Latest news with #RTI)Act
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
RTI revelation exposes massive over-allocation of Hidkal dam water to industries
Belagavi: In a significant development that could intensify the ongoing opposition to the diversion of Hidkal Dam water to industries in Hubballi-Dharwad, activist and whistleblower Sujit Mulgund unveiled official documents revealing that industrial units received nearly 22 times more water than the original allocation. Mulgund shared a letter from the assistant executive engineer of the Karnataka Niravari Nigam Limited (KNNL), CBC subdivision No. 2, dated July 6, 2024. The letter, addressed to the executive engineer, discloses that only 0.1 tmcft of water was initially allocated to industries under the project report. However, the allocation surged to 0.2 tmcft gradually, and there is an additional fresh demand of 0.5 tmcft under the Bengaluru-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project, part of the Suvarna Karnataka Corridor initiative. Crucially, the letter indicates that the excess allocation already far surpassed the sanctioned limit. If the additional 0.5 tmcft is approved, it would come at the cost of irrigation water meant for farmers, a point likely to fuel further unrest among farming communities. Last month, the Karnataka govt approved the controversial diversion of 0.5 tmcft from Hidkal Dam to industrial areas in Hubballi-Dharwad, sparking widespread protests across Belagavi and neighbouring districts. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Farmers and civil society groups decried the move, arguing it threatens their livelihood and violates the dam's original purpose. Earlier, water resources minister MB Patil claimed that the water being diverted was within the allocated limits. However, Mulgund's findings—obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act—contradict the minister's statement. Pipeline construction for the water diversion began over four months ago—without formal approval, tenders, or even informing the local administration, including district minister Satish Jarkiholi. The work only came to light when local farmers discovered pipelines being laid across their fields. In response, several organisations launched protests under the slogan 'Namma Neeru, Namma Hakku', prompting the Belagavi DC to halt the work temporarily. Despite the opposition, the project resumed following a green signal from the state cabinet. Activist Mulgund sought further details under RTI—including the tender cost, official approvals, and progress reports—but KNNL denied the information, citing confidentiality. Constructed in 1961 and named after former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Hidkal dam was built to provide irrigation and drinking water. Though it has a storage capacity of 51 tmcft, effective availability is only around 44 tmcft due to siltation and unusable reserves. Speaking to the TOI, Mulgund criticised the lack of transparency. "The RTI documents clearly prove that more water has already been diverted to industries than originally sanctioned. Any additional diversion will directly impact farmers in Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura," he said.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Seminar on RTI Act held at BLW
BLW's seminar on RTI Act: A seminar on Right to Information (RTI) Act was held at BLW on Tuesday. The aim was to simplify the Act, promote transparency, find solutions to the problems in providing information, and motivate citizens to use this Act effectively. Presiding over the seminar, Lalji Chaudhary, principal chief personnel officer-administration, said that the Right to Information is not just an Act, but the soul of democracy. It is a moral and legal responsibility to provide correct and accurate information to the citizens on time. He also suggested that a clear list of documents that are eligible and ineligible for making information available should be prepared, and timely file management should be ensured. Speaking on the occasion, Manish Kumar Singh, senior law officer and central public information officer, gave detailed information on the basic sections of the Act, application process, role of public information officers, appeal process, and limitations of confidentiality through a powerpoint presentation. He also resolved the queries of the officers, appellate authorities, and employees present. He highlighted how the BLW RTI Act Cell faces practical difficulties in obtaining information from the departments and emphasised the need to further strengthen the coordination mechanism to resolve them.
