Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Shillong set to get North East's first NIFT centre

SHILLONG: In a bid to give impetus to the traditional skills in the region, the National Institute of Fashion Technology will be setting up its first centre in the northeast in Shillong this year.

A comprehensive proposal for the centre is being drafted, and the proposed sites have been identified. "We hope to get it cleared from the Union Government very soon so as to start the centre from this academic session itself", NIFT Director General Rajiv Takru said.

Takru said the mechanism to start the first session from a temporary accommodation has been put on fast track and going by the pace of the organization of the logistics, the first session could be started from June-July this year.

He said the centre would have the entire gamut of courses from two-year post graduate, four-year graduate to short duration courses and the initial intake capacity would be 40 students per course.

Meghalaya Chief Secretary Ranjan Chatterjee said "We have seen many students from the northeast seeking their career in fashion technology and they are doing quiet well. But many tend to miss the bus due to financial constraints. This centre will address such students, besides seeking to find avenues for self-employment and placement in private sector".

================== PTI

RTI mess: Delhi Police demand money to give information

Press Trust of India

The Right to Information Act might be hailed as people's power in democracy, but data under it may not come for free for an NGO that wanted information on missing children.

'Nav Shristi' - an NGO working for women and child rights - was shocked when two police stations in the capital demanded Rs 12,274 each for disclosing information on missing and kidnapped children in Delhi under the RTI.

''We were prompted to file an FIR after coming across complaints from poor people that police was not taking their cases seriously,'' director of the NGO Reena Banerjee said.

But it was the monetary charges listed by the police that rattled the social worker more.

According to the reply to the RTI application, ''one Sub-Inspector at Rs 773 per day for one day, one head constable at Rs 451 per day for one day and 13 constables from police stations at Rs 425 per day for two days would be needed for the information to be gathered.''

This amounted to a total of Rs 12,274 as mentioned in the letter from these two police stations.

The west Delhi and south-west Delhi police stations had given a break-up of the amount they wanted in order to deliver the services.

In all, 12 police stations were approached and these were the only two that cited any charges to be paid for the information.

Unhappy over the issue, Banerjee approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) in this regard.

''Why can't they give us the complete information? And if ten of the 12 police posts could part with the information free of cost, then why not these two,'' Banerjee questioned.

As per the RTI rules, the applicant has to pay Rs two per page to get the information.

According to a CIC official, ''the concerned officer can charge rates only as prescribed by the state government. It should be a reasonable amount.''

However, he was clueless on the definition of ''reasonable amount''.

When contacted, south-west district DCP Shalini Singh said, ''We know we have asked for a certain sum of money to do the job. What we have done is rightful under the laws of RTI.''

RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal said, ''The RTI Act does not prescribe any such charges. The Sub-Inspector and the Constable will work on a holiday or on a working day to retrieve such information and he is a paid servant. ''It is their job. They cannot ask for extra charges being government servants,'' he said.


http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080045072

No comments:

Post a Comment