Aadhaar not mandatory for LPG subsidy, school admission.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA                         MINISTRY OF  PLANNING        LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 6678 ANSWERED ON   08.05.2013 AADHAAR CARD AS MANDATORY DOCUMENTS 668 . Shri RUDRAMADHAB RAY Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:- (a) whether Aadhar Card is mandatory to avail subsidized facilities being offered by the Government like LPG cylinders, admission in private aided schools, opening a savings account etc.; (b) if so, the details thereof; (c) the details of authorized centers for enrolment for Aadhar Card in Delhi and NCR Region; and (d) The steps proposed to be taken to open more centers in every zone to facilitate the residents to get their names enrolled for Aaadhaar Card? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR PARLIAMNETARY AFFAIRS & PLANNING (SHRI RAJEEV SHUKLA) (a) to (b): Aadhar Card is not mandatory to avail subsidized facilities being offered by the Government like LPG cylinders, admission in private aided schools, opening a savings account etc. (c) : There are approximately 195 centers operational in Delhi. Details of centers are available at the url, uidai.gov.in/easearch.aspx. (d): Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) has appointed a total of 11 (eleven) registrars for Aadhaar enrolments, including all Deputy Commissioners, and two other department. The enrolment centers are being operated as per local requirement and availability of enrolment kits by the registrars on day-to-day basis. The GNCTD has also engaged more vendors recently to augment the capacity.

Ramazan can be transformed to be a truly green month.

Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

We are blessed to welcome Ramazan again this year. It is a time for fasting, spiritual fulfillment, emotional rebalancing, mental reflection and physical purification.

Ramazan is the ideal time for balancing the spirit, the mind and the body. Fasting is a universal exercise of patience, self-control and altruism, but it is only one among many important aspects of Ramazan. Traditionally, Muslims consider Ramazan the ultimate month of charity, prayer, Quran, family, community and often very rich cuisine.

Our lives are becoming more complex and our challenges are numerous. Climate changes, global warming, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, poverty, hunger, war and global diseases are realities of our modern lives. These challenges are becoming beyond the reach of international institutions and national governments. It is about time to reconsider our approach, have a Ramazan paradigm shift and think of our roles as individuals and communities of faith in tackling these global problems. Muslims believe that man is the custodian of the earth: 

"Now, behold! Your Lord said to the angels: I am placing upon the earth a human successor to steward it" (Quran 2:30). 

Men and women are accountable to their Lord on the Day of Judgment for what they have done during their lifetime to others and to the creation and for the legacy they have left after their death. 

"We will register "in the book" what they have done and what footprints they have left, and everything we have accounted for in great details in a detailed book" (Quran 36:12) 

Ramazan can be transformed to be a truly green month, and Muslims, with all people of faith, can live up to their responsibility to be the true stewards on earth and use Ramazan to help us reach that goal.

Educate yourself about climate change and global warming and our role to save our planet.

Building on Earth Day, we should advocate to designate Ramazan to be the green month every year where all individuals, congregations and communities work to reduce their footprints and save our planet? It is not enough anymore to think of Ramadan as a month of abstaining from food and drink for a part of the day and binge eat the rest of the day. 

Ramazan is a once a year opportunity to tackle global issues like over consumption, materialism, poverty, hunger, wars and yes, global warming.

Ramazan Mubarak!

Rabia Memorial Trust.

Green Ramazan 2013.

Police acts after 84-year-old passport seeker asks court to legalise bribe

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times  Guwahati, July 14, 2013

The police in central Assam’s Nagaon district declined to carry out the verification process for Muktadir Ali Talukdar to get his passport. A letter to the Gauhati high court seeking legalisation of bribe finally made them do their job.

84-year-old Talukdar had earlier this month written to the chief justice AK Goel requesting him to legalise bribe so that his conscience could be clear while paying for something the police were duty-bound to do.

He said that he had applied for passport twice to go on Haj.

But on both occasions, his files did not move beyond the local police station.

“I produced all documents sought by the police during verification, but they demanded bribe. I refused to pay outright,” he wrote. Talukdar reapplied after the regional passport office (RPO) in Guwahati closed his file in course of time.

The police allegedly demanded money again, forcing him to write to the chief justice.

