Whispers Forum

DEBATE
By any yardstick, political rallies and Kumbha both were not justified amidst spread of Corona. Nothing can be more important than human lives. How insensitive have the politicians become.
Alok Bajpai
ECI be given more powers
I agree with Srinivasan. ECI should be given more powers including arrest of candidates/their supporters violating the guidelines and code of conduct. The ECI members and their families should be provided protection( by a Law) from action by CBI,CVC,ED etc. on flimsy grounds. so that they can discharge their duties without fear. This protection should be extended for two years after their retirement from EC.
S Gopal

DEBATE
Highly unjustified. Going by the books, many would say that there was no other option before the ECI but to hold elections. But, the government could have made efforts. Called an all-party meeting or the Parliament session to find a way out and if need be, brought an amendment. I am sure, no sensible person would have opposed the government move at the cost of human lives. But, it was never thought off. Cultivating votes, either by addressing political rallies or by organizing Kumbha – remained on priority.
D. Sen
Don’t slam ECI for the pandemic
The tendency to slam ECI for the pandemic (edition 2) is misplaced. The constitution does not provide for any elected government to remain a day more than 5 years, although it can be dismissed before completion of 5 years. So, the talk of not holding elections reveals poor understanding of the constitution provisions. Once a schedule is announced, it is not possible to change it midway, as it would not provide equal opportunity to all contesting candidates between different phases. So clubbing of some phases of the announced elections in the pipeline is also wishful thinking. It is noticed that in spite of ECI guidelines and instructions from time to time, the political parties flout them with impunity. This is the main culprit.
Srinivasan

DEBATE
Hundreds and thousands of people are falling prey to deadly second mutant of Covid pandemic and still you want to know whether allowing elections and Kumbha Mela was justified on the part of the government. Even an insane who has little respect for human lives would reject the idea of holding events like political rallies and Kumbha Mela even if it meant imposing President’s rule in few states and losing some votes.
Vijay Singh
Useless doctor !
I listened your interview with Dr Neeraj Jain of Gangaram. He was though speaking sense but more to get publicity. Neither he nor his Secretary respond for call. If this is his attitude than I will call him useless doctor and not no.1 as you were claiming.
Raj Goel
Excellent achievement
Excellent achievement in reopening the NINL plant to reduce oxygen demand. Thanks to the suggestion of your good self.
K Srinivasa Rao

Certified copy of the total budget in Official Expenses and Expenditure in Official Expense, the Inventories of all items, list of the officers posted in Administration Branch and related information was sought by the RTI applicant. The PIO provided part of information sought and informed that the rest of the information is exhaustive and also not readily available with them. The CIC directed the PIO to offer an opportunity of inspection of the relevant and available records as sought for. The CIC further directed that photocopies would be provided to the appellant free of cost upto 50 pages after the inspection.
Comments
As per sub-section 9 of section 7 of the RTI Act, information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority. If the information sought is voluminous, the PIO should take recourse to this provision to request the applicant to inspect the documents.
Citation: Ashok Kumar v. National Commission for Scheduled Castes in File No: CIC/NCFSC/A/2019/138123, Date of Decision: 18/03/2021
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

DEBATE
I agree that both – the elections (political rallies) and the Kumbha fair - were not at all justified in view of the Corona Virus threat. Had the powers that be acted little sensible, the dance of death throughout the country could have been avoided to a large extent. The government could have postponed the elections and allowed the Kumbha Mela only symbolically. It could have saved the precious lives of hundreds and thousands of people.
Rohatgi
Welcome Mrs Mayuri Vasu’s appointment as Commissioner, Durgapur Municipal Corp in WB
Welcome to Durgapur Municipal Corporation. We hope you will be looking into various issues that affect the lives and livelihood of citizens of Durgapur. That DMC has number of Health centres that cater to the medical needs of people around. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we have a Public sector steel Hospital in Durgapur from where number of Nurses have retired soon as they are of the age of 60. Many of them take to working in nursing homes and various clinics around this city and most of them have reverted to the original profession of being a house wife. Taking advantage of the situation you as Secretary of the DMC could initiate taking these retired nurses to run the health centres which do not have qualified, experience nursing staff to make use of their proficiency in public health at a appropriate honorarium and other benefits as may seem to be appropriate.
Rabindra Nath

