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Replying to the debate on the Railway budget in the Rajya Sabha, Ms. Banerjee said the Ministry was losing 40 per cent revenue due to agitations, bandhs and other such activities in various parts of the country.

While admitting that the railways was the lifeline of the nation and people had great expectations from it, she said the Ministry did not have funds to fulfil all the demands. At least Rs 1 lakh crore was needed for the pending projects.

"Where will the money come from? It will not drop from the heavens," she said. Without long-term planning and execution of projects, it would not be possible for the railways to start new trains and decongest traffic.

The House returned the Appropriation bills concerned, as passed by the Lok Sabha, enabling the railways to withdraw money from the exchequer for a part of 2010-11 and some authorisations for the current fiscal and 2008-09.

Ms. Banerjee said the railways took pride in its 14 lakh employees. The Ministry had consulted the employees unions on various issues, including the PPP model and commercial utilisation plans.

The Ministry had set up a task force for land utilisation. This would prevent encroachment of vacant land. As per estimates, the railways had 43,000 hectares of surplus land and the Rail budget envisaged its commercial utilisation.

Defending the PPP model, she said that a decade ago she cleared the Pipava port project. By replicating such model, the railways could utilise land to develop tourist sites, pilgrimage circuits and spur economic activity.

The Ministry planned to set up a cell to develop business opportunities with the private sector. It would seek permission from the Prime Minister and the Planning Commission to have a single-window clearance system for PPP projects under short timelines.

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Following Delhi closely are Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune, ranked 2nd to 8th, respectively, in the overall quality of life ratings. Ironically, the NCR, which should have kept pace with the development of Delhi, has failed to do so. Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad have been ranked 9th, 27th and 32nd, respectively.

A liveable city, according to the report, is not just an urbanised area in an urbanised region defined by the presence of a municipality.

Liveability refers to an urban system that contributes to the physical, social and mental well-being and personal development of all its inhabitants, it said.

Source: Mail Today Delhi Best City To Live In

When you're no longer there, the state will look after your child using the insurance money.

The scheme, called Asmita, to be launched by the National Trust ­ the autonomous branch of the ministry that focuses on these four particular disabili- ties ­ will provide life and acci- dent insurance cover to the par- ent or legal guardian of any child who falls in these categories.
Once you're gone, the money will be used by the National Trust to take lifelong care of your child.

Insurance companies have been asked to submit their bids by March 15. "We'll be working through the district collectors and var- ious NGOs working in this field, whom we are already in regu- lar touch with," said Atul Prasad, chief executive officer, National Trust. "We expect to launch in the next two months.
We hope to enroll around 10,000 parents in the first year."

"The premium will depend on the age of the parent. The older he/she is, the higher it will be," he added.

"Since this is a group insur- ance policy, the premium will be much lower than if a person insures himself individually," said Sanjay Pande, Managing Director, Amicus Advisory.

There are an estimated 22 lakh people suffering from these four forms of disability, accord- ing to National Trust statistics.

After working for over a year to prepare detailed map of Delhi using 3-D imaging, the Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure project is now ready for implementation.

Over 330 applications have been shortlisted by 35 state departments that will begin using the information provided through this project for their various needs from April 1.

The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) will be the first department to implement the project. It will use the project to have real-time online tours of monuments in the Capital... on the lines of the tour of the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The Rs 120-crore project, started in March 2008, entails a detailed 3-dimensional map of Delhi (ground-level and underground) through aerial photographs.

There will also be real-time monitoring of the ground situation in the city with the help of 64 wireless internet protocol cameras. There will two control rooms, one at Delhi Secretariat and other at Survey of India office, along with the 10 monitoring centres that will be located across the city.

Each of the nine administrative districts will have seven cameras, installed on top of the tallest building in the area. These cameras can give precision pictures of objects upto a distance of 5 km and cost Rs 5 lakh.

Earlier, Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta had asked the 35 departments to choose five applications each to utilise the available data. The departments have reverted to Survey of India and IT department with a list of 335 applications.

Source: The Indian Express Delhi's 3-D map ready, govt depts to begin use from April 1

The Victoria Memorial authorities had moved to the Supreme Court  seeking to "modify" a Calcutta High Court order disallowing any new structure on the monument premises.

The government had brought coastal villages under the reg- ister in the first phase of the plan launched last year after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The second phase will begin next month when enumerators list the houses where they will have to go during the 2011 Census. They will also carry a machine-readable form that they will have to fill, listing the names of people and their details across 16 other param- eters, right from their marital status, education and occupa- tion to their nationality, fin- gerprints, photograph and their present and permanent address.

The government is mandat- ed to create the register under the Citizenship Act, which will have a list of all Indian resi- dents irrespective of their cit- izenship. Like the Unique Identity num- ber, the NPR does not entail issuance of a card except in coastal areas. It is estimated that the population register would cost the exchequer near- ly Rs 3,539 crore.