“Since files do not move without giving bribes, it should be legalised,” he wrote, adding refusal or inability to grease the palms made many Hajis like him miss out on the pilgrimage to Mecca every year.

Soon after the letter reached the court, officers of the local police station visited Talukdar to apologise for the harassment he had to face. “We will try to make sure such things do not happen in the future,” district police chief VR Singh said.

Magistrate adjourns hearing in passport scam

TNN | Jul 7, 2013 KANPUR: Police efforts to seek remand of four accused in passport scam suffered a jolt when additional chief metropolitan magistrate (second) on Saturday adjourned the hearing and asked thedefence counsel to conclude arguments on Monday.

Opposing the police custody remand, the defence counsels pleaded that one accused Jayant Sarkar is a government employee working as passport verification officer and the police had not sought permission or sanction from departmental officials for his arrest.

The police had earlier sought custody remand of Jayant Sarkar, Parvez, Mohit Gambhir and Sagar Saxena for interrogation. The magistrate also rejected the bail application of Zafarul Hasan.

Swaroopnagar police had raided Passport Sewa Kendra in the city on Thursday and arrested 17 persons for making fake passports. The arrested persons were Ashutosh Srivastava, Pankaj Singh, Sagar Saxena, Avinash Dixit, Shanu Sonkar, Meena Ghambhir, Mohit Gambhir, Parvez Alam, Zafrul Hasan, Jayant Sarkar and others. All the accused were presented before the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate (III) on Friday. The magistrate had granted judicial custody remand of all accused for 14 days.

The counsels for accused had pleaded that as per FIR, the accused were arrested at 9 am on Thursday and producing at 5.20 pm on Friday .As per rules, the arrested persons must be produced before nearest judicial official within 24 hours after arrest otherwise the arrest would be held illegal. The magistrate had reserved order on that application and rejected it later. The magistrate had also rejected the bail application of six accused.

Cops moved an application for police custody remand of four accused for further interrogation.

Fake passport racket found in Kanpur

By PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA, 5 July 2013, MAIL ONLINE INDIA.

More than 50 terrorists are moving from one country to another on passports issued by the Lucknow passport office. 

If that's not alarming enough, sources say, senior officers of the passport office are directly involved in the racket for anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5,00,000 per person and have issued passports to at least 50 suspected ISI agents. 

The Kanpur Police arrested 17 persons from the local passport service centre where they were allegedly processing genuine passports on forged documents.

The police unearthed a fake passport racket following a raid

The police recovered 200 passport forms, 50 fake birth certificates, 16 fake voter identity cards and six passports, which were made the same day, besides several mobile phones and laptops. 

Senior Superintendent of Police Yashashvi Yadav, who conducted a sting operation before arresting the accused, said: "We have arrested only a few. There are many more involved in the racket. Expect more arrests soon." Another officer said: "We found that at least 50 passports have been issued to either suspected ISI agents or those with terror links." 

Surprisingly, the news drew sharp reactions from employees of Regional Passport Office in Lucknow. They went on an indefinite strike demanding immediate release of their colleagues, claiming the employees were falsely implicated.

Panambur cop accused of assaulting passport applicant; making him sign blank paper

MANGALORE Posted on Jul 5th, 2013 and filed under Local News. : 

A complaint has been lodged with the Mangalore Police Commissioner Manish Kharbikar alleging that a constable of the Panambur policestation had assaulted a passport applicant youth and also forced him to sign a blank paper.

As per the complaint, Mohammad Imran (22) of Kasaba Bengre had applied forpassport; following which he was summoned to the Panambur police station for scrutiny of documents.

It is said a constable named Pereira sought details regarding the criminal cases of the applicant and also abused him in foul language. The complaint also said that the constable forced Imran to sing a blank paper and also lodged him in the lock-up for a few hours. It has been alleged that the cop even misbehaved rudely with a social activist who had been to the station on gathering information.

The complaint also stated that around six to seven years ago, when Ibrahim was in ninth standard, he was named as one of the several accused in the case of a group clash in Bengre, despite being innocent. Later he was acquitted of charges by the Juvenile Justice Tribunal.

However, Imran had no other criminal cases against him, but had given details regarding the case which was once registered against him in the application. Still, the cop abusing and assaulting him with a prejudiced motive is shocking, thecomplaint said.

