Avalanche of passport applications flummox police Thursday, November 29, 2001
BY SANJAY PANDEY, FOR TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: With the regional passport office gearing itself up to issue passports within seven days of receiving the police verification report, the police department has been caught napping.
The grossly-understaffed Ahmedabad police, which receives some 60,000 applications annually, is finding it difficult for accomplish the task within the stipulated 15 to 30 days.
The process is also taking more time due to three-tier processing of applications received from the passport office.
The applications are first registered, sorted and sent to the respective police station by the passport division of the special branch. At the police station, the applications are again entered into the records and sent to police chowkies in-charge of a particular area, where they are once again entered into the records.
Finally, chowky processes the application. The application then goes back through the same channels to the passport office.
"We have to do it," says, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Passports) K M Rathod, expressing the department's inability to simplify the process.
He reasons that the details to be verified are as diverse as the date and place of birth, residence address and educational qualification. "Sometimes constables have to make more than one visit to the applicant's residence as, many a time, they are not present when the cops go there," says Rathod.
He feels that increase in the strength of the staff would expedite the process at the department level while increase in passport fees would discourage non-serious applicants, thereby reducing the workload.
"Preparation of verification reports is just one of the several duties assigned to the police stations and chowkies," points out Deputy Police Commissioner, Zone-I, V M Parghi, again expressing the department's helplessness in expediting the process.
Interestingly, half of the total passport applications received by the police are meant for seven police stations falling under Parghi's jurisdiction in the western part of the city.
There were 636 police personnel in deployed at the police stations falling under Zone 1 in 1981. It rose to 1,396 in 2001. But the growth in personnel was rendered ineffective by the four-time growth in the population.
According to data compiled by the police, 7.45 lakh people resided in Zone 1 of the city in 1981. This grew to 28 lakhs in 2001. Police stations falling under Zone 1 received more than 30,000 passport applications for verification last year, which was more than 50% of the total applications received by the city police.
As many as 26,282 passport applications were received till October-end this year and officials say it would easily cross the 35,000-mark by the end of the year.
Satellite police station received 7,468 applications last year. This year, it had accounted for 7,100 applications till October-end.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
JAMNAGAR :: Brass parts industry loses its sheen Thursday, November 29, 2001
BY SUDHIR VYAS, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
JAMNAGAR: Yet another traditional industry is about to bite the dust. Blame it on liberalisation or 'Chinese invasion', the brass parts industry of Jamnagar, which was famous the world over, is today struggling to survive.
Of the 6000 brass parts units in the city, as many as 1000 have closed shop while another 700 are on the verge of following suit. The remaining units are functioning at 50 per cent their installed capacity.
The industry, which provided direct and indirect employment to nearly one lakh people, is in a crippled state with 60 per cent of the workforce rendered jobless.
The slowdown in the once flourishing industry began in the early '90s but the downward slide gained momentum after October 1997.
While speaking to 'The Times of India', Jamnagar factory owners association president Ramjibhai Patel and vice-president Virjibhai Patel said the situation was so grim that some of the units were forced to observe a two-day holiday every week. They said there was no demand for their products ever since the 'Chinese invasion'.
"Though there is a shortfall in power supply to the units, its impact is not being felt as the factory owners lack enough orders to continuously run their machines," pointed out Virjibhai.
In a shocking revelation, the association president said that the owners of 10 per cent of the closed units had fled, bogged down by debts and on realising that operating their units was getting increasingly difficult.
The industry used to supply brass parts for defence equipment and space shuttles. It also catered to the building and automobile industry.
The downfall of the industry could be attributed to four reasons _ 'Chinese invasion', faulty government policies, the local situation and an "unhelpful bureaucracy", the association office-bearers said.
The industry used to supply goods to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai besides exporting to Australia, the United Kingdom, the US and the Gulf, said Ramjibhai. He alleged that the entry of Chinese goods had made the brass parts industry in Jamnagar reduntant.
