Whispers Forum

The private sector is generally confused. So long as the economy is doing well, their top brass take home more than twenty times the salaries as compared to their equally educated, equally talented and equally hard working counterparts in the government services (who are also IIT and IIM graduates). Happy with the money rolling in, they look down upon their lesser paid government counterparts, label them as inefficient, corrupt, etc. and look forward to more and more "privatization". They do not save much, splurge on parties and a luxurious life. The real economy being cyclic, there will always be a downturn. Once cyclical recession or stagflation sets in, their salaries are cut, for obvious reasons. Though even then they get more than their equally educated, equally talented, equally hard working IIT and IIM educated government counterparts, they get acutely jealous of the so called "job security" in government. Then they spew their venom all over the place. They should remember that one cannot have one's cake and eat it too.
Vijay Kumar
Pothole problem in Hyderabad also
In Hyderabad also, we have pothole problem. But there are more dangerous things to negotiate on the roads. Two wheelers, three wheelers routinely drive in the opposite direction and at high speed. Police does not take any action. Then traffic does not stop for pedestrian crossing. In fact there is no such system in Hyderabad even at major crossings where four/five roads meet. You have to crossroad while traffic is moving. There is no over bridge also. Central Ministry should come and see the situation here. One can die any moment on the road.
A K

It is a mystery why candidates in Panchayat elections spend exorbitant amounts of money on their elections. Sarpanch/ Mukhiya etc. seem to have become posts in great demand for which candidates are willing to invest huge amounts. This is especially so in states like Bihar. What could be the reason?
Vijay Kumar
Chief Economic Adviser looks like a third wheel
Why have a Chief Economic Adviser in the first place? He just looks like a third wheel !
Rajan
Why exile from public life ?
The record shows that very few dignitaries express their views through print media on the issues concerning public life and their upliftment. Our Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu is one such dignitary who shares his thoughts with the public. Ministers and even high profile one, once dropped from the council of ministers, hibernate themselves as if their own identity was zero. Are they not free to write, speak on the issues which affect the common man's life? They should contribute and share their thoughts, experience as ministers for the benefit of us. This is also one of the methods to strengthen democracy.
Raj Kumar Thakur

One of your posts today covers the promotion of 25 UP civil service officers to IAS. Can you find out which year these officers had joined the State civil service. This will give us an idea about the number of years they take to get their promotion to IAS.
A K
Harassment on KYC updating
I agree with views expressed by Naveen regarding harassment on KYC updating. I feel India graduated from ration card to new ration card then photo ration card, election card, pan card, adhaar card, population census, till now India has not been able to pass that graduation till date as none of the identity to citizens has been issued with perfection or precision. Why cannot we have just one Aadhaar card or something which can be linked to everything, so that at the press of a button citizens each profile is depicted in line with social security number system in developed countries?
Harish Kumar
Competitive examinations and coaching institutes
Recently results of civil service examinations and IIT-JEE Main and Advanced examinations have been announced. One sees in all newspapers various coaching institutes claiming that all top rankers are from their institutes. For instance the first ranker appears to have studied in at least six such institutes. One wonders, apart from spending so much money, how did the rankers find the time to study in so many institutes. One hopes there is no scam involved.
Raghavan

KYC and its update in financial organisations like Post Offices, Banks etc is becoming headache for customers/clients and is causing lot of harassment to the customers. As per media, number of frauds are taking place in the name of KYC. RBI has also issued advisory to be vigilant in this regard. As the people are moving from one place to another due to job, profession, study, work, medicals, earnings etc, so the address in IDs like Aadhaar, Voter cards get changed. The account opened at previous places no longer remains valid and accounts are getting closed which causes lot of hardships to general public. Let us take two simple examples to understand the complexity of the case. A person in a village of Patna has an account in Post office and second person of Lucknow has an account in Bank in Lucknow. Patna villager moves to Mumbai and gets his address changed in Aadhaar card. Lucknow person moves to Delhi and gets his address changed to Delhi address. Now both have different addresses from previous addresses. In general Post Offices believes only on Aadhaar and PAN whereas banks may accept other IDs also apart from Aadhaar. Post Office in a village of Patna asks for KYC update and person is not able to give proof of the old address and asks for closure of accounts but village person wants that his account should continue as after his retirement he will return to his place for final settlement. Similar situation will be for a person from Lucknow. Can Govt. of India may work out a solution for such cases so that public faces no hardships in maintaining old accounts in place of change of address in IDs. The best solution can be to record change of address in old accounts of financial organisations irrespective of places where he lives. It mean accounts can be opened and verified in any place in India with respect to addresses given in Aadhaar or similar IDs. PAN number does not change so two IDs Aadhaar and PAN with mobile number are sufficient to identify and verify the customers. Let the address in Aadhaar be of Delhi but he should be allowed to open account in any branch of Post Offices or Banks anywhere in the country even away from Delhi. It means accounts will work in a platform irrespective of locations and services can be provided seamlessly through the country. One nation-one Tax-one PAN-one Aadhaar-one account number. In result problems of KYC and its update can easily be resolved and customers will not face the hardships of closure of accounts. It is finally submitted to Finance Minister to issue such directives so that accounts are not closed in specially post offices and banks due to address variations and verifications can be done taking present address in Aadhaar, PAN and mobile numbers for KYC and its updates. The address in account details may be changed as per present address in IDs irrespective of places (no insistence of local address). We have to dispense with local addresses for opening of an account or KYC verifications in Post Offices and Banks. This will largely ease out the problems of KYC. A person having his address of Delhi in Aadhaar can be allowed to open account in Mumbai with his PAN, mobile number and e-mail address. Aadhaar, PAN and mobile numbers are mostly interlinked. What else is required to identify the person? There may be other solutions also which can be adopted to get away from local addresses for opening an account.
Naveen

