided with a handheld terminal (HHT) to participate in the bidding. Nearly 30 buyers will be present in each location.
Ms. Pillai said NIIT Technologies Ltd., New Delhi, was the service provider and had designed the e-auction project in all the auctioning platforms under build-own-operate model for six years.
There are nearly 42,000 registered tobacco cultivators in Karnataka who will benefit from the system. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D. Purandeswari will inaugurate the system.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Protesters in Ireland demand abortion rights in wake of Savita's death
Thousands gathered outside the Irish parliament on Wednesday night after news that Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year old woman, had died in a Galway hospital after repeatedly being denied a life-saving abortion.
Savita was 17 weeks pregnant when she developed complications with her pregnancy. Although the foetus was not viable she was repeatedly denied medical treatment. When she asked why she was told by her consultant that it was “against the law” and that Ireland “is a Catholic country”.
Her case has sparked huge outpourings of anger across the country. There have been protests in Belfast, Cork and Galway. In Galway, the city were Savita lived, a spontaneous gathering of people took place throughout the day in the city’s main square.
People arrived at the protests carrying pictures of Savita, candles and signs saying “never again”. People were furious that once again a woman died as a direct result of Ireland’s draconian abortion laws.
Abortion is illegal in all circumstances in Ireland, except where there is a direct and imminent threat to the woman’s life.
The Labour/Fine Gael government is obliged, following a 2010 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, to provide legislation for limited abortion. Yet shamefully they have refused to act.
Like every Irish government before them, they are content to kick the problem down the road or pretend it doesn’t exist. Their refusal to act to protect women in Ireland directly contributed to the circumstances that brought about Savita’s death.
On Saturday there will be a national rally to remember Savita and to call for abortion rights for Irish women.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Size and Diversity of the Indian Landscape Adds to the Difficulty of Finding Solutions - Vice President
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the size and diversity of the Indian landscape adds to the difficulty of finding solutions. A population of 1.25 billion dispersed over 4,635 communities 78 percent of whom are not only linguistic and cultural but social categories. The human diversities are both hierarchical and spatial.‘The de jure WE, the sovereign people is in reality a fragmented ‘we’, divided by yawning gaps that remain to be bridged.’ Around 30 per cent of our people live below the official poverty line and the health and education indicators, for the population as a whole, despite recent correctives, leave much to be desired. Delivering the Annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on ‘Physical Integration and Emotional Inconsonance’ organized by All India Radio (AIR) here yesterday, he said that there are, in addition, problems arising out of Naxalism and insurgency in some areas where the writ of the State runs in name only, demands for a better deal for the States of the Union, as also for tribes, dalits and most of the minorities within them. Each of these also relates to the requirements of fraternity and the achievement of national integration.
He said that hard issues agitating the public mind in different regions have come to the fore and seek acceptable solutions. B.G.Verghese has rightly observed that ‘as India’s multitudinous but hitherto dormant diversities come to life, identities are asserted and jostle for a place in the sun.’ He lists among these issues of majority and minority, centre and periphery, great and little traditions, rural and urban values, tradition and modernity and concludes that ‘this management of diversity within multiple transitions is a delicate and complex process aggravated by inexorable population growth.’
The Vice President opined that one obvious reason for this is the ripening and deepening of the democratic process in the country, the awareness generated by it, and the terms and shape of the dialogue propelled by it. Another is the failure of the State to comprehend the dimensions of change and the resultant failure to respond appropriately, without undue procrastination, and adapt existing mechanisms to newer requirements. As a result, the immediate has taken precedence over the remote; the obvious over the less obvious. There has been a shift of focus, perhaps a narrowing of the vision, with the national receding behind the regional or local. This is also evident in the domain of foreign policy where complex questions of national interest are involved and should not be impinged upon by transitory considerations.
He suggested that a beginning can, and must, be made with the loadstar of our national destiny, the Constitution. Experience shows that its provisions have been used creatively to expand the area of rights, to redress grievances, to allow greater space for federal units in specific areas. The need of the hour is to reinvigorate this process, to explore and make better use of existing constitutional provisions; above all, to ensure better delivery. Prescriptions of despair, unwise or impracticable, do not help the process.
