Whispers Forum

The greeting card in eye-catching patterns and colours, since 1970s till about mid 2000s, used to hold monopoly of exchanging pleasantries on the occasion of advent of a new year. Thereafter vogue of sms on mobile phones and currently posting on facebook account, such greetings, has almost completely banished the custom of exchange of new year greeting cards .As ,earlier the number of cards received, and then number of messages received on phone, presently the number of posts on facebook, has become the hallmark of popularity of any individual.
In any office, on the 1st day of any new year, the hordes of employees would be seen entering the rooms of the seniors, with bouquets and cards in hands, to wish new year. It appeared that the air of sycophancy has completely overtaken the offices on this day. There used to be a very popular officer, who would receive more than thousand cards of greeting on new year and he would ensure that he reciprocated each and every greeting by posting back the replies, with the postage stamps, meant for the official purposes only, signifying the adage, ''Maal Malkan da, mash-huri kampany di'' (Get popularity at public expense).
In the twilight of his career, he was posted as financial commissioner revenue, the post on which, many years back, any officer, senior to a chief secretary would be posted. Since he was inherently a good person, he would go an extra mile to help any subordinate. Although, for many years, this post was considered to be a secretariat job, and the incumbents avoided frequent touring, this nice officer, would regularly visit the districts and tehsils each month. Normally, any financial commissioner revenue would not go out for doing inspection of any tehsil or deputy commissioner's office, but this gentleman chalked out a roster of such inspections, where he would also set apart sometime to hear grievances of the employees .After the tours ,he would feel highly elated, as the employees would profusely laud him for his unique way of helping and guiding the employees at the grassroots. They would say, ''Janab, tuhade tton pehlan ajj takk saadian mushklan kise ne nahin sunian'' (nobody listened to our grievances before you, janab!''
It was in the first week of January, many years back, when i went to see this noble officer, who had retired about two months back then. After normal pleasantries, the officer said, ''I am very happy that you have come to see me, otherwise normally people would not go to a retired officer. ''These words surprised me a bit as I knew his popularity and his vast social circle. I said, ''Sir, you have been generous to help one and all, everyone respects you and would do anything at your beckoning. ''I intended to say more, but he cut me short by saying, ''Nahi ji, istran nahin hunda (no, it does not happen like that).He continued, ''After retirement ,the people change overnight, I used to get more than thousand new year greeting cards, but do you know how many cards I have received only 2 months after my retirement ? ''He paused briefly to look at me, ''Not a single card sardar sahib, not a single!''
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

