November 29, 2001

Interactive Voice Response System for Tourism Information

Union Department of Tourism has introduced Interactive Voice Response System in Delhi for Tourism Information. On dialing telephone code 1363 one can have tourism information about Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. The system based on the selected destinations gives automatic information about basic amenities tourists attraction, transportation, shopping, hotel accommodation, site seeing, entertainment and excursion etc. It also gives brief historical backgrounds of the monuments. Information at the number is available 24 hours.

Road Accidents in Metro Cities and National Highways

As per information available, the number of road accidents on National Highways during the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 were 98690 (P), 101940 (P) and 106776 (P) respectively (P=Provisional). The year-wise number of road accidents in Metropolitan Cities are given below:

The number of the accidents occurred alongwith the number of people died/injured during the year 2000 as given below:

Road Accidents Persons Killed Persons Injured

  The causes of road accidents identified are Driver’s fault, Passengers/Pedestrians, Bad weather, Bad road, Mechanical fault & Others.Various remedial measures taken by Government are Engineering and managerial efforts like ensuring proper road engineering aspects, road signages, improvement of road geometrics, training, awareness campaign, enforcement, etc.    This information was given in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply by the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways (Independent Charge), Major Gen. B.C.Khanduri, AVSM (Retd.).

High Court Proceedings on Internet

 As per information available from the National Informatics Centre, 18 High Courts except the newly created three High Courts are connected on NICNET/Internet. Causelists of these High Courts are available on Internet. Case status information is also made available by most of the High Courts on Internet or on computerised enquiry/facilitation centres to the litigants and advocates--the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha.

Social Security Insurance Scheme for Retrenched Workers

 An Insurance Scheme named "Ashirya Bima Yojna" has been launched to provide social security cover to workers adversely affected due to loss of jobs. This was stated by the Labour Minister, Shri Sharad Yadav in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. He said that that four nationalised general insurance companies launched the scheme on 10th of October as a follow up to the announcement made while presenting this years’ budget. The Minister informed the house that the feasibility of introducing an insurance scheme to protect the interest of retrenched workers is also being explored within the framework of the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act. Shri Yadav said that the department of public enterprises has also introduced a scheme for counselling, retraining and re-deployment of rationalized employees of the central public sector undertakings. He said that the scheme has been launched with the objective of re-orienting these employees through short duration training Programmes to encourage them for self employment after seeking VRS or having been retrenched.

Change in Vehicles Number Plates

The changeover in vehicle number plates is meant for the entire country and is meant to be a long-term measure for security. The use of hologram is one of the security features in the New Registration number plate. The cost of hologram is included in the cost of registration plate as a whole, the precise value of which shall be a commercial decision by the manufacturer/supplier of the registration plates.

As per information available, the countries wherein the holographic vehicle number plates have been made mandatory; and are Armenia, Columbia, Congo, Curacao, Ethopia, Georgia, Iraq, Japan, Mali, Malta, Oman, Palestine, Srilanka, Tanzania,Uganda, Uruguay, Zambia, etc. The introduction of holographic system of identification would help the road-law enforcement authorities in tackling road-related crimes? -- Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways (Independent Charge), Major Gen. B.C.Khanduri, AVSM (Retd.).

November 29, 20

Special Power to Soldiers to fight Terrorrism

Adequate special powers are conferred upon members of the armed forces to check terrorism in ‘disturbed areas’ under The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 as applicable to North-Eastern states, and The Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 as applicable to Jammu & Kashmir to deal with the terrorists. Conferment of these special powers to the Armed Forces has brought about positive results.

A total number of 932 army personnel have died due to terrorist attacks in November 1998 and October 2001. Adequate measures are being taken and utmost vigilance is being maintained to prevent attacks by the terrorists. A multi-tiered counter infiltration posture has been adopted to check infiltration/ex-filtration along the Line of Control/International Border. In the North-East also various steps have been taken to bring militancy under control, including the deployment of army and para-military forces in the states and coordinated counter-militancy operations by the security forces. This information was given by the Defence Minister Shri George Fernandes in a written reply to Shri Anant Gudhe and Anant Gangaram Geete in Lok Sabha today.

Revision of Voters list

The Election Commission has informed that it has already taken a decision to revise the electoral rolls of all States and Union Territories, including the newly created States of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal, with reference to January 1, 2002 as the qualifying date. Th revision of rolls has already commenced in all States and Union Territories. The Election Commission has informed that it has been taking steps to progressively introduce electronic voting machines at elections throughout the country. These have been successfully used in the recent past during the general elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Poncicherry. The question of using electronic voting machines in all future elections throughout the country will be considered by the Commission at the appropriate time taking into account all aspects of the matter--the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Arun Jaitley in a written reply to a question from Shri Dalpat Singh Parste in the Lok Sabha today.

Sample Survey of Registered SSI Units Held For 1999-2000

3-G Technology will revolutionalise e-life