Whispers Forum

With due regard to the Chairs of both Houses of Parliament, it has been seen that they advise the speakers of the parties to adhere to the time limit allotted and conclude .This time limit ranges from one minute to thirty minutes (estimated) depending upon the strength of the party in House and agreed upon by the paries in the meetings taken on the issue. It is incomprehensible for a common man to understand as to how he/she will cover the symptoms and solution of the problem within one or two minutes. It is also observed that speakers from big parties with more time at their disposal, speak more on irrelevant things i.e. eulogising their party and less on the problem and its solution. However, the speaker from smaller parties suffer from double whammy of established Parliamentary procedure, first lesser time to speak and second frequent warning from the Chair to conclude the speech. Even then, with these constraints,they convincingly convey the message to the government by touching upon the root cause of the problem,its impact on the common man and suggestions to tackle the problem.This discrimination in allotment of time is unjustified. The debate time must be increased sufficiently to adjust all the parties on equal footing. Not more than two speakers from a party should be allowed to speak. Minimum and maximum time limit should be fixed for speakers of the parties.Fixation of Maximum time to speak and ignoring entitlement of minimum time is problematic. Minimum time say 30 minutes, will address this problem to some extent.
R K Thakur

The increasing global tension on account of the Russia-Ukraine conflict led to rise in the economic and other problems the world over. The world appeared on the brink of World War. The war in Ukraine is still continuing and meanwhile, US speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan increased tension. This is the time for the test of India’s foreign policy. India has strategic, trade and cultural relations with the US, Europe as well as Russia. India has long prided itself on its strategically independent or non-aligned foreign policy. But the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War put India under pressure. But in that difficult situation, India did not allow its relations to deteriorate with either Russia or the West by maintaining neutrality and refusing to take sides. India must now be keenly watching the developments in Taiwan as escalation of the situation will lead to destabilization of peace in the entire region.
Ritika Khare

One of the first announcements by the Prime Minister in 2014 was his emphasis on transparency and accountability as essential for good governance. As eight years have elapsed since then, it would be desirable if the Prime Minister's Office commissions a thorough review of the measures put in place by the various Ministers for creating a transparent and accountable system within their Ministries and an analysis of what has been actually achieved in furthering the objective of the Prime Minister in this regard. Based on actual experience of many citizens, regrettably, seriousness is lacking and many important suggestions made to them by sincere members of the public remain even unacknowledged, let alone acted upon or, if not actionable, informing them about the same.
N Ramu

The three pillars of the economy namely new investment, investor sentiment, and consumer sentiment are going from bad to worse day by day. It seems India is entering a worse stage than 1991 if consumer's purchasing power and depleting foreign exchange reserves are taken into account in true spirits. The dispensation must fix this problem through RBI and other agencies guidance before it is too late. One way is to give chance to those who are holding cash as black money into banks, no questions asked for 6 months or one year, this way money will be in circulation legally, unless GoI has better options.
Harish Kumar

The Appellant denied receipt of satisfactory information in compliance with the order of the SIC, J&K dated 18.07.2019 and stated that no opportunity of hearing was provided to him at the FAA stage. The Respondent remained absent during the hearing despite prior intimation and an unsigned written submission was received by CIC from the O/o the Collector Land Acquisition I&FC Department, Srinagar vide letter dated 13.06.2022 wherein it was stated that the information was already provided to the Appellant on 14.01.2019. The CIC noted that a note ostensibly expressing satisfaction has been received by the respondent from a representative of Dr. Fayaz Ahmad on 11.06.2022, the factual veracity of which was not established. The CIC observed that as per available record, the order of the SIC, J&K has not been complied with till date since the statement of the compensation paid to each farmer/ land owner whose land has been acquired by the department has not been provided. Furthermore, the written submission given by the Respondent is unsigned and does not mention the name of the officer signing it. Holding that due to the absence of the Respondent, the proceeding before it is vitiated, the CIC issued show cause notice to the Collector, Land Acquisition I&FC Department, Srinagar to show cause why penal action should not be taken against him for not providing complete information to the Appellant and for not complying with the order of the SIC, J&K.
Comments
Not following the orders of the Information can lead to imposition of penalty on the concerned public information officer.
Citation: Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat v. O/o Collector Land Acquisition, Irrigation & Flood Control Dept., Rajbagh, Srinagar in Second Appeal No. CIC/UTOJK/A/2020/114941, Date of Decision: 17.06.2022
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

The Supreme Court has ratified and upheld all the clauses of Prevention of Money Laundering Act -PMLA which is as it should be as economic offences should be treated on par with treason. However, what is intriguing is that though it is named as the prevention of money laundering act, it has not been able to do that at all. Whatever action-raid, search, seizure, arrest, investigation, or trial are taking place after the event. The government will do well to address this issue-prevention. For a start, why not consider the following: 1. make it cumbersome and difficult to hoard so much cash by withdrawing 2000 and 500 rupee notes over a period of time and limit currency to 100 rupee notes. By restricting cash supply people will be forced to resort to bank transactions. 2. Put an expiry date-say three years on currency notes which will force hoarders to come to a bank sooner or later. These suggestions may sound simplistic but are surely worth a try rather than a protracted trial after the event and poor record of convictions. Will netas, babus, and businessmen -the largest perpetrators and beneficiaries of money laundering- bite the bullet?
Raghavan

Never, in the past ,have I seen India more divided against itself, than at present. Paradigm shift is taking place in the collective ethos of the country .
Sample some disturbing trends.
Increasing Hindu-muslim animosity, arrogance of power by different political parties and their lapdogs, no rule of law, communal harmony descending into violence,religeous polarisation, failure of governance, widening poor-rich divide, decision-making in collusion with big industrial houses despite conflicts of interests, failure of intelligence in preventing terror attacks. and identifying terror modules etc.The list is illustrative, not comprehensive.
Can we call ourselves proud indians in such circumstances?
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

The Central Consumers Protection Society (CCPA) has issued guidelines on July 4 debarring restaurants and hotels from levying service charges ‘automatically or by default. The order on the face of it appeared not very reasonable as the service charges were collected in lieu of tips for distribution among the serving staff waiters, stewards, and cooking staff. In the name of protection of consumers, we were depriving these people of this extra income to supplement their wages. As expected, the Association of Restaurants owners challenged these orders in Delhi High Court which stayed these guidelines from CCPA. In the meantime, while some of the establishments (at least one I know which irregularly patronize) did stop collecting service charges in the food bill but they promptly raised the prices of all items on the Menu by 10%. I wonder whether the extra money they are collecting by way of higher prices would be distributed among the staff or go into their own kitty. Further now with the High Court ruling against the order not to levy service charges these establishments are free to levy the consumer will have to pay more service charges as the rates have been enhanced. Instead of protecting consumers, this order of CCPA has put an additional burden on the consumers. Will CCPA now intervene and tell all those who increased the rates by 10% to roll back the increase in prices.
Aarti Khosla

This is not the CMD Post. This is the post of the Chairman of NABARD. The Chairman and the Managing Director Posts are clearly defined in NABARD Act 1981. MD post remained vacant since Dr. KG Karmakar retired. The ED posts are also not filled up. The Chairman Post is equivalent to the Deputy Governor of RBI /Secretary GoI. At the start, it is one of the Dy Governor of RBI holding this post of Chairman. Hence please make correction in your scroll as the Chairman only. Thanks. I am a subscriber of Whispersinthecorridor and thanks once again.
K Balakrishnan