Whispers Forum

The Congress appears set to enforce a ‘one family, one ticket’ rule in the party. According to AICC General Secretary, Ajay Maken, the second or more persons from a family can be given tickets only if they have worked for at least five years in the party. Thus this rule will have no impact on Gandhi' s or most other senior leaders as anyone contesting polls will claim that he/she has been working for the party for 5 years or more. No one can get a ticket without working for at least 5 years except in a few exceptional cases. Congress leaders should brainstorm why the party has declined so rapidly in recent years and how it can reverse this trend?
Rajiv Gupta

Indian students who had to leave their university courses in China during the Covid-19 outbreak and have remained stranded in India for over two years are unlikely to return soon despite a recent Chinese announcement that it plans to permit the return of some Indian students. It is not clear when students would be able to return or how many will be called initially. Meanwhile, the stranded medical students, particularly from Ukraine, may be allowed to complete residential internships in India. This is being closely watched by the Indian students waiting to go back to China, who want equal treatment.
Manjul Bajpai

Extreme heat conditions have disrupted life all over the country and caused a water crisis in many parts of India. Climate change is a very big challenge facing the country today. But once the nation receives the monsoon showers and the weather becomes cool everyone including the government, politicians and the people forget everything and no one bothers about saving the environment and the nature. According to experts, the number and severity of droughts, floods and storms in India will continue to increase rapidly. So we have to save nature although monsoon showers will, hopefully, end our misery within a few weeks as Southwest Monsoon is predicted to strike Kerala coast on May 21, ten days before its scheduled arrival date.
Kamal Tripathi

A senior citizen of age 70 years. For last one month, I was visiting sub post office Mansarovar Jaipur to deposit 1.50 lac in my PPF a/c but to no avail. There is no separate counter for the senior citizens. There is always a long line of agents and touts and the young to jostle out the young. Finally after a month’s struggle I was forced to transfer my PPF account to the adjacent ICICI bank.
Dr G K Tiwari IAS (Retd)
Editor-in-chief should conclude comments
We read many viewpoints on various debates. I think the editor-in-chief should conclude his comments/ views on the debate after a week or so including the points published in the forum so that the final outcome of the debate should be known to all readers of the Whispers in the Corridors.
Pradeep Kumar

Information was sought about pension and interpretation of FR 56 various Ministries for individuals who are born on the 1st in the afternoon of the preceding date and retiring. The Commission remarked upon a perusal of the facts on record that the Appellant has placed the facts of the case on record in an extremely cumbersome manner and having perused the records of 4 other similar cases being heard simultaneously with this case, it is evident that through his RTI Applications, the Appellant is in a habit of narrating grievances and seeks for information as a passing reference which the CPIO cannot be expected to deduce and interpret to his satisfaction. The CIC observed that the PIO, in his wisdom, has interpreted certain queries in the RTI Application and provided some information which is in conformity with the spirit of the RTI Act. Taking a liberal view in the case, the CIC directed the PIO to revisit the queries, and provide any additional information that may be available to the Appellant, free of cost.
Comments
Many PIO face RTI Applications where the applicant keeps on describing a situation over a number of paragraphs and somewhere hidden amidst it, is a query. It is advisable to have an open mind in all such applications and not miss the request seeking the information in the heap of words.
Citation: Gopal Krishan v. Department of Pensions & Pensioner’s Welfare in File No: CIC/DP&PW/A/2021/106830, Date of Decision: 30/03/2022
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

I request Banks to publish a list of working days instead of holidays which would be more convenient to public and also it will be easy to remember.
Raghavan
Rehabilitation of a ‘misguided youth’
Just curious whether the Central Govt would have been equally benevolent towards members of other services, in case the member is missing for years together and rises against the Political Establishment, had Faesal not been member of the biggest service union. Short of words on this generosity. Looks like rehabilitation of a ‘misguided youth’
Bosidini
Corrupt get highest priority
Yes. In this Government, all the corrupt get the highest priority in appointments and extensions.
Virat