Day: July 23, 2012

Imphal, July 23 NNN: Students’ Parental Association (SPS), Tamei Sub-Division of Tamenglong district has submitted a memorandum to the state Education Minister urging him for setting up of a Higher Secondary School at Tamei, Tamenglong district.
Stating that Tamei constituency is one of the biggest constituencies in the state, SPS said there are two sub-divisions in the constituency, namely Tousem and Tamei which have five full-fledged Secondary Schools but they are still without a Higher Secondary School, according to the memorandum.
Majority of the students in the two sub-divisions, mostly from poor economic background are forced to skip further studies after passing matriculation due to lack of Higher secondary schools, added the memorandum submitted to the state Education Minister M Okendro.
SPS said it appeals the state Education Minister to take up initiative to establish a Higher Secondary School at Tamei to give a chance to the poor rural students to enable them to pursue their studies.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/higher-secondary-at-tamei-demanded/

Imphal, July 23 NNN : A seven-year-old girl from Imphal West’s Iroisemba who was reportedly gone missing has been handed over to her parents.
Khagenbam Anjeta, daughter of Kh Amuchao was reported in some section of media about her missing in Imphal on July 20 that she was traceless since July 13 after one Chongtham Sorojini, wife of Ch Lukhoi took her away from the parents on the false promise to provide her education, according to a complaint lodged by her father with the Lamphel Police Station.
Clarifying on the missing report, Y Utarani who reportedly adopted Anjeta said the girl had been with her safe and sound at her residence at Khurai Lairikyengbam Leikai, Salan Leirak until she was handed over her to her parents after the alleged report of missing.
Ajenta was adopted after an informal agreement with her parents.
The allegation that the girl had gone missing was baseless and unfounded and that Chongtham Ongbi Sorojini and her husband Ch Lukhoi form Iroisemba Mayai Leikai had never attempted to traffic Anjeta, Utarani clarified.
Utarani added that Anjeta has been handed over to her parents by a court order with the help of Child Line, Dewlaland.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/missing-girl-found/

Mail News Service
Imphal, July 23: The state Cabinet today discussed the reports of Cabinet sub committees about the conditions of paddy fields in the state. Four decisions were taken by the Cabinet.
It was decided that all the RLI will be made functional by the Minor Irrigation department. Agriculture department will identify paddy field which has no source of irrigation through RLI or pump set. Such fields may be assisted through alternative cropping.
Agriculture department will coordinate with other departments to meet the eventualities. The situation will be reviewed by the Cabinet after a week.
The Met department’s forecast on June 22 predicted rainfall over the whole monsoon season to be normal at 96% of average with model error of plus or minus of 4%, but this is now reportedly likely to be around the lower end of the range.
The central government has prepared extensive plans to deal with the deficiency in the monsoon rainfall in some parts of the country and is in full readiness to address any situation that may arise due to any rainfall anomalies, an official statement said here today. It said the Prime Minister has been apprised of the situation and he has directed all departments and ministries to coordinate efforts with
state governments to meet any eventuality and monitor the situation on a weekly basis.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the cumulative rainfall for the period from June 1 to July 15 is 22 per cent less than the long period average (LPA).
The statement said the rainfall deficiency which existed at the end of June has lessened somewhat, but the intensity and spread of rainfall over the next week or so needs to be watched carefully, especially in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. “The progress of the Monsoon so far has not allayed earlier concerns,” it said.
The statement said the government has already chalked out contingency plans and these will be rolled out in the areas which continue to receive low rainfall. An inter-ministerial group under secretary, department of agriculture and cooperation is reviewing the situation on a weekly basis and holding video conference with the state governments, it said.
Sufficient funds to the tune of Rs 4,524 crore are currently available under national disaster relief fund. Suitable advisories regarding fodder availability have been issued in the states by the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.
These include preservation of crop residue that may be used as fodder in the nest season, the statement said, adding sufficient funds for this purpose are available with the state governments under various schemes. All options for increasing fodder availability under joint forest management programme will be explored by the ministry of environment and forests.
The need for according the highest priority to drinking water was stressed. The Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation will henceforth be monitoring the status of the affected habitations on a weekly basis, rather than on a fortnightly basis as is presently being done.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cabinet-asks-mi-agriculture-departments-to-help-farmers/