Shri Ansari said that a conceptual framework of the degree of sophistication would obviously require a comprehensive endeavour by the State and the society to ensure its implementation on an ongoing basis. It has to become part of the social discourse and of the educational curricula aimed at making the citizens imbibe the virtues of integration and eschew the vices emanating from its absence. Such an effort has to be to move beyond the presumed Indian-ness in cultural terms or its spirited display on special occasions on which national integration and national solidarity are most obvious – in the face of an external enemy (1961, 1965, 1971 and 1998), a celebratory occasion like success in an international sporting event, an achievement of note by an Indian citizen or person of Indian origin, or a social or religious festival; above all, and on a fairly continuous basis, success stories in the film industry.
He emphasized that it is therefore essential to have a re-look at the basics of our methodology and of the contours within which it has worked. Our ground reality is a plural society; our operating radius is a democratic polity and a secular state structure, both based on a Constitution aimed at seeking justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all citizens within a single political and juridical entity whose federal structure provides for separate legislative and executive powers for states but stipulates uniformity in civil and criminal jurisprudence, a single judiciary, a common All India Civil Service, a common armed forces, a common market, and a constitutional provision on sharing of financial resources between the centre and the states. The assumption was that political and administrative integration of the state would lead to an integration of hearts and minds of those who may speak a different language or follow a different faith or come from a different region, but would subscribe to and believe in a common Indian identity in which all other identities would be subsumed and also flourish at the same time.
The Vice President said that the conclusion is unavoidable that the process of emotional integration has faltered and is in dire need of reinvigoration. A corrective is imperative and would lie in reaffirmation of the democratic process bequeathed to us by the founding fathers, adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, rejuvenation of the institutions beginning with the Parliament and State legislatures, and reaffirmation of the sanctity of dialogue. These principles need to be imbibed and implemented at all levels of the polity and particularly in educational policy, in the workshops of the mind that mould the thought process of the citizens of tomorrow.
He said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contributions were manifold; above all, history and generations of Indians will remember him as the man who presided over the process that resulted in the integration of the Indian States following the end of British rule and the termination of the “vague and undefined” relationship that princely States (together constituting 40 percent of the Indian land mass) had with the United Kingdom as the paramount power. The process of integrating 554 large and miniscule States was complex. It involved intricate negotiations on political, administrative and financial matters as also those relating to the armed forces of these units. It was almost completed by the time the Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
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Ashoknagar Adda : Uttar Pradesh Government Approved IT Policy 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Agenda for reforms: 10 no-brainer policy changes that government can ring in today
1) Form a DFI Focused on Infrastructure
IIFCL was to play this role, but it has not picked up, says Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of Feedback Ventures. Such a focussed development financial institution will play two key roles.
One, credit enhancement, where it extends a partial or full guarantee to infrastructure companies, helping them raise money easily at a lower interest rate.
Two, 'take out financing', where DFIs come in after seven years and roll over a company's debt to a new set of lenders. Alternatively, IIFCL could be reinvented to perform the above two functions.
2) Bring SPV-Type Structure to Bid Out PPP Projects
The standard in a public-private project (PPP) is the government invites bid. The private player chosen has to obtain all statutory approvals and environmental clearances, throwing it into the cauldron of rent-seeking. This leads to two things. One, non-serious, but politically connected, players jump in.
Two, serious players expend time and money negotiating this landscape. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) for PPP projects, with all clearances in place, can reduce corruption and speed up projects.
3) Push Infrastructure PSUs to Spend their Cash Surpluses
According to Chatterjee, state-owned infrastructure companies have Rs 1,50,000 crore of cash that is not tied to any approved project. Most such companies are in sectors where the private sector is not allowed (like railways) or is allowed selectively (coal mining).
Or, they are dominant players (NTPC in power, GAILBSE 0.98 % in gas distribution and major ports). In almost all these areas, India is gasping for capacity as investments have fallen in the last four years.
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4) Speed Up Road Construction
Road building, with its high multiplier effect, is one of the best ways to boost employment and income growth, says Govinda Rao, director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
But the highways construction programme is saddled with two problems: money stuck in arbitration and payment delays, and land acquisition. For example, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has claims amounting to Rs 11,084 crore locked in disputes.
5) Clear Private Sector Dues by PSUs and Ministries
There's no official number on how much is due to the private sector from state-run companies and government departments— pending payments and disputes—but experts say it could be above Rs 1,00,000 crore.