The Print
3 days ago
- Business
- The Print
Road to expansion clear, but 3rd-gen IITs are caught in loop of low enrolment & falling placements
It was in 2015 that the government announced the establishment of six new IITs, in Palakkad, Bhilai, Jammu, Dharwad, Tirupati and Goa—with a plan for each to start with an 'initial intake of 180 students in the first year from temporary campuses, increasing to 450 in the second year and to 928 (including 840 undergraduates) in the third year'. New Delhi: Five third-generation Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) established between 2015 and 2016 are falling short of their intake targets, recording fewer enrolments than available seats in masters and PhD programmes as well as declining placements, while some are also facing faculty vacancies, data reviewed by ThePrint shows. According to the 2017 Cabinet-approved figures, shared by IIT Tirupati, by 2023–24, the total student strength at IIT Tirupati and IIT Palakkad was to be 2,550 (including 900 undergraduate students), while for the remaining IITs, it was to be 2,540 (including 1,170 undergraduate students) across all courses. Data obtained by ThePrint under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and review of open source data, however, shows that many of these institutes are still falling short of meeting the projected figure. For instance, the current student strength of IIT Tirupati is about 1,700, which was projected to be achieved by the 2021-22 academic year. Responding to ThePrint, K.N. Satyanarayana, director, IIT Tirupati, said, 'The Cabinet approval for construction of a permanent campus for 1,200 students was given only in November 2017 as part of Phase A. Due to the impact of the COVID years, there has been some delay in reaching the targets. The Cabinet has just approved the Phase B construction to be completed by 2029, to further accommodate 1,300 students (total of 2500). All the IITs will be able to meet this revised target.' In case of IIT Dharwad, the projected strength for undergraduate students in 2023-24 was 1,170. However, it presently hosts 980 undergraduate students at its campus. 'The annual intake increase is based on various parameters, including the infrastructure. The institute is currently hosting over 980 undergraduate students on campus. We plan to expand further under Phase 1B of our construction project. Hence, progress of the institute is steady,' the institute said in a statement to ThePrint. Similarly, at IIT Bhilai, the projected strength of undergraduate students for 2023–24 was 1,170. However, only 756 undergraduate students were enrolled with it in 2023-24, falling short of the 2017 projection, the data shows. IIT Bhilai did not respond to queries by ThePrint, while IIT Palakkad refused to comment. This report will be updated if and when a response is received. In its response, IIT Jammu said the intake has been aligned with projections in the detailed project report. 'The institute has been scaling its intake progressively, in accordance with the approved plan, while taking into consideration the availability of infrastructure, faculty and other essential resources,' it said in a statement, even as it did not share its current strength of students. Even as the five IITs are yet to meet their targets, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7 May approved the expansion of their academic and infrastructure capacity. The initiative aims to enhance student intake by over 6,500 across undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes over the next four years. Among the six new IITs, the government has not considered IIT Goa for expansion because it is yet to get a permanent campus. According to the initial plan, all six IITs were expected to start operating from a permanent campus in the fourth year of establishment itself. But data obtained shows that third-generation IITs have faced several challenges over the years, including vacant seats in postgraduate and PhD programmes, consistent faculty vacancies, gap between number of patents filed and granted at some institutes, and falling placements. Also Read: Eight '2nd gen' IITs set up in 2008-09 struggle for students, admissions 33% of target: CAG Postgraduate, PhD seats go vacant Data accessed by ThePrint shows that almost all of these institutes had vacant seats in postgraduate and PhD courses every year. But undergraduate courses did not see large scale vacancies. In the case of IIT Bhilai, of the 500 postgraduate seats available between 2017-18 and 2024-25, just 274 or 54.8 percent were filled. Similarly, only 315 of 510 PhD seats were filled at the institute between 2018-19 and 2024-25, leaving 38 percent seats vacant. At IIT Palakkad, of 452 postgraduate seats available between 2019-20 and 2024-25, only 384 were filled, leaving 15 percent seats vacant. Additionally, of the 802 PhD seats offered between 2017-18 and 2024-25, only 579 were filled, resulting in 28 percent of seats remaining vacant. In the case of IIT Tirupati, of 713 postgraduate seats available between 2018-19 and 2024-25, only 534 were filled, leaving 25 percent vacant. For PhD programmes, 413 of 542 seats offered between 2017-18 and 2024-25 were filled, with 24 percent remaining vacant. Responding to these vacancies, the IIT Tirupati director said, 'There has been a drop in applicants for the MTech and PhD programmes in all the institutions across the country. This has impacted the selection of quality candidates for these programmes.' The data further shows that IIT Dharwad started its postgraduate programme six years after becoming functional, in 2022, and between 2022-23 and 2024-25, only 102 of 152 seats were filled, leaving 33 percent vacant. In its response to ThePrint, IIT Dharwad said the institute started the MTech programme from academic year 2022-23 because of various factors like availability of new faculty members and demand for the course among the student community. 