The new proposal involves a three-tier entry norm--de- pending on project size--for potential bidders, said a Na- tional Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official, who spoke on condition of ano- nymity. Bidders for projects below Rs2,000 crore would need to have a net worth of at least 25% of the cost of the project, with the cap progres- sively increasing to 50% for projects worth Rs2,000-3,000 crore and 100% for projects above Rs3,000 crore.

The proposal, which came from the ministry of road transport and highways, was at a preliminary stage and yet to be made to the board of the authority, the official said.

As much as one-third of all future highway projects thatcome up for award may cost in excess of Rs3,000 crore to build, the NHAI official said, and added that the net worth criterion is just one of several changes being considered.
Mint could not immediately ascertain the others.

A model document govern- ing initial bids--published by the Planning Commission and meant as a guide for minis- tries--suggests that companies should have a net worth of 25% of the cost of the project.

Highway experts said the au- thority has long grappled with a way to assess capacity of highway bidders, as a few firms in India's still nascent public- private partnership road build- ing industry vie for an ever in- creasing number of projects.

A road ministry official said the move was being considered in order to prevent the practice of "name-lending", whereby large companies give their names to smaller firms--often for a fee--so they can be eligi- ble to bid for projects.

An executive with a consult- ing firm surmised that the pro- posed regulations may also be a way of ensuring that projects don't get delayed because of smaller companies bidding for large projects that are beyond their capacity.

rahul.c@livemint.com

Source: Live Mint By RAHUL CHANDRAN Higher net worth norms likely for road builders

Following the High Court order, authorities concerned have now decided to prepare radio jingles as well as TV and newspaper advertisements to reach out to workers about their right to approach the government for monetary aid.

A welfare fund of Rs 370 crore 1 per cent of the total cost of the Commonwealth Games projects as stipulated by the 1996 Building and Other Construction Workers Act was earlier set aside for use not only to disburse compensation to registered workers, but also as loans for houses, education and health-related provisions. The report submitted by the monitoring committee in the court on Wednesday said a decision was taken on "information education communication or behaviour communication campaign" to be carried out by the Welfare Board through "hoardings, advertisements, the electronic and print media". A website of the Board has also been set up, the report said.

The jingles and TV ads are likely to be released by the first week of April, sources said. They will communicate information about the mandatory registration of workers and their rights to avoid exploitation.

The report submitted by Delhi government's standing counsel Najmi Waziri detailed plans to involve the Directorate of Education, MCD, NDMC, Cantonment Board and even the Delhi University in the campaign.

"Ex. Engg. CBM Division M-131 PWD, GNCTD informed that the work of NOC for temporary Cinemas was transferred to the MCD."

That's straight from official minutes of a meeting at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

While anyone who has encountered the bureaucracy in DDA knows the housing authority excels in jargon, keeping the language in draft policies and procedures archaic, convoluted and full of acronyms that mean little to anyone outside, it seems matters have now come to a head. At a meeting held at the Raj Niwas on February 17, it was pointed out to DDA officials that the agency's policies were steadily beginning to mirror rocket science manuals.

Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna, who was present at the meeting, had to finally ask the DDA to prepare a "user-friendly handbook of procedures or documents on every subject, for the convenience of the public", according to minutes of the meeting.

The issue came up after the DDA presented a policy on "Building regulations for special area, unauthorised colonies and villages" for approval. A non-official member of Authority suggested that the DDA should consider printing a "handbook of procedures" for the public, because the "regulations, in their present format, cannot be understood by the common man", the minutes state.

MCD Commissioner K S Mehra backed the suggestion. The minutes of the meeting say: "Commissioner MCD pointed out that even the MCD has to seek clarifications from the DDA on several issues and replies sent by the DDA merely refer to provisions of the Masterplan."

Source: The Indian Express By Mandakini Gahlot Cut the jargon, simplify language, DDA told

Now, under the Antyodya Anna Yojana (AAY), a homeless household in the Capital will be supplied with 25 kg of wheat, 10 kg of rice, 6 kg of sugar and 22 litres of kerosene oil once it gets an AAY card.

The AAY scheme, launched in 2000, intends to provide special food-based assistance to destitute households that are given a special ration card, and are entitled to special grain quotas at highly subsidised prices.

Under the scheme, homeless individuals, who are not part of a household, will get 10 kg of wheat, 5 kg of rice and 10 litres of kerosene oil per person each month at Below Poverty Line (BPL) rates.

This is part of an official communication from the Office of the Commissioner (Food, Supplies and Consumer Affairs) to Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran.

The letter was produced before a Supreme Court Division Bench led by Justice Dalveer Bhandari on Tuesday in compliance to court orders to implement the AAY scheme for the homeless people, too. The state government was represented by advocate Wasim Qadri.