Refer post of Sanjeev who has rightly pointed out the merits of PM's decision of appointing non-IAS Chairperson of PESB and for snubbing babus like Sivaraman who get post-retirement sinecures through sycophancy.
The percentage of female candidates recommended by PESB to top managerial posts in public sector undertakings is abysmally low. Perhaps the appointment of a woman chairperson will address this problem.
To bring professionalism in the public sector, the Department of Public Enterprises needs to be abolished and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management strengthened.
M. P. Bauer
DBT:Very premature order!
Centre and the Punjab state govts are at loggerheads over the issue of implementation of DBT from the Rabi crop 2021,without the involvement of the commission agents. It is very essential to understand the Punjab Land Records and land administration system, to evaluate the implement-ability of the order of govt of India, issued through FCI to transfer the procurement price of the wheat directly into farmers' account, without any role in this, assigned to the commission agents. The present land records system is the creation of the Britishers by undertaking the Settlement procedures. The lands ,which were annexed first, were subjected to the Settlement first. Punjab was the last to be annexed and the initial flaws in the system were eliminated ,when the Settlement of Punjab(including Haryana, Delhi),and Western UP was completed. The comprehensive system so evolved is the best in India and one of the best in the world. The individual owners are recorded in separate column, and the tenants and tillers of various categories are entered in the separate column of possession. There are various categories of occupants, who are also the owners of the land, but others cannot understand such intricacies. For example proprietary rights of some Shamlat deh lands vest in the individuals, but their names are entered in the column of cultivation and not column of ownership. Same is the position of Shamlat Patti lands
The Occupancy tenants like saunjhidars, muqararidars, Bhondidars etc are owners of the land but govt is still in the process of conferring proprietary rights on them. There are some areas where the ownership is defined by the share/s in the well. When the lands were allotted in the garden colonies after partition of the country, some plots were earmarked for residences. Those areas have not been partitioned so far and in the column of ownership in Record-of Rights is entered as, ''Yet to be partitioned''.
Lakhs of land owners are living abroad without having bank accounts in India. There are lakhs of land owners, whose land is still in the names of the great grandfathers and grandfathers. Almost more than 25%lands are in joint names and shares are yet to be determined. In certain khewats their may be more than hundred shareholders. About quarter of a century back tenancy laws had made the life of the farmers a living hell. The matters almost stand settled and the land are given on rent without any written agreements. The lessees pay to the owners in advance and in the new system the payment will be made to the owners. The society living in peace may be forced into the cauldron of avoidable turmoil. There are govt lands where these are given on rent and the land record shows all such lands in the name of the govt.
Computerization of land records was started in the year 1988 in Ropar distt.Till date Record- of-Rights has been been computerized in more than 95% villages. However, even after 3 decades ,the system has not finally settled. Moreover with new legislations, the system has to be made compatible. From the revenue trained staff, the land records have been given control to the Computer savvy staff on contract. The mistakes in the recor are in thousands. Uploading it and making it compatible for DBT to farmers in such a short period is impossible. Let Piyush Goyal do it.
When the demonetization was done, none of its goals was achieved. Implementation of GST and Lockdown ,proved counter productive. If the govt intends to stop the smuggling of food-grains purchased at rs 900 per quintal from other states and then selling it in Punjab at MSP rate of 1975,the purpose can be served by taking other stringent measures. We cannot put the entire population in jail to prevent any murder taking place. The atom bomb will also fall on commission agents and their profession will meet certain death abruptly. The matter needs to be adequately addressed in due course and not in such a clumsy hurry.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

EVMs have really become controversial though authorities say that EVMs are fullproof. In these days of technological revolution anything is possible. Western countries are still following paper ballots. Why don't we follow the same system?
Kumar
Demand for scrapping EVMs, not unjust
The demand for scrapping of EVMs is not unjust given the number of incidents happening in every election where their sanctity is being violated. There have been rumours of lakhs of EVMs gone missing after purchase. These are being transported in total violation of the protocol. West Bengal Assam And other states have seen such breakdowns. The doubts on results of Bihar election still rattle the people there. It would therefore in the interest of saving democracy in India that we scrap the EVMs for some years till we get an absolutely full proof system of voting by machines and get back to ballot paper .
Aarti Khosla

Is it true that IAS officers in general are averse to giving any thing to IPS officers as a service and not consider them for any benefits/ privileges, as IPS lot. Individually IAS-IPS officers make the best of friends, spouses, relatives but this mindset doesn’t go away and hold IAS back to give away even their ( IPS) rights and dues. The country can only prosper if these two services need to have the most harmonious relationship and March together joining hands, keeping aside all their differences and egos.
Ramesh Kumar
State can’t kill its citizen
State can not kill its citizen in the name of war against Naxals, two way approach is required Political as well as anti naxal operations. Every body knows that there are more numbers of civil population as compared to Naxals in the area and when you heavy equipment and Forces casualties of civil population is bound to happen which will further lead to distraction of civil population from main stream and will not be a good outcome.
Umesh

The appellant sought for the pay scales for teaching staff and payments as per labour law (Minimum Wages Act of State/Central Govt.) for non-teaching Staff from the inception of the MESCO College of Pharmacy, Hyderabad i.e. from 2003-04 to 2019-20. The PIO, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to whom the RTI application was sent, the provided the information available with him and informed that the concerned college denied their consent to the disclosure of the information. The CIC observed that the square denial of the information by the PIO citing the refusal of the concerned college to part with the information is grossly inappropriate as no exemption clause of Section 8 and/or 9 of the RTI Act was invoked for the said denial. Moreover, the information sought for pertains to the pay scales of the employees of the college which should ordinarily be made available in the public domain by the concerned authorities. The CIC directed to provide the information related to the pay scale and gross salary of the faculties & non-teaching staff to the Appellant.
Comments
The case shows how information about the private institutions can be sought from the regulatory authorities. All PIOs should note that denial of information under the RTI Act can be done only as per section 8 or section 9 of the Act.
Citation: Dr Javed Akhtar Ansari v. All India Council For Technical Education in File No : CIC/AICTE/A/2019/644119, Date of Decision: 01/04/2021
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

EVM has been rejected by USA and the western world as anything which is pre-loaded programme.
Harish Kumar
Penalty on Ambanis
It is gratifying to learn that stock market regulator SEBI has levied a penalty of Rs25 crores on the members of Ambani family and others within 21 years of the alleged violation of some provision of law. The speed and efficiency with which SEBI has acted in this case is to be admired and is sure to be appreciated by the first Chairman of SEBI who passed away recently. It is reported that the affected parties are likely to appeal against the SEBI order. One would hope that SAT will not only reverse the order but also levy a major penalty on SEBI to be recovered from all the past and present Chairmen for the glacial speed with which they have acted.
Raghavan
Really commendable
The gesture of Spl DGP Chhattisgarh is really commendable. We need such officials on top everywhere.
B P Pande