RIA: Six killed in bus-truck collision in S.Russia

RIA: Six killed in bus-truck collision in S.Russia

Six people were killed when a bus crashed into truck in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan early on Thursday, regional emergencies officials said.

A Moscow-bound Ikarus coach collided with a Kamaz truck at about 3:00 Moscow time [00:00 GMT].

"Three people died immediately, three more on their way to hospital," a spokesman for the Southern Russian emergencies center said, adding that 15 people were injured.

A source in the republic's emergencies service confirmed the death toll, but said nine people were injured.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 4 (RIA Novosti)

04.02.2010, 05.35

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 4 (Itar-Tass) - Six people were killed and another nine were hospitalized as a result of a road accident near the village of Kochubei in Dagestan, the southern regional department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

The accident took place at 03:00 Moscow time at the federal highway Kavkaz, where a passenger bus and a Kamaz truck collided.

The bus went en route Makhachkala-Moscow.

According to preliminary information, a Kamaz driver crossed into the oncoming lane. Three people, including two drivers, died at the site of the accident, another three passengers died in the hospital.

The circumstances of the accident are being investigated.

Itar-Tass: Medvedev hopes to reduce “exorbitantly high” corruption in N Caucasus

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14785765&PageNum=0

03.02.2010, 22.02

MOSCOW, February 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hopes that the “exorbitantly high” level of corruption in the North Caucasus will be reduced already this year.

“The majority of problems in the region are rooted in a weak economy and the absence of prospects for the people who live there,” he said.

Medvedev recalled that the new North Caucasian Federal District had been created pursuant to this Address to the Federal Assembly, and “the newly appointed presidential representative [Alexander Khloponin] will get broad powers, the broadest powers, concentrating in his hands the position of vice-prime minister as well”.

“I do hope that this will also help reduce the level of corruption, which is exorbitantly high, already this year,” the president said. “The situation is quite bad in the country as it is, but it’s exorbitant over there, and we must bring order to the work of regional and local authorities.”

Medvedev stressed the need to “exercise strict control over the proper use of budget funds”. “Huge sums are disbursed, but you know what their effectiveness is,” he said. “I, too, will make decisions regarding governors and power-wielding bodies,” the head of state vowed.

Itar-Tass: Govt to consider creation of commission for IT in govt agencies

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14785754&PageNum=0

03.02.2010, 21.46

MOSCOW, February 3 (Itar-Tass) --The Russian Government will consider the question of creating a government commission for the introduction of information technologies in federal, regional and local executive bodies, according to the documents prepared for the meeting.

It has been proposed that the new commission should coordinate the work of federal and regional executive bodies in respect of the following: determining a unified policy of developing and using information technologies in public governance, industries and the social sphere; devising and implementing measures aimed at expanding the use of information technologies in order to improve the quality and availability of public and municipal services rendered to organisations and the population; making the use of information technologies in the work of government agencies more effective; improving the effectiveness of inter-agency interaction and internal organisation of government bodies through the use of information and telecommunication technologies.

The resolution was drafted in order to optimise the federal government’ s coordination in the creation, use and development of information technologies in federal, regional and municipal governance, and development of e-government.

Pursuant to Russia’s information society and e-government concepts up to 2010, the development and use of information technologies have been declared priority tasks for the government.

Currently, all issues pertaining to the use of information technologies in the work of government bodies in Russia are solved only at the federal level by several governmental inter-agency bodies, including the government Commission for Federal Communications and Information Technologies, the Council of Chief Designers for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in the Work of Federal Executive Bodies, and the government Commission on Administrative Reform. The president has also ordered the creation of the Council for Regional Informatisation.

The abovementioned coordination bodies regulate the use of information technologies, and their competences frequently coincide. As a result, their decisions are often uncoordinated or duplicate each other. This causes delays in the implementation of instructions and creates uncertainty in determining the persons responsible for their implementation. In addition, the current situation leads to duplication of work at federal executive bodies and consequently to ineffective use of available resources.

Information technologies are one of the key priorities for the development of Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier and suggested giving special attention to the use of information technologies in public administration.

"This work is proceeding in accordance with the e-Government concept adopted in May of last year, and a plan of transition to electronic public services approved by the government in October. In accordance with the information society strategy, we must convert all public services into electronic form by 2015. I repeat, all, not some of them," Medvedev said.

According to the president, the number of services rendered by federal, regional and municipal authorities exceeds 1,500, but "people continue to stand in lines for documents and approvals, and have to visit government offices several times with the same issue and often can't get information about the services or where they can receive them".

"The time during which services are rendered is a separate big problem," he said and cited the registration of ownership rights and financial aid as an example. He said these procedures took more than a month.

"And it takes years to obtain a construction permit. Experts say that about a million people have to resort to the services of go-between every year in order to register their cars," the president said.

"Obviously, a transition to electronic services will resolve many of these problems. And some progress has already been made. But no radical changes have occurred yet. The unified portal of public services has been launched in December. But it is working as a reference site at this point, which is not bad, but not enough. Much has yet to be done before citizens can use the portal to order and receive various certificates, pay state duties and levies and before it can start working at full capacity," Medvedev said.

The e-Government portal started providing 74 priority electronic public services on December 15, 2009.