The Bench subsequently recorded the contents of the letter dated March 11, 2010 in its written order on Tuesday.

The letter, drafted by Joint Commissioner R T L D'Souza, informs that arrangements have been made to distribute the supmade to distribute the supplies among 14,850 homeless people with effect from March this year.

The ASG Parasaran submitted that two phases of a survey to identify homeless people in Delhi is already over.

Recording Parasaran's submissions, the court said in its order that "the Chief Secretary had a meeting on January 20, 2010 and directed the survey to be completed by May 21 this year, so that the AAY cards can be issued for homeless people".

Source: The Indian Express By KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL & AANCHAL BANSAL Ration supply to homeless people fixed, SC told

Its outlets are selling yellow peas dal at Rs 26 per kg where- as the market rate for the same is between Rs 22-23 per kg.

In November last year, the Delhi government had laun- ched a scheme of providing pulses cheaper than the mar- ket rates and had actively adve- rtised the sale of this dal thro- ugh retail outlets of NAFED, Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy.

Naresh Gupta, the president of the Delhi Grain Merchant Association, said, "The current wholesale price for the yellow peas dal is Rs 1,700 per quintal or in other words Rs 17 per kg.
Even after adding packaging and transportation cost, the retail rate does not go so high."

HT spoke with many retail grocers across Delhi and most of them said the dal was not much in demand and hence they did not stock it.

One of them said, "This dal is not very popular. The sale has started to pick up slowly now." He said the dal is actu- ally peas, so one won't be eat- ing it daily.

nivedita.khandekar@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times Nivedita Khandekar Dal At Subsidised Outlet Costs More, YEllow Peas Dal NAFED Selling at Rs 3 More Than Market Rate

The Delhi government has decided to increase road tax on new vehicles in the upcoming state budget, due on Monday.

It proposes to raise road tax on cars priced at less than Rs 4 lakh from the existing two per cent (of ex-showroom price) to four per cent.

The government has pro- posed different tax slabs rang- ing from five per cent to nine per cent on cars priced at more than Rs 4 lakh.

That means a Honda Civic 1.8V AT (ex-showroom cost Rs 13. 71 lakh) at six per cent road tax will now be dearer by Rs.27,420. A Maruti Alto Lxi (ex-showroom Rs.2.63 lakh) at four per cent will be dearer by Rs 5,267.

Road tax in Delhi is, at pres- ent, among the lowest in the country.

atul.mathur@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times By Atul Mathur Road Tax Up, Pay More For Your New Car

The social welfare department claims to have sanctioned the money for the grills in November and blames the PWD for delaying the work currently underway at the home -- work that was meant to prevent any more escapes from the roof.

Incidentally, the department of social welfare, in a recent presentation to chief secretary Rakesh Mehta on matters related to restructuring of the department, made its grievances known over delays in execution of maintenance works by PWD. According to sources, the meeting saw officials point out that getting PWD to do small things like changing clogged pipes and replacing taps takes a long time as there are procedures involved.

It is learnt that reacting to the department of social welfare's concern, the chief secretary suggested that they seek the services of the Delhi Skills Mission for maintenance tasks. At the Mission, students from the state-run Industrial Training Institutes are being trained under the ``Earn While You Learn" project.

As the exercise to include poor people in the banking system is not financially viable, a part of the cost will be borne by RBI. In order to take banking to the remote villages, banks while opening an account of a person, also issue him an ATM card. At the same time, it will appoint a credible person in the area as a banking correspondent (BC), who will act as an agent of the bank. BC will be given a hand-held device, which could be connected to the bank's network through wireless connection.

A person, who has an account in a bank of that area, can operate his account through the hand-held device. After swiping the ATM card in the hand-held device, he will have to type in his password to get access to his account.

"After accessing to his account, he can deposit money with the banking correspondent, which can immediately credit the same in his account and give him a receipt. At the same time, if he wants to withdraw money from his account, he can take it from the banking correspondent, after debiting the money from his account on line," said RBI regional director Sandip Ghose.

Ghose said that bank will also deploy mobile ATMs, which will go to every village in the area once a week. The mobile ATMs will function like a mobile branch of the bank.

Source: Times Of India By Prabhakar Sinha RBI pushes banking to remote areas

The apex bank is likely to increase its repo and reverse repo rates at which it lends and borrows by 0.25-0.5 per cent at its 2010-11 annual monetary policy next month, they said.

"It (the high inflation) surely calls for a rate hike, even if it is food driven. The RBI is likely to act by hiking the repo and reverse repo rates by at least 0.25 per cent at its April policy," Crisil Principal Economist D K Joshi, said.

The WPI-inflation, which has already neared 10 per cent, is likely to stay in double digits till June and may ease after that, Joshi said.

Driven by the higher prices of fuels and manufactured goods, the wholesale inflation shot up to a 16-month high of 9.89 per cent in February while the food inflation is currently hovering above 17 per cent.