So, that much less money is available to the private sector for investment. A way out could be to set up a quick dispute resolution mechanism within each sector.6) Set up Coordination Committee Among Related Ministries
A co-ordination committee with representatives from five key economic ministries—coal, power, railways, port and environment—can speed up decisions that involve more than one ministry. This can sort out minor constraints in capacity creation. Take North Karanpara, a Coal India mine.
"It can produce 50 million tonnes a year," says CILchairman Narsingh Rao. "All approvals are in place, but the 93 km rail line we need is not." Coal India is willing to fund the Rs 7,500 crore needed. "Even then, they (Railways) are not going ahead."
7) Use SEB Bailout to Clean up Power Sector
The proposed Rs 1,90,000 crore bailout package to clean up the balance sheet of state electricity boards(SEBs) can do many things. It can be used to reformtariffs, with the Centre telling states clearly that subsidies will come from the state budget.
The private sector can be involved in transmission and distribution, with payments linked to improvement in operational efficiency. And it can force SEBs to prepare proper books of accounts, something they haven't done, delaying tariff reforms.
8) Map Land Using GIS and Zone it
With the availability of high-resolution satellite images, that too for a period of time, the country's land can be mapped using geographic information system (GIS).
Once mapped, a simple zoning can be done based on the type of land and its usage pattern. Industries can be told where they can set up units and where they can't.
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9) Untangle Telecom Policy
Some clarity is emerging on spectrum—how much of their original holding in the prime band can operators keep. Next up is renewal of the 20-year licence, which will start beginning 2014.
Early clarity on renewal, including the quantum of airwaves in other bands that operators can retain and the modalities of spectrum reallocation, will reassure investors who have invested billions. The government can also specify the roadmap for future airwave auctions so that operators can plan long term.
10) Implement All Administrative Reforms Proposals
The second administrative reforms commission submitted 15 reports between 2006 and 2009. The proposals go through a four-stage process: ministries and departments give their comments; the core group on administration reforms considers it; it goes to a group of ministers (GoM); the PM signs off a policy.
ARC-II made 1,490 recommendations, of which, 1,005 were accepted. But a decision is pending on 90% of them. And the GoM has not even considered two reports, one on civil services. "They should be taken up soon," says Rao of NIPFP.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Disaster-Response Architecture
External interventions begin with a request from the authorities of a disaster-affected country, who are responsible for coordinating the response. External responders include civilian and military organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and nongovernmental actors. These responders are in turn supported by a wide range of donors, including foreign governments, individuals, corporations and foundations. Governments may choose to channel donations bilaterally or multilaterally. Individuals usually channel their funds through NGOs or specialized U.N. agencies.
Military responses are organized differently than civilian operations, which are dealt with through a single response system for both disasters and armed conflicts. In line with the United Nations Charter, conflict situations are handled multilaterally and referred to the Security Council, which may dispatch a peacekeeping force or authorize countries or groups of countries to intervene. For disaster responses, in contrast, military assistance is organized bilaterally at the request of the country struck by disaster.
On the civilian side, the main external organizations involved in disaster response are specialized U.N. agencies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and its members, and NGOs. Key U.N. agencies include the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), established in 1992 by Resolution 46/182 of the General Assembly, gathers and disseminates through its website information regarding assistance provided by U.N. agencies, the Red Cross and NGOs. The same resolution also created the position of undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator (ERC), as well as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which includes representatives of relevant U.N. agencies, the World Bank, the Red Cross and NGOs. UNOCHA and the IASC, chaired by the ERC, were set up with a view to strengthening humanitarian action in response to both complex emergencies and natural disasters, and in particular to coordinate the responses of external civilian actors.
The new system was plagued by massive failures in its initial years, first and foremost in Somalia (1992) and Rwanda (1994). Despite efforts to fix it, the global disaster-response system has often been described as ineffective, blind, biased, opaque and wasteful.
The system has been perceived as ineffective because it is slow to respond -- a criticism addressed in particular to the U.N. and its specialized agencies -- and often fails to identify essential needs in the emergency phase. In addition, system blindness is characterized by recurrent and persistent erroneous beliefs, a lack of understanding of the social and political contexts of interventions and a limited ability to learn from past mistakes. The beliefs, for example, that unburied corpses trigger epidemics, that immunization campaigns are a high priority in the aftermath of natural disasters, that survivors are helpless and apathetic, and that overseas specialized teams are the primary rescuers are as enduring in the disaster-response system as they are erroneous. Responses based on such beliefs have repeatedly led to suboptimal outcomes. In fact, when disasters occur, survivors intervene quickly: Family members and neighbors are the primary rescuers, while outsiders invariably arrive too late to save but a few lives in the rescue phase.