Ramjibhai said that while the import duty on brass scrap, the main raw material, was a whopping 63 per cent, it was just 10 percent in China. This made its products far more cheaper which, in turn, had made survival most difficult for the Jamnagar units.
"There is an urgent need to change the import policy of the government," averred Ramjibhai, warning that "if this is not done the industry will turn extinct within the next five years".
According to Virjibhai, the government policy is "faulty" as it gives incentives to exporters while the manufacturers are left high and dry.
He felt there was even discrimination between the small and large units. While Customs duty on large units was less, it was high on the small-scale units. "In fact it should have been the other way round," he remarked.
The association leaders said that brass parts were used in production of almost all items of daily use including bicycles and electronic items, yet there was no help or incentive from the government. In fact the government had adopted a stepmotherly attitude to the industry.
On the other hand, the government of China had stood by their local producers and seen to it that their goods are dumped on India.
They claimed that the Jamnagar products were renowned the world over for their durabilty. "There is
no quality, but only quantity coming from China," remarked Virjibhai. "It is easy to buy anything cheap while not considering the durability factor," he observed, while admitting that there has been a sea change in people's buying preferences.
He alleged that lack of long-term planing by the government agencies which had led to the present situation. "The government changes its export policies quiet often, leading to a lot of confusion."
Industry sources said while ordnance factories and Railways are their biggest clients, the government had not thought it fit to open their purchase depots at Jamnagar.
"If this is done the local units will get a boost and the move will help the industry provide specialised service. The ordnance factories will receive their supplies faster while factory owners will not have to go in search of clients," the association said.
Meanwhile, even as the brass parts industry is on its deathbed, related sectors like transport, labour and packaging have also been badly affected. They, too, are facing the prospect of a bleak future. The transporters are the worst affected as they have to pay large sums as interest on loans taken to purchase their vehicles.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Tissue bank to come up soon in Ahmedabad Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: A bit of skin from a donor or a piece of bone could make that crucial difference to a third-degree burns patient or accident victim with multiple bone breaks. But ask any patient and they'll tell you just how hard it is to get such components in an emergency.
Not anymore. On the lines of eye and blood banking, the country is all set to have its first tissue bank where one can buy bone, skin, tendon and fascia (both sheets or band of connective tissue separating or binding muscles with organs). What's more, the bank will come up in Ahmedabad!
Thanks to donations by a Non-Resident Gujarati from Vadodara Kiran Patel, the University of South Florida (USF) has decided to team up with Indu Health Research Foundation (IHRF) to set up this tissue bank in Ahmedabad under its Centre for HIV-AIDS Research and Training (CHART) programme. The bank would be operational in six months, the promoters claimed.
Beata Herman of the USF has been camping here for the past three days, training microbiologists and technicians the nuances of procuring body components from donors and processing the same to remove histological markers so that the donated components are imbibed by patients with zero infection or rejection rate.
Explaining the operation, Herman said they would follow a stringent three-step procedure in procuring the tissue from the dead. "Consent of the dying person and also that of the next of the kin will be obtained and reconfirmed for donation. On the pathology front, it entails having the total the medical history of the patient. If at any stage the patient is found to carry infection, all the tissues will be discarded to ensure 100 per cent quality assurance", she said.
USF will provide specific technical help like the state-of-art equipment and training. The IHRF on its part will provide infrastructure; the foundation people are scouting the city for a site.
Outlining the potential category of beneficiaries IHRF chief Vijay Shah said they included patients with chronic back injuries (that has no prosthetic device replacement so far), trauma patients with multiple-bone injuries, third degree burns patients and even cancer patients who have suffered major loss of bone or skin.
About cost, Shah said the details were being worked out. Giving an instance nevertheless, he said that a donor bone graft could cost Rs 2000. "The same when taken from the other bones of the patient would also cost the same considering the surgery and the increase in the hospital stay", he reasoned.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Lobbying starts at SGU for VC's post Thursday, November 29, 2001
BY AMARENDRA JHA, FOR TIMES NEWS NETWORK
SURAT: A visit to the South Gujarat University (SGU) campus would perhaps certainly impress upon one to feel that things other than academics are fine and smooth but with a little digging one would unearth the sorry state of affairs in the wake of sharp political undercurrents prevailing there.
