NCPCR Asks States/UTS to Upload Data of Children Who Have Lost Both or Either of The Parent To Covid-19 On Online Tracking Portal “Bal Swaraj (Covid-Care)”

May 30, 2021 | Business

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), in furtherance to its function as a monitoring authority under section 109 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and in view of the growing problem related to children affected by COVID-19, has devised an online tracking portal “Bal Swaraj (COVID-Care link)” for child in need of care and protection. This portal of the Commission has been created with a purpose for online tracking and digital real time monitoring mechanism of children who are in need of care and protection. The Commission has extended the use of this portal for tracking children who have lost both its parents or either of the parent during COVID-19 and provided a link under the name of “COVID-Care” for uploading of data of such children by the concerned officer/department on the portal.

 

 The children who have lost family support or are without any ostensible means of subsistence are children in need of care and protection under Section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and all procedures given under the Act for such children must be followed to ensure the well-being and best interest of children.

“Bal Swaraj-COVID-Care”portal is aimed at tracking the children affected by COVID-19 right from the production of children before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to the restoration of the children to their parent/guardian/relative and its subsequent follow-up. Through the data filled in the portal by the District officers and State officers for each child, the Commission will be able to get information about whether the child is being able to get his/her entitlements, benefits and monetary gains for which the child is entitled to. It will also come to know whether the child has been produced before the CWC and the orders are being passed for him/her. The Commission can also identify if the State is needing financial assistance in getting more funds for giving benefit under implemented schemes to the children.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in SMWP No. 4 of 2020 “In Re. Contagion of Covid-19 virus in Children Homes”, vide order dated 28.05.2021 has directed all district officers across theStates/UTs to fill data on the Commission’s portal, related to children who have become orphan before Saturday evening (29.05.2021 evening) on Bal Swaraj portal under the COVID-Care link. The Commission has informed about the direction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to all States/UTs through letters to Principal Secretaries of Department of Women and Child Development/Social Welfare on 28.05.2021 and letter to Chief Secretaries on 29.05.2021. The username and passwords of each user/district child protection officer and State Government has been shared with all States/UTs as well.

NCPCR is a statutory body and works under the aegis of Ministry of Women and Child  Development, Govt. of India.

*****

BY/TFK

(Release ID: 1722677)
Visitor Counter : 3




Powers under Part III of IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 not delegated to States: Ministry of I&B writes to States

Mar 4, 2021 | Business, Politics

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has today written a letter to Chief Secretaries of all States and Administrators of all Union Territories (UTs) clarifying that the powers under Part III of the rules are administered by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The letter has also underlined that these powers have not been delegated to the State Governments or District Magistrates or Police Commissioners.

It has also been requested that this information be brought to the notice of all concerned persons in States and UTs.

The letter has again clarified the provisions of the rules under Part III which relate to publishers of digital news and current affairs and publishers of online curated content (OTT platforms). The rules, the letter states, provide for a Code of Ethics to be followed by digital news publishers and publishers of OTT content, which includes five age based classification. Further, the rules require a three-level Grievance Redressal Mechanism consisting of the publisher (Level-1), self-regulating body constituted by the publishers (Level-II) and an Oversight Mechanism of the Government (Level III), with time bound grievance disposal mechanism. Finally the rules require furnishing of information by the publishers to the Government and periodical disclosure of information regarding grievance redressal in public domain.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 under Information Technology Act, 2000 were notified on 25th February, 2021.

 

Four more States complete ease of doing business reforms, Get additional borrowing permission of Rs. 5,034 crore

Feb 6, 2021 | Business

Four more States namely, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have undertaken “Ease of Doing Business” reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. Thus, these State have become eligible to mobilise additional financial resources and have been granted permission to raise additional Rs.5,034 crore through Open Market Borrowings.

These four States are Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Thus, total number of State who has undertaken the stipulated reforms to facilitate ease of doing business has gone up to 12. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have also reported completion of this reform, which was confirmed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

On completion of reforms facilitating ease of doing business, these twelve States have been granted additional borrowing permission of Rs.28,183 crore. State wise amount of the additional borrowing permitted is as under:

Sl.No.

State

Amount (Rs in crore)

1.

Andhra Pradesh

2,525

2.

Assam

934

3.

Haryana

2,146

4.

Himachal Pradesh

438

5.

Karnataka

4,509

6.

Kerala

2,261

7.

Madhya Pradesh

2,373

8.

Odisha

1,429

9.

Punjab

1,516

10.

Rajasthan

2,731

11.

Tamil Nadu

4,813

12.