It is learnt soon after the incident took place, some social activists had contactedInspector Cheluvaraju who released the youth. The complaint has also mentioned the inspector Cheluvaraju too had admitted that the constable had erred.

The complaint further said that the constable has even threatened the victim of fixing him in a false case and seeing to it that he did not receive a passport in case he made the issue public.

Passport staff call off stir after assurance from cops

TNN | Jul 6, 2013 LUCKNOW : The strike of the passport office employees in UP was called off after a few hours on Friday following assurance from the police that it would not initiate abrupt action against the passport employees the way it did in Kanpur on Thursday.

On Thursday, the crime branch of the Kanpur police unearthed a massive fake passport racket following a raid at the Passport Office in Swaroop Nagar.

Sixteen persons, including passport department employees, were arrested. It was alleged that the passport officers who were arrested in Kanpur were manhandled by the police.

To protest against the police action, passport employees in the state threatened to go on an indefinite strike on Friday, thus affecting the work at four PSKs in Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. "We feel threatened to work like this," said passport officer in Lucknow, Ramkirpal.Since more than 2,000 appointments are given by the PSKs in UP daily, the strike affected quite a huge number of applicants on Friday.

However, the strike was called off in the evening. "We have decided to postpone it since the senior police officers have assured that such action will not be taken against passport employees in future," said secretary of the passport employees' association in Lucknow, Sudhir Tiwari.

Rtd. Joint DGCA, Ram K Maheshwari joins IAAI’s Legal Counsel Team as Advocate

Thursday, July 04, 2013,  By Anish V Punnackattu | New Delhi Ram K Maheshwari, Rtd. Joint Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has joined IATA Agents Association of India's (IAAI) Legal Counsel Team as Advocate. Talking about his new role, Maheshwari said, "I will advise IAAI as and when a new development takes place. I had appeared on their behalf before the Secretary Civil Aviation and argued in favour of the DGCA orders dated 5/3/2010 and 17/12/2013. I shall appear for the Association in the High Court too if required." Announcing his appointment, Biji Eapen, National President, IAAI, said, “We are proud to announce that the industry veteran, Adv. Ram K Maheshwari, has joined our legal counsel team. His decades of expertise and professionalism will be an added value to the travel fraternity." Explaining his stand on the zero-commission regime of airlines, Maheshwari said, “The zero-commission system is illegal in India. As per Indian laws, tariff has to include commission. Commission is an integral part of tariff and the two cannot be separated. Hence, making commission zero and then levying transaction fees to compensate the agent is violation of law.” Adding to this, Eapen said, “The present Supreme Court order dated 23/1/2013 in CA 8771 of 2012 also vindicates our stand that transaction fee is illegal in India. The DGCA order dated 5/3/2010 stated  'Commission cannot be replaced by Transaction Fee.' The Kerala High Court, on February 18, 2013, again justified our principle." Mentioning a one-stop solution for restoring commission for travel agents, Maheshwari said, “The DGCA has to tell airlines that its order dated 17/12/2012 is final and any airline violating it shall be proceeded against as per law. Automatically, airlines will start negotiating with the agent community on commission."

MEA draws up procedure manual for passport officers

Tarini Puri, TNN | Jul 4, 2013  PUNE: The next time an applicant visits a passport sevakendra, the granting officer may refer to an elaborate manual before processing the application.

The passport division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has drawn up an exhaustive manual of procedures to be followed for issuing passports to standardize the response of regional passport officers and granting officers.

Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division of the MEA told TOI that the draft of the manual has been sent to all regional passport officers (RPO) to seek their views on the best-possible treatment of 80 probable situations that may arise during the issuance of passports, including accepting documents and handling different categories of applicants.

Currently, there is variation in the manner in which passport applications are dealt with in the passport seva kendras. In many cases, acceptability of documents furnished by the applicant is decided on the basis of which part of the country the application is filed or even the "perception" of the granting officers.

"Perception of a situation always differs between two individuals. This can neither be ruled out, nor easily dealt with. With the help of feedback from all the RPOs, we endeavour to eliminate regional variations and standardize the response to possible situations, so that officers in different parts of the country will deal with the same documents in a uniform manner," Sobti said, adding that all RPOs are expected to send their feedback in two to four weeks.

