GENERAL

USE OF HINDE AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

10.1.1 There is a separate Hindi Section in the Department, headed by a Deputy Director, which oversees the implementation of the Official language Policy of the Government of India in the Department and its attached office as well as in the public sector undertakings and cooperative societies under its administrative control. An Official Language Implementation Committee is functioning in the Department. Headed by Joint Secretary (Administration), this Committee reviews the overall progress of Hindi in the Department and public/cooperative sector undertakings. It gives appropriate suggestions and recommends steps to be taken for the effective implementation of the Official Language Policy. The meetings of the Committee are held at regular intervals.

10.1.2 As envisaged under Section 3(3) of the Official Language Act, most of the documents relating to general orders, notifications, resolutions, agreements, rules, administrative and other reports, press communiques etc. were issued bilingually during the year under report.

10.1.3 For imparting training to the officers and employees, who do not possess a working knowledge of Hindi, the Department nominates members of staff to the Hindi classes conducted under the Hindi Teaching Scheme of the Ministry of Home Affairs. In all, 5 employees have so far been nominated.

 10.1.4 Similarly, stenographers and typists working in the Department are, nominated for Hindi Stenography/Typing training according to the programme of the Ministry of Home Affairs in all, 14 stenographers and 13 typists have so far been trained in Hindi stenography and Hindi typing. The total number of Hindi typewriters in the Department is 23. In addition, there are 24 bilingual electronic typewriters.

10.1.5 A Hindi Fortnight was organised in the Department of Fertilizers from 14.9.1 995 to 28.9.1995 as per the guidelines issued by the Department of Official Language. During the fortnight, an appeal was issued by Shri Lam Lakhan Singh Yadav, former Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers, exhorting the officers and staff of the Department and its undertakings to adopt Hindi in their official work. Competitions for Hindi essay writing, shorthand, typing and Hindi-English translation were also conducted and the successful competitors were awarded cash prizes worth Rs.4,400 at a special function held on 28.9.1995. To encourage official work in Hindi, a Hindi Workshop was organised from 27.3.1995 to 29.3.1995. Eleven employees participated in the Workshop. Under the Incentive Scheme for original Hindi noting and drafting in official work, 7 employees were given suitable awards.

10.1.6 A quarterly progress report on the use of Hindi in the Department is sent to the Department of Official Language. The quarterly progress reports received from the public/ cooperative sector undertakings are reviewed and discussed in the meetings of the Official Language Implementation Committee of the Department and suitable measures are taken to encourage the use of Hindi in the undertakings.

10.1.7 In order to oversee the implementation of the Official Language Policy, a programme of inspection of undertakings and their units has been formulated. Under this programme, 6 offices viz. RCF-Mumbai, PPCL-Dehradun and PPL-Bhubaneshwar, NFL-Vijaipur, KRIBHCO-Noida, IFFCO-Kandla/ Kalol were inspected during the year under report.

10.1.8 The Committee of Parliament on Official Language inspected the offices of some of the undertakings under the administrative control of the Department of Fertilizers during 1995-96 and suggested several measures to step up the use of Hindi in these offices.

MIS/COMPUTERISATION

10.2.1 The Management Information System adopted in the Department of Fertilizers has extensively been used for analysing and monitoring the performance of the public sector and cooperative units under its administrative control. Steps have been taken to computerise the Management Information System with the help of National lnformatics Centre with a view to speeding up the process of decision-making in the Department.

10.2.2 The objective of ensuring timely and adequate availability of fertilizers to the farmers can be met only through proper planning and monitoring of production, imports, distribution, movement, sales and stock variations. The administration of the retention price-cum-subsidy scheme and other supportive measures also entails collection, processing and interpretation of large volumes of information. In this context, an Integrated Fertilizer Management Information System (IFMIS) has been formulated to evolve an evaluation system which would ensure a uniform system of planning and provide a control mechanism with signalling system to highlight deviations from the desired performance indicators by plants and organisations. The IFMIS would help in on-line monitoring of various aspects like production, stocks and distribution of fertilizers all over the country on a continuous basis. On-line monitoring of these aspects would help in keeping a constant vigil on the availability position to minimise the demand supply gap in different parts of the country on a fortnightly and some times weekly and daily basis, as dictated by the exigencies of the situation.

10.2.3 The National lnformatics Centre (NIC) has worked closely with Department of Fertilizers for identification and formulation of the methodology for effective execution of the IFMIS project. The information exchange between DOF and various fertilizer companies and plants via NICNET has been taken up as an important activity for effective implementation of the system.

10.2.4 Phase-I of the IFMIS project involving requirement analysis has been finailised. The study was carried out under the close coordination and Guidance of NIC for further development of software and system implementation with the ultimate goal of on-line information exchange through NICNET. Phase-II of the project, involving system design, software developments implementation, has been taker by NIC and the work is in progress.

10.2.5 NIC has already set up computer centres at various locations in the Department. Th; existing PC-386 machines are being replaced with Pentium (90 MHz) systems with interactive terminal facility alongwith printers. A high speed communication link (64 Kbps TDM/FTDMA VSAT) is being installed at the Fertilizer computer centre in Shastri Bhavan to establish a satellite based communication link on NICNET with national and international connectivity. The other centres located in different buildings are being provided the connectivity through dial-up Modems for information exchange among various nodes of DOF as well as out-side organisations.