Telangana

2,508

The ease of doing business is an important indicator of the investment friendly business climate in the country. Improvements in the ease of doing business will enable faster future growth of the state economy. Therefore, the government of India had in May 2020, decided to link grant of additional borrowing permissions to States who undertake the reforms to facilitate ease of doing business. The reforms stipulated in this category are:

(i)      Completion of first assessment of ‘District Level Business Reform Action Plan’

(ii)     Elimination of the requirements of renewal of registration certificates/approvals/licences obtained by businesses under various Acts.

(iii)    Implementation of computerized central random inspection system under the Acts wherein allocation of inspectors is done centrally, the same inspector is not assigned to the same unit in subsequent years, prior inspection notice is provided to the business owner, and inspection report is uploaded within 48 hours of inspection.            

In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India had on 17th May, 2020 enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 percent of their GSDP. Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the States. The four citizen centric areas for reforms identified were (a) Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System, (b) Ease of doing business reform, (c) Urban Local body/ utility reforms and (d) Power Sector reforms.

Till now, 17 States have carried out at least one of the four stipulated reforms and have been granted reform linked borrowing permissions. Out of these, 12 States have implemented the one nation one ration card system, 12 States have done ease of doing business reforms, 5 States have done local body reforms and 2 States have undertaken power sector reforms. Total reform linked additional borrowing permission issued so far to the States stands at Rs.­­­74,773 crore.

MoU signed with 21 States/UTs for better functioning of Eklavya Model Residential Schools

Feb 3, 2021 | Education

An MoU was signed today between the Kerala State Eklavya Model Residential School Society and the National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) for effective management of the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in Kerala. The MoU was signed by Shri Puneet Kumar, Principal Secretary, Scheduled Tribes Development Department, Government of Kerala and Shri. Asit Gopal, Commissioner, NESTS in the presence of Dr. Naval Jit Kapoor, Joint Secretary (EMRS), Ministry of Tribal Affairs in New Delhi today.

Out of 28 States, where EMRSs are being established, the NESTS has executed MoUs with 21 State/UT Governments as on date including Government of Kerala.  The signing of the MoU is the first step towards positioning of EMRSs as harbinger of tribal education in the remote tribal hinterlands and it would bring all States on a uniform and mutually agreed platform.

In his message, Sh. Arjun Munda, Minister of Tribal Affairs said that with the overarching vision of the Prime Minister to usher all round development in tribal areas, the scheme of EMRSs was revamped in 2018-19 to improve the geographical outreach of the programme and introduce several qualitative changes to improve learning outcomes in the schools. By the year 2022, there is a target of establishing 740 EMRSs across the country covering every block with 50% or more ST population and 20,000 or more tribal persons, benefitting around 3.5 lakh tribal students.

In her message, Smt Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State said that with this strategic partnership with State Governments, efforts are being taken to ensure holistic development of the students in both academic and extracurricular sphere will bear fruits. The EMRSs have become beacon of success in the tribal areas and emerging as a premier institution of Nation Building.

Sh. R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary Ministry of Tribal Affairs in his message conveyed that as part of revamping of the programme, several systemic changes have been introduced including construction of schools by central agencies, CBSE affiliation of the schools, recruitment of regular teaching and non-teaching staff, designing of school uniforms, capacity building of teachers, leadership development of principals, introduction of online/digital technologies in the schools.

Sh. Puneet Kumar, Principal Secretary ST development department, speaking on the occasion thanked the Ministry of Tribal affairs, Government of India for the overwhelming support through EMRS Scheme on behalf of the Government of Kerala and said that he looked forward to continued cooperation and support for the benefit of the tribal students by improving standards of teaching and improvements in Infrastructure of EMRSs.

EMRSs are a flagship intervention of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to provide quality education to tribal students in remote tribal areas. The programme being implemented since 1998 have created a niche in the tribal education landscape of the country. However, the scheme was revamped in 2018 to improve the geographical outreach of the programme and introduce several qualitative changes to improve learning outcomes in the schools.

Currently there are 588 schools sanctioned across the country in 28 States/UT with around 73391 students enrolled in the Schools. Another 152 schools shall be sanctioned by the year 2022. Details of the schools can be seen on the dashboard of the Ministry available at www.dashboard.tribal.gov.in.

NESTS was established in April, 2019 as an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to run and manage the schools. Ever since then, In order to ensure adequate availability of financial resources in the schools, the recurring cost per annum per student was enhanced to Rs. 1,09,000.00 in 2018-19 from the existing unit cost of Rs. 61,500.00 in 2017-18.With the increase in recurring cost and the construction grant it was imperative that the qualitative improvements in the running and management of the schools are initiated simultaneously. With the execution of MoU, the schools shall be eligible for higher recurring costs so as to ensure qualitative improvements in the schools.