Whispers Forum

I am one of the government employees working at Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan (STC Building), Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi-110001. Various offices of the Government of India have been housed in this building on different floors. For the past few months, it has been noticed that some senior officers of the various offices located at this building are misusing their muscle power (DADAGIRI) by reserving Lifts specifically for their convenience, which is causing heartburn among other employees of the building. These poor employees have no other option but to wait for another 15-20 minutes for their turn to use the Lifts and, hence, getting delayed in adhering to office timings. It is sheer wastage of power as well as misuse of electricity by these senior officers, which should immediately be stopped.
Hemant

As per RBI’s details shared by the Ministry of Finance in Lok Sabha in December 2023,India’s public sector banks have reportedly written-off loans amounting to Rs 10.42 lakh crore during the past nine years ( FY2015 to FY2023). Worse, out of the non-performing assets, the PSU banks reportedly recovered a mere 10 % of bad loan to the extent of Rs 1.61 lakh crore. Was any inquiry conducted into the lapses? How many banking executives were show-caused or charge-sheeted for causing loss of revenue to public exchequer? Are the criteria for granting unsecured loans flawed? Could this be attributed to the laid back attitude of bankers? Has the responsibility for dereliction of duty, been fixed as required under the law of the land? If not, why? Does it not call for a comprehensive audit by the Constitutional body like the C&AG into the lapses by scheduled banks, which are accountable to the shareholders.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

All private hospitals where land is allotted on concessional rate or nominal lease are supposed to keep a certain percentage of beds for poor or EWS patients and provide treatment free but this all on paper. The Government is aware of this but we all know corruption is rampant. Recently this testing scam and fake medicines in Mohalla clinic but nothing happened. Previous health minister of the AAP govt is still in jail. Problem is more severe in small towns and villages. There is another big scam in health cards for aadhar based poors where Universal Health Insurance Policies were purchased by State Governments. Where a lot of money was made by three stakeholders. The list is long.
S K Saxena

The self-styled political observers should first of all know that India and Pakistan political scenario and the society at large are entirely different from each other. To say that the so-called international lobby is trying to play politics in the internal affairs of us like what it might have done in Pakistan is simply absurd and the majority of our countrymen simply reject such outlandish theories. Let these gossipers wait till the results and they will realise how the self styled lobby has bit the dust very badly once for all and never ever poke their noses into our internal affairs.
K Srinivasa Rao

The appellant sought to know whether Madhusudan Law University, Cuttack, Odisha is affiliated to Bar Council of India (BCI) and sought the correspondence details about its affiliation along with the inspection reports. The Respondent stated that the inspection reports of colleges are not uploaded on the site of BCI but the facilities, campus, faculty etc. details are displayed on the website of the concerned College/University. Such inspection reports contain photographs and other details pertaining to the University/College shared in confidence with the BCI, hence, the inspection reports are not put in public domain by the BCI. However, the Respondent conceded that inspection report containing generic information can be provided to the Appellant if so directed by the CIC. In exercise of its powers under Section 25 (5) of the RTI Act, the CIC gave a recommendation to the BCI to make endeavour to disclose as much information as possible on its website in terms of the mandate laid down under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, particularly voluntarily disclose every inspection report of the colleges/universities recognised/affiliated under BCI in order to enhance transparency in the process of recognizing law colleges.
Comments
There have been complaints about the manner in which recognition / grading of the institutions is done by the regulatory bodies. Such disclosure would aid in putting an end to such complaints. It would be keenly watched what kind of mechanism the BCI adopts for disclosure.
Citation: Shri Shashwata Sekhar Baral v. Bar Council of India, CIC/BCOIN/A/2023/616519; Date of Decision: 20.02.2024
Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Visakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books, RTI Right to Information - Law and Practice and PIO’s Guide to RTI. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and Third party audit. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link www.rtifoundationofindia.com

Private hospitals are money-making machines. Initially, when land is allotted by government to private players at concessional rates, tall promises are included in the agreements. These are broken after hospitals become operational, hitting the marginalized sections. No action is taken by the health and land allotting authorities across the country against malpractices in flagrant violations of terms of original agreements. Take the case of Delhi, which mirrors the image of the entire country. The private hospitals in the national capital refuse to admit poor patients and give priority to cash-rich patients. There is no mechanism in place to check malpractices by hospitals for issuing dictates and insisting on cash payment, charging exorbitant fees. They make lame excuses, including refusing treatment to CGHS beneficiaries under the mandated cashless norms. Some common tactics misused by money-minded hospitals and doctors to cheat or fleece the gullible patients are : (a) Prescribing more tests than necessary - to be done in house or at preferred labs for hefty commissions. Sometimes these tests are not even conducted on the samples taken, and fake results are given. Have you heard about sink test, a health care fraud?(b) Keeping patients admitted in hospital rooms when they are fit to be discharged; (c) Prescribing expensive medicines/vaccines when cheaper and quality substitutes are available. This benefits the pharma companies and doctors who prescribe them and inflate the patients’ bills;(d) Charging patients at different rates for the same treatment;(e)Doctors insist on surgery while the disease could be cured by medication. If you are still not convinced he’ll say that he needs to send a tissue from your throat or elsewhere to test for malignancy. One cannot argue in such a situation;(f)Use of cardiac stents in heart disease, even if not needed – one stent may cost anything between Rs. 60,000 -100,000 or more depending on the status of hospitals and pockets of gullible patients. Will the governments take the call and control the unethical practices in the healthcare system?
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)

Holiday means a holiday not a pilgrimage? It is likely to get Yes and No for an answer. But visitors to Ayodhya since January this year are saying that it is the best holiday destination once in life! Funnily though, there is another side to the story. The travel industry has been thriving on selling destinations for real pleasure showing lovely beaches and tourists, food, drinks and drugs. Unlimited pleasure at unlimited cost for unlimited days! What else can one ask? But if destinations like Ayodhya develop in India both for pleasure and happiness, it is likely to hit a surreptitious business of cultural assault on India. Too much success has already been made by mounting the charm offensive against the bulwark of Indian culture- the family unit. If holiday destination is unable to retain attention of the clients for any reason, all assiduous work of the last 7 decades will go waste. In the name of women’s empowerment, they are being promised rupees 1000 per month! The dignity of the Indian woman for just 10 US $ per month? They make tall claims that recipients will become independent financially and shall no more beg their husband/father for money and can go to the market to buy whatever they want. If a wedge can be driven in the family by $ 10, it can in due course add to the number of pleasure seekers to the industry.
M L Gupta