According to the schedule approved by the home ministry, canvassing of information for the register will continue till September. In between, camps will also be put up to enable people who may have been missed out by enumerators to register themselves.

"The list would then be made public so that people can point out errors, intentional or oth- erwise," a ministry official said.

This would be as a result of Finance Minister proposing to hike to two per cent the interest subvention provided to farmers, giving them at an effective rate of five per cent per annum. Farmers get crop loan of up to Rs 3 lakh at 7 per cent.

In his budget speech for 2010-11, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also allocated Rs 400 crore to raise farm production in the eastern parts of India, comprising Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, West Bengal and Orissa.

"In the last budget, I provided an additional one per cent interest subvention as an incentive to those farmers who repay their short-term crop loan as per schedule. I propose to raise this subvention for timely repayment of crop loan from one per cent to two per cent for 2010-11," he said.

Noting that banks are consistently meeting the targets set for agriculture credit flow in past few years, Mukherjee said that for 2010-11, target has been raised to Rs 3,75,000 crore from Rs 3,25,000 crore in the current year.

Source: Economic Times Union Budget 2010: Crop loan at 5 pc interest for farmers, farm credit up by 16 pc

"The proposal to increase the Central Excise duty on petrol and diesel will directly and indirectly aggravate inflationary spiral, including food price inflation," state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said.

"Imposition of indirect taxes to compensate with the concessions given in direct taxes should be reconsidered, besides withdrawing Central Excise duty on petrol and diesel," he said.

Stating that to control inflation the Centre should enhance its support for increasing agricultural production through augmented central plan assistance for irrigation and other inputs, he said "it will be helpful to resolve these conflicting views through discussions as early as possible."

He said it was unclear why despite controversial record of some non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), they were allowed more banking licenses along with private sectors.

"Even as the Union Finance Minister was fully appreciative of the social welfare role of the government, there was a view to limit this role by mechanically imposing restriction of fiscal deficit as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," Dasgupta added.

The finance minister's announcement led the CPIM in West Bengal to express immediate doubts about implementation of the plan. The state Congress backed their leader while Trinamool Congress demanded more funds for economic upliftment of tribals. West Bengal has three districts, namely West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura, which are extremist infested.

CPIM central committee member, Shyamal Chakraborty questioned the chances of success of the proposed action plan. "Who will implement the plan in three of our districts, where the state administration and police have become the target of Maoists?" he asked. "This action plan might work once the government manages to establish the rule of law in these areas, so that the delivery mechanism required for implementing can work," he said.

Opposition leader and Trinamool Congress MLA, Partha Chatterjee said the government should fulfil the basic needs of poor tribals by providing them food, shelter and education. Once all three three key requirements are met, the government might be able to combat Left extremists who were exploiting the poverty of the people in these districts. "However, adequate funds are needed for such a job," he said.

• India weathered economic crisis well

• Need to review stimulus imparted to econony

• Need to review public spending and mobilise resources

• High food inflation due to bad monsoon & drought conditions

• Steps being taken to tackle price rise

• Economy in far better position than it was eight years ago

• First challenge is to quickly revert to 9% high GDP growth

• Second to make growth more inclusive and consolidate gains

• Impressive recovery in past few months

• Economy stabilised in Q1 of 2009 itself

• 18.5% manufacturing growth in Dec highest in two decades

• Faster recovery seen in the coming months

• Figures for merchandise exports for January encouraging

• Food security strengthened

• Govt's focus on services to economically backward sections

• Hope to implement Direct Tax Code from April 2011

• Status paper on public debt within six months

• Endeavour to implement General Sales Tax in April 2011

• Govt will raise Rs 25,000 cr from disinvestment in PSUs

• Market cap of five PSUs listed since October up 3.5 times

• Fuel price deregulation proposal will be taken up

• Rs 4,411 crore set aside for expansion

• 54 new trains announced

• 94 stations to be upgraded

• New business model on anvil

"Our objective is inclusive growth," she said while presenting the Railway Budget for the year 2010-11, adding that her main consideration in this year's budget was social responsibility rather than mere commercial viability of projects. "We have set our goals in the Vision 2020 document and we will achieve it," the minister said, referring to the document unveiled in December that has targeted making over 30,000 route kilometres or multiple lines against 18,000 route kilometres at present.

RAILWAY BUDGET AT A GLANCE

Mamata also proposed to reduce the maximum limit of service charge on e-booking of tickets to Rs10 for sleeper class and Rs 20 for AC class. The present maximum charge is Rs 15 nd Rs 40 respectively. This is the seventh year in a row that passenger fares have not been raised. Announcing a slew of concessions for passengers, Mamata proposed free travel for cancer patients going for treatment in three-tier AC and sleeper class and continuance of concessions for students of madrassas and journalists.

