Chidambaram as Cheerleader: Govt to build 1 lac houses for paramilitary forces personnel on PPP mode

IF NOT Roti and Kapda, the Makan may do the magic for motivating India’s paramilitary forces working in difficult terrains. To boost the morale of Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) personnel, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has taken up an ambitious mega housing project for construction of about 1,00,000 houses across the country for personnel from Border Security Force(BSF), Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Assam Rifles(AR) etc.

The massive exercise to be taken up initially in 30 sites out of 245 identified spots, will follow the Public Private Partnership mode, and is likely to be completed in about four years.

According to MHA, the housing satisfaction level among Central Para Military Force personnel is 15.4% which is considered to be a de-motivating factor. Though the CPWD has been constructing houses for the force personnel and the pace of construction has been less than what is required to meet the authorized satisfaction level of 25% for the force personnel. On an average, about 4,000 houses are being added every year. The MHA had engaged consultants with the assistance of the ministry of finance and the Asian Development Bank which completed the Feasibility Study in January, 2010. For floating the bids, MHA has appointed M/s Price Waterhouse as Transaction Advisors.

Mamata announces cash award for crew members of Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has announced special award to crew members of Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani which derailed near Gaya on Monday. Some of the Railway staff including crew members who were working this train showed exemplary devotion to duty by exercising vigilance and alertness and applied emergency brakes as soon as the bomb blast occurred. Ms Banerjee sanctioned an award of Rs 30,000 each to the two loco pilots RK Singh and co-pilot A.K.Khalku, and Rs 20,000 each to the Guard R Minj and the train superintendent AC Ojha.

A common man’s letter to PM, copied to babu blogger

One Mr Chandan from Jharkhand, describing himself as a common man, has written a letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with CC to babu.blogger1@gmail.com. Though we have decided not to reproduce the letter because of certain unverified allegations, here are a few edited excerpts of the letter with the subject, “The Common Man’s Fight against Corruption”. Here it goes, “Dear sir, since the last two years, I have been fighting against the prevailing corruption in the Jharkhand state. When I started, I was all alone…. In the matter of Madhu Koda and his associates, the Central Agencies were very aggressive and their act had forced me to believe that in India, the truth prevails and the system does work…” Here is at least one firm believer of our political and bureaucratic system!