PM has huge passion for inauguration and foundation stones laying ceremonies. He laid the stone of permanent campus of IIM Sambalpur, Odisha on Jan 2. Then, in quick succession, GAIL’s much-delayed Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline project was inaugurated on Jan 4, 2021.
Fair enough. But, trumpeting achievements through long speeches is like addressing a political rally. Public apathy. I do not blame PM Modi ,but,his chatukaars.These insidious enemies include his ghost speech writers who takes pride in producing long speeches. More quantitative than qualitative.
I have always stood against PM’s detractors who have failed to advise him appropriately. Modi is irreplaceable. As his fan , I consider it my duty to be upfront.
Reverting to PM’s speech at IIM Sambhalpur, one is not sure whether PM had the clear idea of what the Management schools are supposed to teach? What did he want to convey by his favourite expression : “ Innovation, integrity and inclusive ?” Are these subjects taught in IIMs? Or, was it just a south indian Saambhar-like phraseology that can be used on any occasions : political, scientific or religious.Why is PM fond of giving a stick to the wayward Opposition to beat his party with?
Does the country need more management schools? Absolutely not. For most management aspirants , the objective of getting management diploma or degree from low grade schools, is not enterprise but a good job with attractive salary. A vast majority of them do not get anything like that because of poor quality of intake and worse, teaching. The bitter truth is that the top management schools admit only the best students with exceptional academic records. Here is a revelation based on my decade long experience as a Mentor for civil services aspirants. My long experience holding a critical position in UPSC at senior level ,comes in handy.
Of late, the management aspirants are not getting attracted to new IIMs.The latest trend is that even managers trained in top IIMs are now keen to join the Civil Services after appearing in UPSC civil services examination.
The little known fact is that students ,no longer, wish to complete in the admission process for IIMs like Vizag, Bodh Gaya, Nagpur or Sambhalpur. The new IIMs are being mentored by old IIMs which are known by their alumni rather than competent faculties.The private management schools are money-making machines. Poor infrastructures and incompetent faculties.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as the national-level Apex Advisory Body under Min of HRD ,is mandated to conduct surveys of facilities available for technical education and promote development. A big farce. A den of corruption. No recognitions / No clean chits without money power.
Same opinion is held by me for opening new medical colleges across the country. Bribes running into crores of rupees. PM may hold a judicial and transparent enquiry. How teams of fake teachers and medical doctors are created with hired buildings infrastructures for getting NOC for opening private managements institutes and universities . Congress-led UPA and its supremo, were specialists in games of corruption.
Flawed recruitment models continue to produce accidental bureaucrats. Too many job seekers in the country.
Game-changing reforms are needed to grapple with India’s increasing responsibilities and bring about Good governance, PM’s favourite dream,still remains a far cry.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Artists, musicians, theatres, opera and museums in Europe have been worst hit by Corona induced lockdowns and are agitating for months now. The horror of new nationwide lockdown in several countries due to the new strain has only added to the frustration. UK, Italy, France, Germany and other European countries are aware of the problem. No TV channel in India has even mentioned the plight of artists in India. Is it because art and culture is just a “seasonal” vocation? WIC seems to be the only portal which has published twice this year news about “culture” ministry. Otherwise singers like the Bauls of Bengal are mentioned only if it yields political dividends. I happened to listen to their soulful songs in the 1990s at the Trade Fair theatre in Delhi, thanks to the Resident Commissioner. Why are such performances not being held anymore? The stress of lockdown could have been reduced to some extent if the useless, BP raising, cantankerous debates on TV were substituted by such music and other performing artists. Even DD is behaving miser in keeping its assets canned otherwise it has a treasure trove of world class products from Lucknow, Jalandhar and Bhopal. The Artists deserve their share in public service. India is a rich culture and its pool of artists is bewitching.
M L Gupta

Dwarkadhish's suggestion for ad-hoc upgradation of 2014 Promotee ACs to the STS grade of DC is very practical and will boost productivity of Board, as Chairman can focus his vision on increasing the Revenue instead of monitoring the CAT Court Cases. An order similar to Office Order No. 161/2020 dated 30/12/2020 may be issued and all Promotee ACs who have completed more than 6 years in service may be upgraded to STS grade of DC on ad hoc basis as has been done in case of direct recruit ACs of 2014, 2015 & 2016 batches. In earlier forum posts I have seen that their is an Honorable Supreme Court judgement to promote AC to DC, whether temporary, ad hoc or regular if an AC has completed 4 years of service. The image of the Board is getting dented day by day, by adopting biased and discriminatory attitude towards Promotee Officers & treating them shabbily. Yes it is high time PMO should intervene, to dispense justice, to Promotee ACs of 2014 batch who have completed 6 years of service, 2 years more than required for upgradation to DC and who have worked hard to implement the biggest tax reform ever undertaken in the world by our visionary Prime Minister.
D S Bansal

