In so far as three Central Government Hospitals viz. Safdarjung Hospital, Dr. RML Hospital and LHMC & Smt. S.K. Hospital are concerned, there is no lack of basic amenities in these hospitals. However, they cater to patients coming not only from Delhi and its surrounding areas, but also from far flung States leading to huge increase in footfalls in these Hospitals against the available infrastructure. Hence, at times, there is some deficiencies in cleanliness and sanitation in some of the busy areas of these hospitals. Adequate sanitation and basic amenities are also provided in the CGHS dispensaries.

Regular rounds are made by Sanitary Supervisors/House-Keeping Manager and Officer In-charge (Sanitation ) to ensure cleanliness in the Hospitals. Besides, weekly rounds are taken by the Medical Superintendents. In addition to this, teams from Directorate General of Health Services visit these hospitals from time to time to ensure smooth working of these hospitals including cleanliness and sanitation.

Cleanliness and sanitation is maintained in these hospitals by following strict cleanliness schedule and with the help of regular as well as outsourced employees. Mechanized cleaning is also undertaken in certain vital areas. Pest Control work is regularly done. Training of housekeeping staff is also done on regular basis. Sanitation services are outsourced in CGHS dispensaries where no safai karmcharis are available.

The above information was given by the Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

-PIB

Two Central Footwear Training Institutes (CFTIs) have been  set up in Chennai and Agra respectively. These Institutes impart training in Footwear & allied industries and provide  Common Facility Services, Techno Managerial Consultancy Services including designing to the MSME enterprises..

CFTIs are conducting long term and short term training courses for footwear and allied industries.  The long term courses which are of one year or two years duration, relate to footwear technology and designing. The short term courses, ranging from 1 month to 6 months duration, cover subjects such as computerized shoe designing, shoe upper clicking, upper closing etc and need-based courses for MSME enterprises.

The CFTIs impart rigorous hands-on training on footwear manufacturing techniques with focus on self-employment.  There is also emphasis on new product development. These Institutes offer a two years Diploma Course in “Footwear Manufacturing & Designing”, which is accredited with International Textile Institute, U.K., one of the internationally reputed institutions in the field of training in footwear & textile sector.

Number of trainees trained and number of units benefitted by CFTIs during the last three years is:

Number of Candidates Trained

Number of MSME Units Assisted

This information was given by the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Vayalar Ravi in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Sh Sachin Pilot informed the LokSabha yesterday that the gross deposit of Small Savings Scheme in Post Offices  declined in the financial year 2011-12 as compared to the year 2010-11.

The decline of gross deposit in small savings schemes is, among other things, due to investor’s choice of alternative instruments for effecting savings. The Government has taken following measures to make the small saving schemes more attractive:-

 1.   The rate of interest on Post Office Savings Account (POSA) has been increased from 3.5% to 4%.  The ceiling of maximum balance in POSA 1 lakh in single account and 2 lakh in joint account) has been removed.

 2.  The maturity period for Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) has been reduced from 6 years to 5 years.

 3.   A new NSC instrument, with maturity period of 10 years, has been introduced.

 4.  The annual ceiling on investment under Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme has been increased from ` 70,000 to ` 1 lakh.

 5.  Liquidity of Post Office Time Deposit (POTD) – 1, 2, 3 & 5 years – has been improved by allowing pre-mature withdrawal at a rate of interest 1% less than the time deposits of comparable maturity.  For pre-mature withdrawals between 6-12 months of investment,  Post Office Savings Account (POSA) rate of interest has been allowed.

 6.         Central and State Governments take various measures from time to time to promote and popularisesmall saving scheme through print and electronic media as well as by holding seminars, meetings and providing training to the various agencies involved in mobilising deposits under various small savings schemes. The rate of interest on Small Savings Schemes has been aligned with Government-Security rates of similar maturity with a spread of 25 basis points (bps) in all schemes except 10 Years National Savings Certificates (IX-Issue) and Sr. Citizens Savings Scheme where the spread of 50 bps and 100 bps has been given respectively (100 bps are equal to 1%).  Interest rate for every financial year will now be notified before 1^st April of that year.

There were 26,01,69,920   number of operational small savings accounts in the Post Offices as on 31.03.2012 and the amount deposited therein upto the end of March 2012  was  Rs. 190732.73 crore .

2,84,10,593 accounts were closed by customers during financial year 2011-12.

There are 6.92 crores members under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 as on 31.03.2012. However, to ensure the welfare of the workers who are not benefited by any formal pension scheme, the Government has announced a co-contributory pension scheme the ‘Swalalamban’ whereby the Central Government would contribute a sum of Rs.1,000 per annum in each New Pension System (NPS) account opened having a savings of Rs.1,000 – Rs.12,000 per annum. The Scheme commenced in 2010-11. The Government will provide contribution for 5 years to the beneficiaries who register in the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 and therefore, the scheme has been extended up to the year 2016-17.

A total of 3,01,920 subscribers during 2010-11, 6,43,980 subscribers during 2011-12 and 90,061 subscribers till 30th August, 2012 in the current Financial Year have been enrolled under the Scheme.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

With a view to reduce chances of misuse of reservation system by unscrupulous elements, it has been prescribed that passengers have to produce original proof of identity during the journey in the following cases:

1. For e-tickets, any one of the passengers booked on the ticket has to produce any one of the prescribed proofs of identity in original.

2. For Tatkal tickets, the original proof of identity as indicated on the ticket.

3. For journey in Air-conditioned classes, any one of the passengers booked on the ticket has to produce any one of the prescribed proofs of identity in original.

For other than Tatkal and e-tickets, no instructions regarding production of proof of identity while travelling in non Air-conditioned classes have been issued, so far.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

There is no proposal under consideration of the Government for opening Computer education centres at tehsil level for providing free computer education to youth. However, Ministry of Labour & Employment has formulated a new scheme titled “KaushalVikasYojana” to set up 1500 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) & 5000 Skill Development Centres (SDCs) in un-serviced blocks of the country including Uttarakhand under Public Private Partnership (PPP). Approval process of the scheme is on. These ITIs and SDCs are proposed to conduct demand driven courses including Computer education.

The Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge gave this information in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Sh Milind Deora informed the Lok Sabhatoday that the government has allotted Broad Band Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum for 4G services to six different service providers through Auction apart from BSNL & MTNL.

BSNL has provided 50077 connections through 4G/WiMAX and Bharti Airtel 3180 subscribers through 4G network.

In August 2011 TRAI released a consultation paper “IMT Advances Mobile Wireless Broadband Services”. Comments have been received from 23 stakeholders, which are available on TRAI’s website www.trai.gov.in. The comments received are being examined by the Authority.