 Unwinding from its easy money stance, the RBI had hiked the portion of cash banks need to park with the central bank by 0.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent but kept the key-rates unchanged at its January policy review.

Bank of Baroda's Chief Economist, Rupa Rege Nitsure said the headline inflation is likely to touch 11 per cent by end-March and stay in double digits till May-June until the Rabi crop comes into the market.

"The low enrollment is primarily due to shifting of population from one area to another on account of commercialisation. Running the schools with such low enrollments results in wasteful expenditure and under-utilisation of the staff posted there. Seven such school buildings will be handed over to the Land and Estate department for further use," an MCD official said.

As the tussle between the 2,000-plus cable operators and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) nears a conclusion, the plan is to clear the Capital of overhead cable wires before the Commonwealth Games.

Withdrawing their earlier threat of a complete blackout of cable television services in Delhi, the Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) has decided to co-operate with the MCD to "make the city beautiful in time for the Games".

The decision came after `big players' like Reliance, MTNL and Airtel agreed to share their dark fibre or spare capacity of fibre optics with the cable operators. The move will allow the operators to share the extra capacity on the already laid cables of the telecoms, without having to dig the roads again to lay fresh cables. It will also be more cost effective for the cable operators.

The MCD has now decided to extend its February-end deadline to March 31, for completion of work.

According to president of COFI Roop Sharma, the overhead cables will now be removed in phases, beginning with the Chandni Chowk and neighbouring areas. The decision to co-operate with the civic body took much persuasion, including a series of meetings and 2,300 letters to various local cable service providers, she said.

"For once, we decided to keep aside all differences and assume moral responsibility to beautify the city before the Games. The MCD diktat to remove overhead cables makes sense and so we agreed to it after the telecoms agreed to share the dark fibre," Sharma said.

Source: The Indian Express By Ayesha Arvind  Cable TV operators agree to take wires underground

An NDMC official said: ``If any shop in Connaught Place, Netaji Nagar Market, Begum Zaidi Market, Moti Bagh, East Kidwai Nagar Market, Sarojini Nagar Market, etc is seen using plastic bags, the bags will be confiscated by us.''

Meanwhile, NDMC seized plastic bags weighing 15 kg from vegetable vendors and readymade garment shops in Sarojini Nagar Market.

``We have issued a circular to restaurant/eating houses forbidding the use of plastic bags in NDMC area. This circular was also handed out to sanitary inspectors, resident welfare associations (RWAs), traders associations, schools, colleges, corporate houses, government and nongovernment organizations to implement the ban on plastic bags as per the notification by the department of environment, Delhi government,'' said an official.

Officials of NDMC's health department will visit market and residential areas on a weekly basis and if they find people using plastic bags they will seize such bags.

"Yes, it has been approved," a top-level source said after the meeting of the Union Cabinet.

The Cabinet gave a green signal to the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill, he said.

The Bill, once approved by Parliament, will pave the way for a national body to advise the government on administration of road safety laws and to undertake road safety audits and analysis of accidents.

The proposal also includes creation of a safety fund by way of earmarking one per cent of the cess on petrol and diesel.

As per the latest official figures, about 1.20 lakh people lost their lives in 2007 due to road accidents.

Keeping in view the severe parking problem faced by the residents of the area and visitors coming to the market, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will construct the parking lot under public private partnership (PPP). As of now, the civic agency has already earmarked two locations for the proposed parking facility.

Parking is a major problem in the market as in the weekends the parking lot remains choked. In the absence of sufficient space, people are left with no alternative but to park their vehicles on both sides of the two lanes leading to the market, which leads to traffic jam on the main road. A garbage dump at the entrance of the parking lot, two taxi stands and uneven ground further adds to the traffic mess.

"Parking in Delhi has been an area of grave concern with Greater Kailash being no exception to it. The problem needs immediate solution. The M-Block market, which is frequently visited by thousands of visitors daily, has acute shortage of parking area. Keeping the difficulty faced by them and provisions of Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, the civic body has proposed a multilevel-cum-commercial complex in the area," an MCD official said.

Source: The Pioneer By Parvaiz Sultan Relief for parking woes in GK-I soon

He has also asked them to submit a status report in this regard.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which is facing a loss to the tune of Rs. 200 crore per year due to illegal parking sites, had written to the L-G office, asking him to inter- vene in the matter two months ago.

"The L-G has asked the traf- fic police to remove such illegal parking sites and encroach- ments at the earliest. We had written to the L-G office as a number of illegal parking sites are operational in areas where the traffic police didn't allow us to operate our parking lots," said a senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official.

"We have more than 200 legal surface parking sites function- al in the city at present, while the number of illegal parking sites is double that," he added.

source: Hindustan Times Crackdown on illegal parking