Bank of Baroda’s claim that integration of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it has been complete and the customers of erstwhile Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank can now enjoy hassle free service through all BoB’s applications notwithstanding, the customers of the erstwhile banks which have been merged with BoB are faced with a host of problems be it internet banking or downloading the app and getting registered on it. What to speak of others, even I personally faced too much trouble in log-in issue of “Baroda M Connect+”, As new app login kept failing for more then a week, the employees at Khoe-fiza branch of the Bank of Baroda in Bhopal too were non-cooperative as usual. I didn’t get any help from the branch people and they advised me to contact HO customer care. I did so and my grievance was registered with reference number MBNK2317939093 but no help came in. I again complained for the second time (reference number MBNK2324542242), but this time again the problem was not resolved. I instead got the message via a mail saying - the bank is having sms delivery issue with Airtel. Then a friend of mine advised me to try log-in at mid night or early morning and see whether the registered mobile confirmation sms is delivered or not for app logg-in. I followed his advise, tried in wee hours and could somehow succeed after running helter skelter for several days. Hope the BoB authorities will look into the matter and come out clean as several others may also be faced with untold problems.
Abul Hasan Siddique
Sort out promotion issue in CBIC amicably
This is with reference to genuine grudge of not giving promotion to 2014 batch Promoted Asst Commissioners (JTS) to the rank of DC (STS) by Central Board of Indirect taxes & Customs even after putting more than 6 years of service. The most easy way out to rest this simmering discontent is to give them rank of DC (STS) as the post of DC in C.B.I.C is Non Functional Upgradation, does not entail any expenditure, creation of vacancy or transfers. CBIC has given rank of Additional Commissioners (NFSG) to 2011 batch, for which there is no vacancy requirement. Powers of AC & DC and that of J.C. & ADC are same. Chairman is requested to sort out this issue amicably, without any bias and discrimination, so that Govt. is not saddled with unwanted litigation where he and Revenue Secretary are also made respondents through Union of India.
Manoj Tekchandani
‘Inconvenient’ files often go missing?
The government officers come up with all kinds of excuses for not providing the information. It may be that the records are not traceable with no fixing of responsibility on anyone as if no one is responsible for maintaining the records. If a file is missing, there is little that anyone can do and there is no one who is held accountable. Can anything actually be done to improve the situation? It is a matter of common knowledge that the moment some file is inconvenient, it goes missing.
Anurag
Condolence
P C Hota’s passing away on Dec 31, 2020, is a great loss. I served under him as Joint Secretary while he was Secretary, DOP&T. He later became Chairperson , UPSC in 1996. He had been under acute depression for about three years. A rare IAS officer of 1962 batch. A highly regarded officer.
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)

Customs department has begun faceless assessment, recently, with a motive to end interaction between importers and the officers of the department, with a motive to end the culture of bribes. Hence neither the importer knows which officer has dealt with is bill of entry, nor the officer knows the importer. It was a fine step in the direction of good governance. But still it is surprising that officers are in their office at 7 in the morning, and giving queries to the documents, so that the importer is bound to find the location of officer and pay him usual fees to get his document cleared. It is not only in the morning, but even at eleven in dead of night that officers have dealt with documents, and raised queries, with the same motive. It may be right to point out that there is no shift system in the assessment work, and all the officers are expected to work in office hours, which begins at nine thirty in the morning and ends at six in evening. What is the motive of these officers to work at eleven in the night, or at seven in the morning, when they are not supposed to be in office? Do'nt their higher ups know that these officers are working at such of hours of midnight, or dawn, for some ulterior motive. The motive of working at late hours is to assess the document, at a time when investigation agencies have generally left for home, so that before they come to office, and open their role in the system, the goods have left customs station. Working at such odd hours itself points towards connivance, and some ulterior motive. The department knows it, the higher ups know it. If Railways, a bigger organization, can work from eight to eight, only, for ticket booking, why not the customs department also follow office timings, if they want to end corruption? After all, there is no overtime allowance at the level of assessing officers, except what they mint from importers as their pound of flesh. They would not work, without any motive, at such odd time
Amit Mahajan
Who has crossed and grabbed our land ?
Does any one of the Modi Cabinet Ministers knows if the Government have resolved to recover the occupied land since 30.4.2020 in Ladakh from foreign troops across the LAC ? PM does not takes the name of China as the aggressor. Then who has crossed and grabbed our land? A million dollar question unanswered to date.
Harish Kumar

