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| Intake of women officers in Army increasing: Govt | | |
New Delhi, Aug 02: The government today informed Rajya Sabha that women officers make up for 2.56 per cent of the total strength of the Indian Army at present.
"Until 1991, women were not eligible for recruitment to the Army. Following government approval, induction of women officers in select branches in the Army commenced in 1992 on an experimental basis with an initial tenure of five-year service," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a written reply to a question.
Recently, government had issued orders extending the tenure of women officers to 14 years.
He said annual intake of women officers in Army was gradually improving with 141 women joining in 2005 as against 150 vacancies.
"Earlier, women officers used to get only one promotion as captain after five years of reckonable service during a total tenure of 10 years of service. With the extended tenure, they will now get three promotions -- to the rank of Captain, Major and Lt. Colonel after 2, 6 and 13 years of reckonable service respectively," he added.
Benefits given to freedom fighters inadequate: Patil
The government today assured Rajya Sabha that it will look into the demand to extend the freedom fighters` quota in education to children of daughters of freedom fighters.
"I am in agreement with the demand but we will have to look into procedures for doing so," Home Minister Shivraj Patil said replying to supplementaries during question hour.
He was asked why the quota in educational institutions was restricted only to children of sons of freedom fighters.
"Procedure will have to be followed (for extending the quota)," he said.
"Whatever can be done, the government is willing to do," he said.
"Our objective is to help... We provide pension and other benefits to less than two lakh freedom fighters, though these are not the only ones who fought for the freedom of the country. There are many more," he said adding some freedom fighters had not come forward to take government pension.
Pension for freedom fighters has been raised from Rs 4000 to Rs 6000 per month, Patil said and added freedom fighters are decided according to a list of freedom struggles that include the Goa Liberation Movement and the fight against the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Over 90% got jobs under rural employment scheme
More than 90 per cent of job applicants have been given employment under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
"Out of 7,328,551 persons who have demanded employment (under the NREGA), 6,886,729 have been provided, which is 93.97 per cent," Minister of State for Rural Development Suryakanta Patil said in a reply.
The minister, however, admitted that a range of factors, such as state elections and shortage of staff and training, did slow down the progress of the rural employment programme in certain areas initially.
"Besides, instructions have been issued by the Central government from time to time for effective implementation of the act by the states."
Sanitation: The Delhi government has made no request to the Centre to be part of its total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), Minister of State for Rural Development A Narendra said in a reply.
The campaign is, however, under implementation in 559 rural districts across the country, he said.
Government approves induction of stealth frigates
The government has approved acquisition of three stealth frigates with state-of-the-art equipment and associated package from Russia.
The frigates are expected to be delivered during 2011-12, Defence Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha adding that the induction of these platforms would appreciably augment the power of the Indian Navy.
A contract was signed with M/S Rosoboronexport, Russia on 14 July, 2006 for the acquisition of three frigates each costing 332 million US dollars (Rs 1482.38 crore), Mukherjee said in a written reply.
They would be fully equipped according to Navy`s requirements and would be different from INS Prahar which was smaller than these ships and of a different type, he said.
The Defence Minister said that the decision to induct the three ships was based on the experience of Navy gained in terms of reliability and dependability of the three stealth frigates already inducted.
EPFO consultant suggests putting money in pvt debt instruments
Setting up an investment department in the employees provident fund organisation (EPFO) and putting money in private sector debt instruments are the main recommendations of a consultant appointed to suggest investment options to the pf authority.
The recommendations, made by mercer human resource consulting, also include removal of existing limits prescribed in case of public sector undertaking/public sector financial institutions securities and removal of mandatory requirement in state government securities to increase flexibility.
Giving this information in Rajya Sabha in reply to a written query today, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Chandra Sekhar Sahu said the consultant has also suggested increasing the maximum maturity for deposits with public sector banks from one year to three years and permitting active management of portfolio through trading.
Sahu also informed that the total investment made by the EPFO in 2005-06 was Rs 20648.58 crore, while the total return earned stood at Rs 12936.16 crore.
The total corpus of the EPFO as on March 31 this year was Rs 166106.48 crore.
Meanwhile, in reply to another query, Sahu told the House that an amount of Rs 877.76 crore was lying the unclaimed deposit account of the EPFO as on March 31, 2005.
SIMI movements under constant watch: Patil
The banned outfit, Students Islamic Movement of India, is continuing its clandestine activities and its movements are under constant watch, Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Rajya Sabha today.
The minister said state governments and the Delhi government have indicated that as many as 179 cases registered against SIMI are at different stages in courts.
"The activities of SIMI are under constant watch of law enforcement agencies," he said.
Earlier, replying to supplementaries during question hour, Patil told BJP member S S Ahluwalia that the inquiry on derailment of the Shramjeevi Express in Jaunpur and the Railway Station blast there was being conducted by the UP Police.
He said the function of the railway police was confined to protection of passengers and the railway station.
The minister said a debate was on whether the railways should be given additional powers.
Ahluwalia said the Centre, according to its suitability, decides whether a issue should be considered a state or central subject and cited the G C Banerjee Committee report on Godhra in this regard.
SP members protested against this saying this was not correct.
Patil said he could not speak on the issue as it concerned the state government. |
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