Whispers Forum

With the arrest of Karti, one hopes that action against the corrupt has started. The supporters of the NDA, who voted the NDA alliance to power, did it on the strength of honesty and past record of PM Modi. They expect action against all corrupt, politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists who are corrupt. This arrest and others to follow will certainly boost the Govt image among supporters, who were getting tired of repeated charges without action. The Govt one hopes will go ahead with clean up operations against these rogue elements. Of course Congress and their like will make noises, but it will be futile, as they will have no takers among the voters, except the die-hard supporters of CONGIS and Leftists and some others, who in any case are not supporters of NDA or BJP. Achche din for people it seems has started!
S Chatterjee
Kudos to BEL
This is due to honest, sincere, hardworking, qualified management and employees. Also, there is no casteism, favouritism, nepotism, regionalism in the organisation. Maharatna PSUs should take it as role model.
Rao
Tapan Ray best candidate for Chairman, IRDAI
Tapan Ray is the best candidate for the post of Chairman IRDAI. He has done yeoman's job in GSPC, Gujarat and later on at several important positions including SFIO, IBBI.
P Mukherjee

The Government of India and State Govts have announced with lot of fanfare the launching of "Swaccha Bharat Abhiyaan." To popularise it, sometimes Ministers and even the Prime Minister can be seen with a broom tied on bamboos sweeping a street in groups, as if, only for a photo shoot. Another gimmick is to get catchy short songs recorded on this mission and played on the vehicles of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation. Can such gimmicks make a city clean? If we take only Bhopal an example, has the BMC chalked out a strategy at micro and macro levels and worked out the finer details fixing responsibilities for execution and supervision at each level. Does someone even monitor the progress. The cleaning of the roads and side roads as well as of the storm water drains is left at the mercy of the safai kaamgars who are least committed and only make a casual appearance once a week with just a broom in their hand. They do not carry any wheel barrow or big plastic bags to collect the garbage in them and dump in the garbage bins. They only sweep the roads and throw the garbage either in the green belt or collect in dumps on the roadside . When winds blow the same garbage spreads in all directions once again. The Corporation staff has powers to impose spot fines on citizens throwing litter or making the city dirty by urinating, spitting , defecating in public. This is only in name. There should be teams constituted for each ward which should be constantly moving in the ward areas to deal with the defaulters on the spot and imposing and recovering fines on the spot. Unless , this is done as a mission in the right earnest, catching one or two persons n a month is making a mockery of the whole scheme. A central team recently visited Bhopal to assess the cleanliness of Bhopal. Perhaps the team visited only those areas which the BMC had laboriously cleaned to earn high score. They left and Bhopal is back to square one as per the latest reporting in a leading English daily published from Bhopal .
S C Agrawal
DG Police,( Retd.), MP Bhopal
Pen is mightier than sword
Why particular community got plum postings in Government, investigating agencies, PSU's pub etc for the past three years? I am seeing this site since 2015 onwards that one particular community who perform kalam(pen) puja occupied top slots. I know this community for last 36 years service, they believe pen is mightier than sword, community bonding is most important. They pick up their own caste in promotions and transfers to key positions. Will govt take a note of it?
Prasad

The Appellant sought information in connection with a particular tender - technically sanctioned estimates alongwith all document, Comparative Statement prepared after opening of technical bids, reasons for long delay, decision until its opening and issues related thereto. The CIC noted that the tender process had since been completed. The CIC advised the Respondent to suo-motu disclose all tender related information pertaining to this matter on their website keeping in view the larger public interest involved in such matters. The CIC noted with serious concern that the FAA had also not acted in accordance with the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 and advised the public authority to be alert and cautious.
Comments
The act of entering into an agreement with any other entity by a public authority is a public activity and every citizen is entitled to know on what terms the Agreement has been reached. The Division bench of Jharkhand High Court in State of Jharkhand v. Navin Kumar Sinha and Anr. held that once a decision is taken in the matter of grant of tender, there is no justification to keep it secret. The appeal against the aforementioned decision was dismissed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.
Citation: Mr. M. R. Sonaje v. Office of the General Manager, ISPN in Appeal No.:-CIC/ISPNR/A/2017/191825-BJ, Date of Decision: 02.02.2018
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICand PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

Delhi's CM action appears to be a preplanned attempt to brow beat the bureaucracy. Unfortunately the bureaucracy (IAS,IPS,DANICS,DANIPS) are not united and the Politicians are taking advantage of it. It is Time that all bureaucrats, irrespective of their service, joins hand and refuse to carry out illegal orders of Political Bosses and their followers. They should not be afraid of transfers. Once a clear message is given that no Bureaucrat will obey their illegal orders, politicians will be compelled to mend their behaviour.
S Gopal