The appellant sought information related to the payment of pension to Members of Parliament after the completion of their term and other related queries. The appellant agreed that the relevant information has been provided by the respondent, however the reply provided is not officially signed, therefore, it is not authentic. The respondent had provided a reply through RTI online portal which is a system generated reply and same does not require authenticity. Although the public authority has no control over the format in which the information received by the appellant through RTI online portal, but the CIC held that if in case the relevant information as provided through RTI online portal is not dispatched yet, the same should be provided in hard copy as well. The CIC directed to provide the relevant information to the appellant in hard copy also as exits on record, duly attested and authenticated by the public authority.
Comments
Whether copies of documents available on the website should be provided and whether the same should be authenticated has been often raised. In this case, the CIC has directed in favour of providing the authenticated copies of records.
Citation: Mr. Dhiraj Kumar Bhilyabhai Patidar V. Parliament of India, Rajya Sabha Secretariat IN Second Appeal No.CIC/PAROI/A/2020/108452, Date: 12.10.202
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

A large number of traffic accidents take place every year because of potholes which have spread like an epidemic across most roads in India. Accidents take place either due to two wheelers trying to avoid them or by falling in them. They are giving rise to strange and cruel situations, because the criminal liability for the accident is falling on the scooterist, for “rash and negligent driving”! In 2015 in Mumbai, a scooter being driven by a young lady with her mother on the pillion fell in a pothole. The injured women were admitted to a hospital, where the mother died. The police booked the crime against the daughter. In 2016 in Bengaluru, an IT professional and his wife were injured when their scooter fell in a pothole. The police booked an offence against the husband. This is the case with all pothole related accidents, which adds salt to injury. It is time that responsibility was fixed for the existence of these death traps on our roads, apart from encroached footpaths and dug up roads.
Available figures show that from 2013 to 2016, 11,836 people died and 36,421 were injured due to pothole related accidents. In 2020 alone 3564 pothole related accidents occurred. The new Motor Vehicles Act of 2020 justifiably prescribes imprisonment for three years for guardians of juveniles who commit car accidents. Surely this principle of vicarious liability can be extended to defaulting civic authorities. The law cannot be a mute spectator if civic authorities have given up on accountability. Various honourable High Courts such as of Mumbai and Karnataka have already directed the civic authorities to prevent occurrence of potholes, but the desired results have not come about. Criminal liability alone can eradicate these death traps. It is worth noting that the measure suggested above would not cost a rupee to the exchequer to be implemented and would save precious lives and limbs and crores of rupees spent on repairing these potholes which reappear again.
A R Pawar
Former DGP Madhya Pradesh

The drug menace in Bollywood is not new. Even some of the famous stars of yesteryear’s were reportedly involved in some of the other form of drug abuse – whether usage, possession or transit. What seems to be new is, perhaps for the first time a child of any star has been allegedly found to be involved in it. It is so because for these so called “celebrities” drugs is a symbol of style and since they are expensive and not available everywhere, they try to brag about it rather than actually creating awareness on the hazardous effects of these on the young generation who unfortunately view bollywood actors as 'superstars' or 'idols'.
The NCB has been doing a commendable job - conducting raids especially after the Sushant Singh Rajput case and has even summoned many top actors who have a massive fan following. While it is no secret that these things have been going on in bollywood since a long time, it is up to us as audiences to decide whether we want such people to represent our country's values who on one hand try to act as heroes and on the other end are trying to promote all the wrong habits in the country.
Ravi

The Appellant filed an online RTI application seeking the information about the names of sponsored students and their sponsoring organisations who completed their M.Tech from Department of Computer Science and Engineering of IIT Kharagpur during 1983 - 2019. Part of the information was provided while it was informed that the remaining data is not available. The CIC observed that it is personal information of third parties and ignoring this aspect the CPIO has erred in giving the details of said students through his first reply without seeking consent of such students under Section 11 of RTI Act. The CPIO was advised to exercise due diligence and follow due process of law as per the RTI Act while divulging the third party’s personal information to the applicants.
Comments
An overenthusiastic (ignorant?) PIO may not follow the procedure and disclose personal information of third party. Such an act may lead to loss or detriment to the third party for which a compensation may be claimed. It calls for regular training of the PIO and FAA as such mistakes are being done by a large number of officers.
Citation: Har Sukhdeep Singh v. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in File No: CIC/IITKH/A/2020/106698; Date of Decision: 21/09/2021
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