Mail News Service
Imphal, July 23: The Transport Department, one of the major revenue earning Departments in the State of Manipur, is responsible for exercising control over the work of registration and regularisation of the vehicles which ply in the State, grant of permits to transport vehicles, levy and collection of taxes, fee and penalties, issue of driving and conductors’ licence and certificates of fitness to transport vehicles.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India had embarked upon a scheme for creation of a National Database network by introduction of Information Technology in the Road Transport Departments. Thus, the Central Government has been encouraging the States to work on standardised application formats and to undertake computerisation of backend processing, based on such standardised formats and inter operatable software, so that the Registration Certificates/National permits/driving licences are readable throughout the country. For this, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) designed two software viz. (1) VAHAN for registration, assessment of taxes/fee and fitness of the vehicles and (2) SARATHI for issue/renewal of the driving licence. The software was made operational in six of the eight District Transport Offices (DTOs) in the State in January 2011.
Though computerisation programme of VAHAN and SARATHI for registration of vehicles/driving licenses started in six of the eight DTOs in December 2003 and got completed in January 2011 after delays ranging from 12 to 41 months, commercial transport vehicles were not registered in VAHAN and neither was Enforcement Module implemented.
Out of a total of 1,06,752 vehicles registered prior to implementation of ‘VAHAN’ software in the DTOs, backlog legacy data entry in respect of 78,000 vehicles Le. 73 per cent, had been completed.
Thus, the State Register and National Register were incomplete to that extent.
Two different registration numbers were assigned to 43 vehicles, having same chassis numbers, by different DTOs.
Mandatory fields like address, father’s name and engine number etc. were not captured in VAHAN in absence of validation controls in the software by allowing entry of incomplete records. No sale amount was entered in respect of 1215 personalised four wheeler vehicles purchased after 31 March 2011, resulting in manual collection of tax.
Insurance details were not entered in respect of vehicles. Absence of a valid insurance certificate/cover note number in relevant field of the software could lead to a possibility of vehicles getting registered without payment of insurance.
Except Initial district, the remaining DTOs had not issued all driving licences through Smart Card. The practice of issuing driving licences partly through Smart Card and partly manually defeated the objective of introducing ‘SARATHI’ software.
The New National Permit System was implemented after a delay of almost a year.
Hand Held Terminals (HHTs), essential for checking the Smart Cards, had not been purchased by MANITRON21 as per the terms of the contract. Consequently the Department cannot verify the authenticity of Smart Cards possessed by the vehicle owners in absence of HHTs.
Out of 26,494 registration certificates issued till September 2011, Smart Card registration certificates were issued in 22,285 cases. Thus, paper based registration certificates continued to be issued by the DTOs.
CAG recommend that the Department may ensure that registration numbers are issued serially and only after completion of an ongoing series.
Analysis of database of the five DTOs revealed that out of 33,558 vehicles, the tax amount was left blank in respect of 193 vehicles registered after the implementation of computerisation in the DTOs. This shows lack of validation control in the system to ensure that the data relating to all the mandatory fields are entered.
Acceptance of blank field in respect of a mandatory field (tax) by the system in the case of new registration needs a detailed examination as it may give rise to the risk of evasion of tax.
The Department in their reply (November 2011) stated that the aforesaid irregularity occurred while entering backlog data or transferred vehicles and necessary steps shall be taken to avoid such irregularities in future. The reply of the Department is not relevant and hence not acceptable.
It recommended that the Department may strengthen the validation check in ‘VAHAN’ software to ensure that incomplete/blank information is not accepted for mandatory fields.
As per Section 5 of the MMVT Act, 1998, tax leviable shall be paid in advance in a one-time tax valid till the vehicle attains the age of fifteen years at the prescribed rate.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/irregularities-in-transport-deptt-cag/