'The reason for vacant seats at Master's level is common among all IITs (i.e. 1st Generation, 2nd Generation, 3rd Generation) and it is because of non-availability of deserving students in the reserved category. Many of the students leave their Master's degree course on getting a job on the basis of their UG degree certificates and/or GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) score,' the institute said. In the case of IIT Jammu, vacancies persisted in undergraduate courses as well, with 13.6 percent of BTech seats remaining unfilled between 2016-17 and 2023-24. IIT Jammu told ThePrint in its statement that no specific reason can be attributed for the vacant seats. 'The percentage of vacant seats varies from year to year; however, admissions are conducted through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority based on merit lists published for various categories. As far as IIT Jammu is concerned, the institute is well-equipped with all necessary infrastructure and advanced research laboratories featuring modern equipment,' it stated. Faculty vacancies, patents At some of the newer institutes, teaching vacancies persist—for instance, IIT Tirupati had 14.3 percent of faculty positions vacant in 2024-25, 10.8 percent in 2023-24, 17.5 percent in 2022-23, and 21.6 percent in 2021-22, data accessed by ThePrint shows. IIT Tirupati director Satyanarayana said, 'Faculty recruitment is a continuous process. It is proposed to recruit another 25 faculty members in the current academic year, which will fill these vacant positions.' Similarly, at IIT Jammu, 35 percent of teaching and non-teaching posts were vacant in 2020-21, 34.6 percent in 2021-22, 23.8 percent in 2022-23, and 30 percent in 2023–24. The data also highlights a notable gap between the number of patents filed and those granted at several of these institutes. For example, between 2021-22 and 2024-25, IIT Jammu filed 38 patents, but none have been granted so far. Similarly, at IIT Palakkad, 55 patents were filed between 2019-20 and 2024-25, of which only 12 were granted. At IIT Dharwad, just 9 patents have been filed to date, with only 2 granted, RTI data shows. Falling placements Data shows a noticeable decline in placements over the years at the new IITs. At IIT Palakkad, the placement rate dropped drastically in 2024-25 at 68.83 percent, compared to 74.15 percent in 2023-24 and 90.05 percent in 2022-23. However, the institute stated in its RTI response that placement process for the year 2024-25 is still on and data had been provided till 28 April, 2025. In the case of IIT Tirupati, the BTech placement percentage was 63.47 percent in 2022–23, improved to 85 percent in 2023-24, but fell to 71.86 percent in 2024-25. A parliamentary panel report in March also flagged an 'unusual decline' in placements across IITs, including these five institutes, between the academic years 2021-22 and 2023-24. The panel's report showed that at IIT Jammu, placements declined from 92.08 percent in 2021-22 to 89.93 percent in 2022-23 and further to 70.25 percent in 2023-24. At IIT Dharwad, placements declined from 90.20 percent in 2021-22 to 65.83 percent in 2022-24 and 65.56 percent in 2023-24. At Bhilai, the placements dropped from 89.92 percent in 2021-22 to 85.84 percent in 2022-23 and then to 72.22 percent in 2023-24. In some cases, the average salary offered to students also declined. For instance, at IIT Bhilai, the average salary was Rs 14.12 lakh per annum in 2021-22, which declined to Rs 12.51 lakh per annum in 2023-24, the RTI data shows. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: IITs have been wooing foreign students hard for 5 yrs. They haven't cracked the code yet
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Idukki site from where cross was removed is a forest land, reveals RTI response
The spot from where a cross was removed at Thommankuthu, near Thodupuzha, is a reserve forest land, the Revenue department said in response to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The application was moved by Idukki District Congress Committee (DCC) general secretary Bijo Mani. The RTI reply said: 'A recent report by the Thodupuzha tehsildar, Jayakumar O.S., to the Idukki District Collector indicated that the village officer had submitted a status report regarding the area to the Forest department. As per the report, the area concerned is a forest land.' 'As per the 1993 Land Assignment rules, the title deed-related issues should be taken by the Karimannor Land Assignment (LA) office based on the verification,' said the report.' The report further said that a detailed inspection was necessary before initiating steps to resolve title deed-related issues in the disputed site and nearby areas. On April 12, the Forest department removed a cross erected the previous day by St Thomas Church, under the Syro-Malabar Church, on a property beside the Neyyassery-Thokkumban Road at Naranganam. The department also booked a case against the parish priest for erecting the cross on forest land. On April 19, the Church organised a Way of the Cross procession to the spot. Following this, Church authorities alleged that the department booked another case against Kothamangalam diocese general Vincent Nedungattu, Chancellor Father Jose Kulathur and parish priest Father James Ikaramattom on the charges of trespassing. After the incident, the Vannappuram village officer submitted a report to the Forest department stating that the disputed spot fell within forest area. However, farmers' groups and Church authorities opposed the report and staged protests against it. Mr. Mani said that the RTI reply also stated that a total of 458 families were included in the list of forest land encroachments after 1-1-1977 under the Kaliyar forest range. 'The reply further stated that the revenue and forest lands were divided by fixing Janda (border stones), and that the 458 families were living in area outside the Jandas fixed by the department,' he said. 'While the CPI(M) district secretary and other ruling party leaders earlier claimed that the site is revenue land, the tehsildar's report clearly said that the area is a forest land. The Revenue department report reveals the double standard of the State government,' alleged Mr. Mani.