Sociological perspective
The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857)—often called the “father of sociology”—first used the term “sociology” in 1838 to refer to the scientific study of society. He believed that all societies develop and progress through the following stages: religious, metaphysical, and scientific. Comte argued that society needs scientific knowledge based on facts and evidence to solve its problems—not speculation and superstition, which characterize the religious and metaphysical stages of social development. Comte viewed the science of sociology as consisting of two branches: dynamics, or the study of the processes by which societies change; and statics, or the study of the processes by which societies endure. He also envisioned sociologists as eventually developing a base of scientific social knowledge that would guide society into positive directions.
Herbert Spencer
The 19th-century Englishman Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) compared society to a living organism with interdependent parts. Change in one part of society causes change in the other parts, so that every part contributes to the stability and survival of society as a whole. If one part of society malfunctions, the other parts must adjust to the crisis and contribute even more to preserve society. Family, education, government, industry, and religion comprise just a few of the parts of the “organism” of society.
Spencer suggested that society will correct its own defects through the natural process of “survival of the fittest.” The societal “organism” naturally leans toward homeostasis, or balance and stability. Social problems work themselves out when the government leaves society alone. The “fittest”—the rich, powerful, and successful—enjoy their status because nature has “selected” them to do so. In contrast, nature has doomed the “unfit”—the poor, weak, and unsuccessful—to failure. They must fend for themselves without social assistance if society is to remain healthy and even progress to higher levels. Governmental interference in the “natural” order of society weakens society by wasting the efforts of its leadership in trying to defy the laws of nature.
Karl Marx
Not everyone has shared Spencer's vision of societal harmony and stability. Chief among those who disagreed was the German political philosopher and economistKarl Marx (1818–1883), who observed society's exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful. Marx argued that Spencer's healthy societal “organism” was a falsehood. Rather than interdependence and stability, Marx claimed that social conflict, especially class conflict, and competition mark all societies.
The class of capitalists that Marx called the bourgeoisie particularly enraged him. Members of the bourgeoisie own the means of production and exploit the class of laborers, called the proletariat, who do not own the means of production. Marx believed that the very natures of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat inescapably lock the two classes in conflict. But he then took his ideas of class conflict one step further: He predicted that the laborers are not selectively “unfit,” but are destined to overthrow the capitalists. Such a class revolution would establish a “class-free” society in which all people work according to their abilities and receive according to their needs.
Unlike Spencer, Marx believed that economics, not natural selection, determines the differences between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. He further claimed that a society's economic system decides peoples' norms, values, mores, and religious beliefs, as well as the nature of the society's political, governmental, and educational systems. Also unlike Spencer, Marx urged people to take an active role in changing society rather than simply trusting it to evolve positively on its own.
Emile Durkheim
Despite their differences, Marx, Spencer, and Comte all acknowledged the importance of using science to study society, although none actually used scientific methods. Not until Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) did a person systematically apply scientific methods to sociology as a discipline. A French philosopher and sociologist, Durkheim stressed the importance of studying social facts, or patterns of behavior characteristic of a particular group. The phenomenon of suicide especially interested Durkheim. But he did not limit his ideas on the topic to mere speculation. Durkheim formulated his conclusions about the causes of suicide based on the analysis of large amounts of statistical data collected from various European countries.
Durkheim certainly advocated the use of systematic observation to study sociological events, but he also recommended that sociologists avoid considering people's attitudes when explaining society. Sociologists should only consider as objective “evidence” what they themselves can directly observe. In other words, they must not concern themselves with people's subjective experiences.
The German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) disagreed with the “objective evidence only” position of Durkheim. He argued that sociologists must also consider people's interpretations of events—not just the events themselves. Weber believed that individuals' behaviors cannot exist apart from their interpretations of the meaning of their own behaviors, and that people tend to act according to these interpretations. Because of the ties between objective behavior and subjective interpretation, Weber believed that sociologists must inquire into people's thoughts, feelings, and perceptions regarding their own behaviors. Weber recommended that sociologists adopt his method of Verstehen (vûrst e hen), or empathetic understanding. Verstehen allows sociologists to mentally put themselves into “the other person's shoes” and thus obtain an “interpretive understanding” of the meanings of individuals' behaviors.