The minister said 101 new suburban services will be introduced in Mumbai and more services will be launched in Kolkata and Chennai.

A special train, Sanskriti Express, to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore will run across the country and also to Bangladesh. Special tourist trains called Bharat Teerth will be started on 16 routes, while six long-distance non-stop Duronto Express and four short-distance Duronto day trains will be introduced, the Railway Minister said. She also announced that the technicians of the regional film industry would get 75 per cent concession in second class sleeper and 50 per cent in higher classes in all trains while travelling for film production-related work. The benefit of 50 per cent concession to the spouse of accredited journalists has been extended to the companions of those who do not have a spouse. Their dependent children of up to 18 years of age would also get 50 per cent concession once a year.

Source: The Tribune By Girja Shankar Kaura Rail Budget 2010-11 - Didi's Janata Express, No Increase In Fares, Freight

Infrastructure development in collaboration with private players is likely to be the focus area for Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as she presents the Rail Budget on February 24.

With West Bengal all set to go to polls next year, Didi, who would be an aspirant for the chief minister's job, may also make use of the Railway Budget to send home a political message. As has been the precedent, the Railway Minister may announce a flurry of new trains for her home state West Bengal as she goes onto the floor of the Lok Sabha with the Rail Budget. Banerjee is likely to announce a mega public-private partnership (PPP) push in the track-laying sector on the highway development model and is charting out a policy for that.

At a meeting with industry representatives earlier this month, Banerjee said there was a huge opportunity for the private sector in track-laying works.

Reports said the initiative had perhaps been triggered by the observation made by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on slow pace of rail infrastructure development. The rail ministry has charted out an ambitious track-laying target over the next 10 years with as much as 25,000 km of new lines to be added.

Of this, at least 10,000 km will be socially desirable lines regardless of their viability in the short run. The plans specifically aim at connecting far-flung areas of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and all the states in the northeast.

Source: The Tribune By Girja Shankar Kaura Expansion To Be Rail Budget Focus

With an eye on forthcoming civic polls, it has decided to "gift" plots of land to the people squatting on municipal land on a 99-year-old lease for a sum of Re 1.

Nearly 4,00,000 families earning less than Rs 6,000 per month will be given two kotthas each (one kottha is equivalent to720 sq ft) to build low-cost houses.

These people have been occupying plots of land owned by municipalities across the state for quite some time now.

The state government would organise easy bank loans to help build the houses on these plots. The proposal was floated by state urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya and was passed by the state cabinet on Thursday.

In Kolkata, the state government would find land in slum areas and would build similar low-cost housing complexes for the poor. Kolkata too will go to the polls along with the other municipalities.

Source: India Today By Aloke Banerjee Cornered Buddha plans Re 1 land to woo voters

The West Bengal government said on Thursday that it would lease out land for free to squatters, whom it described as "the urban poor". The move is widely seen as an attempt to shore up support for the Left Front months ahead of 83 civic body elections in the state.

West Bengal would lease out two-three `cottahs' of land for 99 years to people occupying state government-owned land for more than 20 years and earning less than Rs6,000 a month, finance minister Asim Dasgupta said after a meeting of the state cabinet on Thursday. One `cottah' is one-sixtieth of an acre.

Housing concerns: West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta

The decision would benefit at least 400,000 people, Dasgupta said. Land under 25 municipal bodies could be leased out by the state government. It isn't, however, immediately known how much land the state government would lease out under the scheme.

Even financial assistance would be given to squatters to build homes under existing funding schemes such as Basic Service for Urban Poor, Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme, Housing for Urban Poor and Rajiv Awas Yojana.

It was also decided that those building homes on land leased out by the state government cannot sell them for 10 years.

The state's urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said this is the first scheme of its kind in the country. Though under land reforms West Bengal has been distributing land among the rural poor ever since the Left Front came to power in 1977, it is the first time the state government has offered such largesse to the urban poor.

By leasing out land the state government would enable people to borrow from banks to build homes, Bhattacharya added.

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With assembly elections approaching in her home state, the railway minister, desperate to bag goodies for Bengal in the coming rail budget, rushed for the approval from the Cabinet for around 25 projects out of which 14 are in Bengal. Sources present in the meeting, however, said most of the projects were "premature".

With the Trinamool Congress chief wanting fast track clearance of 25 projects, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave the green signal to 18 of her proposals ignoring its own decision that the ministry has to come out with detailed funding pattern for the projects which are economically unviable but are taken up on social considerations. The proposals included some for coal carriage and two lines for Meghalaya as well as another for a southern state.

Sources said the CCEA meeting went through a `lively' debate with the railway minister unrelenting.

Source: Times Of India By Mahendra Kumar Singh & Nitin Sethi Mamata gets her way, takes 14 projects home