Rally of disabled persons in Bhuj on Monday Saturday, December 1, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
BHUJ: At a public meeting in Bhuj on December 3, the World Disability Day, hundreds of disabled persons from all parts of Kutch will demand their right to equitable public policies that ensure them equal opportunity in every facet of life -- as articulated by the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.
Organised by Sneha Samudaya and Kutch Yuva Viklang Mandal, the public meeting of the disabled will culminate in a rally through Bhuj town to the collector's office to submit a memorandum highlighting the demands of this assembly. The rally would also include disabled survivors of the January 26 earthquake.
The meeting, to be inaugurated by the district development officer of Kutch, is expected to be attended by government functionaries, NGOs and community representatives.
The meeting will also include various events such as sharing of experiences by the disabled, cultural performances and exhibition-cum-sale of various products made by them.
The event is aimed at sensitising different government functionaries and NGOs, involved in the reconstruction of Kutch, on issues such as making access to public offices and the new townships disabled-friendly, ensuring the enrolment of every disabled child in schools, making basic facilities such as toilets for disabled children in schools, appropriate and good quality of artificial appliances for mobility, priority in livelihood support and other social support systems like marriage and family life.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Rally of disabled persons in Bhuj on Monday Saturday, December 1, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
BHUJ: At a public meeting in Bhuj on December 3, the World Disability Day, hundreds of disabled persons from all parts of Kutch will demand their right to equitable public policies that ensure them equal opportunity in every facet of life -- as articulated by the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.
Organised by Sneha Samudaya and Kutch Yuva Viklang Mandal, the public meeting of the disabled will culminate in a rally through Bhuj town to the collector's office to submit a memorandum highlighting the demands of this assembly. The rally would also include disabled survivors of the January 26 earthquake.
The meeting, to be inaugurated by the district development officer of Kutch, is expected to be attended by government functionaries, NGOs and community representatives.
The meeting will also include various events such as sharing of experiences by the disabled, cultural performances and exhibition-cum-sale of various products made by them.
The event is aimed at sensitising different government functionaries and NGOs, involved in the reconstruction of Kutch, on issues such as making access to public offices and the new townships disabled-friendly, ensuring the enrolment of every disabled child in schools, making basic facilities such as toilets for disabled children in schools, appropriate and good quality of artificial appliances for mobility, priority in livelihood support and other social support systems like marriage and family life.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
New police station for Gandhigram Saturday, December 1, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
RAJKOT: State home minister Gordhan Zadaphia inaugurated a new police station at Pradyumannagar in Gandhigram on Friday evening.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said the strength of the police force would be increased soon due to the expansion in city limits and the rising crime rate. Zadaphia said vacancies in the lower rank of constables would be filled up at the earliest.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
IFS goes corporate, ropes in Tata for survey Saturday, December 1, 2001
BY SAJID SHAIKH, FOR TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA: Call it a corporate fad or an exercise in introspection, the Indian Forest Services (IFS) is checking what its stock has been up to, further needs and how best it can reach its targets. No jungle talk this, indeed the IFS has embarked upon a task commonly associated with corporate companies.
The IFS cadre of five states _ Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttranchal and Madhya Pradesh _ is being put under a magnifying glass and the ones that are making notes are experts from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
This week, TCS scouts men (read consultants) turned IFS officers in the state _ right from senior most officers to the just joined juniors _into students, rather specimens. More crudely samples. They handed them an exhaustive questionnaire, asked them to fill it up and return with notes on certain specifics. The question list covered everything that affects the functioning of an IFS officer, from his knowledge quotient, field expertise to current developments in wildlife forestry.
"We are trying to identify the training areas of those in IFS. How best to provide this training, make requisite modules and even identifying those study or training inputs that have become obsolete or redundant but still taught in the academy", said a senior TCS consultant who was in Vadodara on Tuesday.
He said the study/survey has been commissioned by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and scattered over five states classified as 'Eco-zones'. "These states are referred to as eco-zones. We are meeting IFS officers in each state and probing into their professional requirements", the Delhi based consultant said.
In Gujarat, so far the TCS team has covered officers in Surat, Vadodara and Junagadh. TCS's sample, as it is referred, in state is over fifty in numbers. "The questionnaire is no doubt very exhaustive but it is so prepared to extract out psychological profile of an officer.
A certain pattern will emerge after the sample survey here is completed. So is the case with other eco-zones in the country", he said and added that each state had peculiar need of training in lieu with the state's forests, wildlife requirements as also the political administration under which it falls.
"The conclusion of this study/survey will be sent to the ministry. We will suggest what needs to be done on the basis of which certain changes will be brought about in the method of teaching, course contents and actual training of IFS officers", the consultant said.
IFS officers who have been helping the TCS team in terms of their responses, say the exercise is timely. "Such reviews help improve the services, upgrade the knowledge base and most importantly it extrapolates where we stand currently and what is the distance that we need to cover in a certain time period", said a senior IFS officer and respondent of the TCS survey.
For officers in a cadre mostly shunned and turned on, more often for criticism, the TCS survey has provided the proverbial 'for a change' exercise having its own 'humour' value.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Women to rule 158 villages in Kutch Saturday, December 1, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
RAJKOT: The earthquake-ravaged border district of Kutch is poised for a dramatic change. With 2002 fast approaching, about 158 villages in 10 talukas of this far-flung and second largest district of the country would have women at the helm of affairs.
This is perhaps the first time that the border district would have such a large number of women in command as the countdown for the village panchayat elections begins. The 'sarpanchs', or village headmen, in these 158 villages would be women.
It is sheer coincidence that the Kutch women would head the village panchayats during the Women's Empowerment Year, that too in a big way.
The present president of Kutch district panchayat is a woman, Jagrutiben Shah, the daughter of former state finance minister Babubhai Meghji Shah.
The panchayat election process in 480 villages of Kutch district has already begun as part of the statewide exercise to hold panchayat polls in 10,368 villages on December 23.
The posts of 'sarpanchs' in 10 talukas of Kutch have been reserved for women. In Abdasa taluka 28 out of 81 villages will have women 'sarpanchs', while in Gandhidham two out of seven villages will have women 'sarpanchs'.
The number of villages where women would occupy the 'sarpanchs' post in other talukas of Kutch are Mandvi -- 19 out of 62; Mundra -- 6 out of 19; Anjar 11 out of 29; Bhachau -- 16 out of 50; Nakhatrana -- 25 out of 66; Bhuj -- 27 out of 85 and Lakhpat -- 9 out of 27.
The phenomenon of a woman occupying the ruler's position at the village level is not new to this border district. Several Kutch villages have women 'sarpanchs', including Jawaharnagar and Dhaneti in Bhuj.
However, it is too early to say how many of these 158 villages, ready to elect the fairer sex to the top post in the village, will have 'samras' status. A clear picture will emerge only after December 3, the last date for filing nominations.
All said and done, the border district of Kutch is set to write a new chapter in history.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