The Hindu
12-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Only one delivery in two years at Thandikudi GH on Kodaikanal hills, reveals RTI reply
Due to insufficient doctors and facilities at Thandikudi Government Hospital at Kodaikanal hills, only one delivery has been performed in the last two years, said a Right To Information (RTI) Act reply. Thandikudi GH, one of the three GHs in the hills, caters to the need of several hundreds of people, mostly Scheduled Tribes, residing in areas of Mangalamkombu, Malaiyakadu, Kottakombu, Kadukuthadi Pudur, among others. For the immediate medical assistance of the tribal people residing in those areas, Poolathur Primary Health Centre (PHC) best serves their needs, said the residents. But, for serious health conditions, pregnancies and accident treatments, the patients have to visit either of the three GHs – Thandikudi, Pannaikadu and Kodaikanal. For the people residing around the Thandikudi GH, accessing the other two GHs in the hills would mean travelling more than 25km to 30km. As the sole doctor at Thandikudi GH, due to the insufficient doctors and health workers, could not serve all the people, refers them either to GHs at Pannaikadu and Kodaikanal, located more than 25km to 30km away. Backing the claim of the people, a RTI data gathered by Madurai based health activist A. Veronica Mary specified that the Thandikudi GH has only one doctor in place of the sanctioned post of three doctors. While only 11 postings of pharmacists, nurses, technicians, of the 18 postings are filled, two positions of doctors and seven positions of paramedical staff remained vacant, the RTI reply added. Despite the hospital having 20 beds and having recorded an outpatient visit of 65,679 in 2023 and 75,780 in 2024, only a handful of people have been admitted as inpatients. Such patients, who wanted to get admitted for delivering babies, treated for accident injuries, were referred to hospitals in places like Kodaikanal, Badlagundu and Dindigul, said Ms. Veronica Mary. 'As the hospital has ultrasound scan machine to monitor the condition of the foetus during the pregnant women prenatal tests, due to the unavailability of a radiologist, pregnant women are referred to other hospital even for their periodical monthly check ups,' she alleged. To substitute for the vacant positions and to manage the burden, the existing doctor must rush to the hospital on 'call duty' even during odd hours, she stated. When the pregnant tribal women had to get admitted to hospital during their labour pain, they had to rush to the far away hospitals through the only mode of transport – bus, Ms. Veronica Mary noted. Due to unawareness about getting prior admission in hospital for delivery, most of the tribal women, instead of taking long-distance travel, preferred to deliver babies in their houses, she pointed out. 'Though they deliver their babies safely and mishaps are hardly reported, thanks to assistance of village elders, the hospital exists for such purposes,' she added. A health official in the district said the ultrasound machine was installed and a used one from a different hospital. 'As it collapsed recently, it is currently not in use,' the official added. Regarding doctors, the official said that as the GH was located in a very remote area, doctors preferred not to work there. 'Though appointments were due to the unwillingness of doctors, the positions still remain vacant,' the official noted.