Sobti admitted that tricky situations arise during the scrutiny of documents submitted by the applicants. "There are times when granting officers ask applicants to produce additional documents. This happens when he/she is not satisfied with what has been submitted.

We have picked 80 such situations and evaluated possible ways of dealing with them, based on which a nationalised response manual is being worked out. The idea is to provide more user-friendly service by adopting the best practices uniformly across the country," he said.

Sobti also did not rule out the option of adopting region-specific procedures. "If regionalisation is useful, then it will be accommodated when required or standardised," he said.

Shakuntala Rane, regional passport officer of Pune district, denied having received a request for her feedback for the manual. "Problems and situations arise in every passport office, and Pune is no exception. My office has so far not received any communication in this regard. If we do, I will respond to it based on my experience here," she said.

(IAAI) Study: Airlines will be challenged to meet forecast demand growth

IATA Agents Association of India
For immediate release Date: 01 July 2013 No: 40

Study: Airlines will be challenged to meet forecast demand growth

Geneva - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for new thinking on the relationships between partners in the air transport value chain in order to attract the $4-5 trillion that will be needed over the next 20 years to meet the growing demand for aviation-enabled connectivity.

The call came in an IATA study supported by analysis from McKinsey & Company, “Profitability and the Air Transport Value Chain”, which shows that returns on capital invested in airlines have improved in recent years, but are still far below what investors would normally expect to earn. 

“The airline industry has created tremendous value for its customers and the wider economies we serve. Aviation supports some 57 million jobs globally and we make possible $2.2 trillion worth of economic activity. By value, over 35% of the goods traded internationally are transported by air,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “But in the 2004-2011 period, investors would have earned $17 billion more annually by taking their capital and investing it in bonds and equities of similar risk. Unless we find ways to improve returns for our investors it may prove difficult to attract the $4-5 trillion[1] of capital we need to serve the expansion in connectivity over the next two decades, the vast majority of which will support the growth of developing economies.”

During the 2004-2011 period, returns on capital invested in the airline industry worldwide averaged 4.1%[2]. This is an improvement on the average of 3.8% generated in the previous business cycle over 1996-2004[3]. However, this is nowhere near the average cost of capital of 7.5% which represents the return on capital that investors would expect to earn by investing in assets of similar risk outside the airline industry. While some airlines have consistently created value for equity investors, these are few in number. On average industry returns were just sufficient for the industry to service its debt, with nothing left to reward equity investors for risking their capital. 

The study showed that over the past 40 years virtually all industries have generated higher returns on invested capital (ROIC) than the airline industry. Moreover, airlines are the least profitable segment of the air transport value chain while other segments consistently generate good returns for their investors. The biggest cost for airlines today is fuel and companies in this sector benefited from an estimated $16-48 billion of their annual net profits generated by air transport. The most profitable part of the rest of the value chain is in distribution, with the computer reservation systems businesses of the three global distribution system companies generating an average ROIC of 20%, followed by freight forwarders with an ROIC of 15%. 

However, high profits and inefficient costs in the value chain are only part of the explanation for persistently poor airline profitability. In fact over the past 40 years the airline industry has more than halved the cost of air transport in real terms, owing to better fuel efficiency, asset utilization and input productivity. Yet these efficiency gains have ended up in lower air transport yields rather than improved investor returns. That has created tremendous value for customers and the wider economy, but has left equity investors in the airline industry unrewarded. The study shows this aspect of the airlines’ performance lies more in the industry’s highly fragmented and unconsolidated structure and the nature of competition, rather than in the supply chain, although distribution is a key part of the puzzle. 

“More effective partnerships are required among stakeholders in the air transport industry. Efficiency gains are a win-win for all concerned. We have seen that with the adoption of 100% e-ticketing and the introduction of global self-service standards. Not only did partners in the industry benefit, but consumers gained great value through more efficient and convenient processes. This study points to the active collaboration needed to find even more such solutions,” said Tyler.

An agenda for governments is also outlined in the study. “Smart regulation is needed from governments around the world in order to maximize the economic benefits of connectivity—jobs and growth. Unfortunately, high taxation and poorly designed regulation in many jurisdictions make it difficult for airlines to develop connectivity. On top of the cost issues, airlines also face a hyper fragmented industry structure owing to government policies that discourage cross-border consolidation. There is plenty of room for some fresh thinking on all accounts,” said Tyler.”