Construction of building for Dharwad Circuit Bench begins

Construction of building for Dharwad Circuit Bench begins
The Hindu.com
Staff Correspondent

Basavaraj S. Horatti performs groundbreaking ceremony on WALMI premises

AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING: Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj S. Horatti performing the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the building to house the Circuit Bench of the High Court on the Water and Land Management Institute ( WALMI) premises near Dharwad on Friday.

DHARWAD: The construction of the building for accommodating the Circuit Bench of the High Court of Karnataka on the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) premises began on Friday.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj S. Horatti performed the groundbreaking ceremony. MLA R.B. Shiriyannavar, Deputy Commissioner M.S. Srikar, Police Commissioner Narayan Nadamani, Superintendent of Police of Dharwad District B. Srikanthappa, Public Works Department Chief Engineer Prabhakar Chini, president of the Dharwad Bar Association B.D. Hiremath and Zilla Panchayat Vice-President B.B. Gangadharmath were present.

In 18 months

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Horatti said the construction work of the Circuit Bench building had to be completed within 18 months.

Work order

The Minister clarified that the State-owned Karnataka State Construction Corporation would begin work and the contractor would continue it after getting the work order. Expressing happiness over the starting of the work after several years of pursuance and agitation, the Minister said the fulfilling of the demand had made the people of north Karnataka happy.

He clarified that there was no dearth of money for the construction of the Circuit Bench buildings at Dharwad and Gulbarga.

Appeal

To a question, he said the Government would appeal to the Chief Justice of the High Court Cyriac Joseph to make the Circuit Bench functional at the earliest by using the available infrastructure at WALMI. As the Minister performed the groundbreaking ceremony, the Dharwad lawyers, who were in a jubilant mood, celebrated "Vijayotsava". They burst crackers and distributed sweets.

They even carried Mr. Hiremath on their shoulders for some time.

VRL Bus goes mobile with Reliance PCO

VRL Bus goes mobile with Reliance PCO
The Vijay Times Epaper

Anand Sankeshwar, MD VRL, and Vinay Singh, Communications, Karnataka circle, inaugurating the PCO in the Bus - VT photo

Hubli:Karnataka circle of Reliance Communications launched Mobile PCO in buses here on Thursday to facilitate passengers on long distance travel. The PCO (public call office) facility has been installed in buses of Karnatakas premier bus service provider Vijayanand Road Lines, an arm of VRL Group. The first such PCO installed in a Hubli-Bangalore bus was inaugurated by VRL Group managing director Anand Sankeshwar on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters prior to the launch, Reliance Communications Karnataka circle chief executive officer Vinay Singh said that PCO in moving buses was a revolutionary service being provided by the company and is the first of its kind in the nation. The service has redefined the convenience from the point of view of travellers, he said.The intention of the company is to provide round-the-clock connectivity without levying any roaming charges. It will also be the most convenient method to track vehicles for transport service providers, he revealed.

Local calls made from the mobile PCO will be charged at the rate of Rs 2 per minute and STD calls will be charged at Rs 4 per minute. ISD calls will range from Rs 10 to Rs 15 per minute depending on the destination for which the call is made. "It is a boon for national and international passengers who require constant connectivity," he said. VTN

Why Launch in Hubli
Vinay Singh stated that as the largest passenger transport service provider of the nation, VRL Group, is stationed at Hubli, the company felt it will be an ideal place to launch the mobile PCO service. As VRL has maintained a gold standard in providing service and front runner in the sector, the company wanted to move along the footprints of the VRLs success, he said.

Taking Hubli Forward

Taking Hubli Forward
Source: HDMC Website

A high-level meeting under the chairmanship of chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and deputy chief Minister Yediyurappa will be convened shortly in Hubli solely to discuss the development of Hubli-Dharwad.

This was announced by ministers Jagadish Shettar and Basavaraj Horatti at a review meeting of officiaIs here on Wednesday.

"We are ready to do anything for the development of the twin-cities. The only thing we need is your support," they told the officials, when they came out with a set of proposals to improve the twin-cities.

Shettar also directed Dharwad DC M S Srikar and HDMC chief Manivannan ro prepare a blueprint on ways to take the city forward, focusing on drinking water, roads, footpaths, parks and underground drains.

"It is our job to get the CM and DyCM here and it is up to you to impress upon them," Horatti asserted.

Why RTI is toothless without file notings

Why RTI is toothless without file notings

They Reflect Officers’ ‘Ulterior Motives’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Last week when The Times of India broke the story that the cabinet was about to approve amendments in the RTI Act to keep file notings out of public purview, there was predictably a furore. Those who had worked for years to empower the Indian citizen with knowledge felt the changes in the law would suck the life out of it. And honest bureaucrats, who believed RTI was a handy tool to keep corrupt bosses in check, saw this as a major setback to cleanse the system.

In a letter to the President, former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole — a man known for his integrity — wrote, “The decision of GoI to amend the RTI Act is highly retrograde and would totally defeat the very purpose of the Act. In fact, making the notings on the file open to people can be the single most effective check on the rampant corruption both at the administrative and political levels. It can also strengthen the hands of officers of honesty and integrity.”

What do the changes propose to do? Under the original Act, file notings on everything, barring defence, security, personal information and commercial information, could be accessed. Now proposal is to keep virtually all file notings under wrap, barring those on “social and developmental’’ projects.

The government says this change is being done to allow bureaucrats to fearlessly put their opinion on paper. Veteran bureaucrats feel the purpose is exactly the opposite — while pliable officers can now hide their consent to their masters’ wrong demands, honest officers can no longer cite the RTI to demand that the masters put their unlawful instructions in writing and more often than not, fob them off.

ToI explains why file notings are inseparable from a meaningful RTI. And why, minus access to them, RTI becomes toothless.

# What is file noting? Contrary to popular perception, file notings are not mere scribbles made by officers on the margins of any document. They are written on a separate green sheet on the left side of files, giving an officer’s considered comments on the issue. While the right side of a file contains the proposal, the left side has an officer’s views on it. After putting his views, the officer passes the file to his superior who, in turn, puts his views expressing approval or disapproval on this page.

# Why are file notings important? The green sheet is a record of the entire decisionmaking process. An officer’s comments on a particular issue — for or against — is written on the file notings. For instance, why a passport should be or should not be issued, or why a contract should or should not be given to a particular party, is all written in the file noting. If you don’t get to know this, you will never know who is misusing his powers.

# Who’s afraid of file notings and why? A file noting can expose whether any officer has written anything illegal or if he has delayed a particular file. In that sense, if file notings are taken out of the RTI Act, dishonest officials have reason to celebrate.

To illustrate the point, when 150 jhuggis were demolished in Mayur Vihar in September 2005, DDA said no land was available to resettle them. However, file notings revealed that 700 plots of land had actually been developed by DDA in Kondli for resettling them.

File notings are important even in routine matters. Suppose one applies for a ration card or a passport, and the babu expects a bribe. Under the present RTI Act, as soon as one files an RTI application and demands to know about a file’s status and asks for the names of officials responsible for the delay, there is usually a flurry of activity.

If the Act is amended this threat will no longer be there. The damning information is on the green page that has file notings. So, is the proposed change a positive step forward — as the PMO has claimed — or really retrograde? Our law-makers will have to take a call later this session.