With many self-claimed aspirants to the post of vice chancellor, in the wake of the present vice chancellor's terms ending on February 19, 2002, the game of politics at this university is taking an ugly shape.
Various camps at SGU are divided sharply and lobbying is at its best to grab this opportunity, as for long the post of vice chancellor meant being nearer to the power corridors rather than having anything to do with academics. Sources say the
varsity is a platform for political big-wigs to show one's right connections.
So not to be left behind, present vice chancellor Prem Sharada is trying hard to get a second term, revealed inside sources. And to achieve this, he is banking on his connections with Union home minister L K Advani and Union HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi. Hailing from Chandigarh, Sharada is known for striking the right note at the power corridors in a very subtle manner, sources among his close associates said. He is said to have impressed upon the central BJP leaders through his sister-in-law Savita Sharad, a Rajya Sabha MP, that he be given another term to complete several projects at the university, SGU sources said.
His rivals are said to be banking on Sharada's failures to improve the status of the university, including a complete academic overhaul, the fancy blueprints of which never saw the light of the day.
The opposition camp is trying to impress upon state law minister and minister for higher education Hemant Chapatwala that someone from South Gujarat be considered for the post.
Other contenders in the fray include present pro-vice chancellor Jayendra Bhatt. He is being projected as having a good academic background. Bhatt is known to be very close to the RSS. Those with political connections in Gandhinagar and New Delhi include Girish Rana, son-in-law of Union minister Kashiram Rana, and Arun Goel, the government nominee in the university syndicate.
However, with the search committee yet to shortlist names for the next vice chancellorship, the rule of the game, as of now, is how much one could pull the political strings at the right places.
Perhaps, for Governor Sundar Singh Bhandari it would be difficult to give his approval for the appointment of the next vice chancellor as none of these aspirants seem academically oriented and having able administrative skills to revive this varsity.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Famished AMC gives new car to political bosses Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: What would you do if you are going through a lean financial phase ? Cut down on expenses and save for a rainy day?
If you're looking for an exception to this virtual thumb rule, then take a trip to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. You would find two new Maruti Esteems being washed and polished, waiting for the exalted occupants to arrive. Walk up the wooden staircases of the corporation to the various civic committee offices and you might chance upon excited chats and preparations for excursions.
Compare that with the AMC's dipping financial health and you have got the picture. While the octroi collections continue to stand at five per cent below last year's collections and property tax earnings show a bigger dip, celebrations for the political wing continue unabated. Post-Diwali these expenses could make a dent in the civic body's finances to the tune of Rs 30 - 35 lakh.
Thanks to a resolution by standing committee, deputy mayor Khemchand Solanki and chairman Badruddin Sheikh have new Esteems. Had the now much-talked about cash flow been as usual the leader of Congress and BJP, too, would have new Maruti Esteems at their disposal while yet another one would be a stand by. After all one has to consider the image of the country's oldest civic body (established in 1858).
While five such cars could cost Rs 22 lakh (the two already bought have taken Rs 11 lakh off from corporation's coffers), the recreational and cultural committee has sought Rs 5 lakh from the AMC for a trip to Ooty.
That's not all. The housing and improvement committee left on November 24 for a visit to slum quarters of Mumbai and Pune with an advance of Rs 1.5 lakh. The water supply and solid waste management committees, too, have proposed trips to Bangalore and other cities of the South, ostensibly to study systems there.
The paradox does not end there as the cash-strapped AMC has stopped payments to the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services. The municipal transport committee on Wednesday passed a proposal to demand for Rs 19 crore from the administrators of the corporation. "This amount was set aside for AMTS in the annual general budget. But, no monetary sanctions had yet been made from April," the committee stated.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