Why not keep the three Farmers Acts in suspension for six months and use the time to discuss with the farmers unions separately State wise, and decide.
Prasad
No Langar, TV Coverage or Politician for them
The severe cold in Delhi NC Region evoked pity for the agitating farmers from the Congress, communists, socialists and about 24 opposition parties. Their antics provided rich free content to TV channels. Even ex-professors made their intellectual contribution! They were provided free langar, tea, refreshment and machines for massaging their feet. Most of them were well dressed to face the winter. But none of these human hearts had shown any sympathy for another set of lakhs of farmers (who had to migrate to cities due to little income from farming), engaged in construction activity, starting early in the harsh haad kapadenewali aur daant kitkitaanewali sardi of Delhi-NCR winters when the Left Hand refuses to even touch the Right Hand and working till late hours. Barely clad in any woollens on the body, head or feet, these men and women lift and carry bricks, steel, concrete and wood on their head in the winter described so vividly in TV studios. Nobody ever provided these farmers any free langar. No intellectuals, journalists, TV anchors, retired university professors or bureaucrats, Marxists or Maoists or Naxalites or Socialists or whatever their distinct identities made even a passing reference about their plight in the same severe Delhi-NCR winter. None marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. None presented a memorandum to the President of India. None damaged any mobile towers for them. They were just neglected. Their babies lying in the open near the construction site made none of them feel any sympathy for them. Why? Because they can do no harm to anybody in Delhi-NCR or India. The others are feared for political consequences. Can these super-souls demonstrate any love for these farmers by providing the same comforts of hot water bath, hot food and tea, a night in the AC tractor trolley and woollens just for one day in their miserable life?
M L Gupta
We need more good officers like Vineet Kumar
Hello Sir I have read your one of the post "IFS probationers posted". I want to share some important points which everyone needs to know. Vineet Kumar, having technical background, is doing fabulous work in Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve. In past 10 years, he is the only officer who is making big changes and taking good initiatives there. He is doing great for tribals development and conservation & protection of wildlife and forest. The most important work he is doing is - Motivating each and every staff. He is graduated from IIT, worked abroad and in big MNCs. After that he tried for UPSC, in a very first attempt he cleared it without any coaching, joined this service by CHOICE. Today we need more good officers like him. Hope sir achieve more great heights. Thanks
Rupak

CBIC has issued promotion order no. 161/2020 dated 30/12/2020 for the direct recruit ACs of 2016 batch once again denying promotion to 2014 Promotee ACs batch. In the said order 190 direct & 11 Promotee ACs have been promoted to the rank of DC, where as quota is 50% direct and 50% promotee. So far Board has promoted more than 600 AC of Direct Recruit batch of 2014, 2015 & 2016. This is gross injustice, discrimination and biased attitude of Board. It seems Board is for the direct, by the direct and of the direct recruits. It is so insensitive that it does not even consider promotee officers as even human beings ! Only direct intervention by Prime Minister can get justice for promotee officers.
Venkatramaiah TPS
Government has ulterior motive
I beg to disagree with Shri ML Gupta, three laws were made without consulting the stake holders i.e. farmers, mandis, mandi managers, mandi staff, transporters, transporters supporting staff, may be the list be to long of stake holders. Also why the laws were not discussed in parliament in detail, why it was not referred to parliament committee on agriculture and subsequently to JPC, why it was passed with voice vote in Rajya Sabha. Government has ulterior motives of passing these laws in Covid crisis
Harish Kumar

The appellant sought to know why the Punjab National Bank (PNB) returned a particular cheque unpaid with a reason insufficient funds. The CIC observed that the respondent has shown callous and unprofessional attitude both while representing during the hearing as well as dealing the RTI application. The CIC held that the respondent may not evade their responsibility as a public authority on the pretext of relocation of their office in addition to the lapse of over two years. A show cause notice was issued to the PIOs to show cause as to why penalty under provisions of section 20 (1) of RTI Act may not be imposed upon each of them for not responding to the RTI application within the prescribed time limit.
Comments
It is the duty of the PIO to maintain a professional behaviour and follow the provisions of the RTI Act. Relocation of the Office cannot be used as a ground for denial of information.
Citation: Lopamudra Chatterjee v. Punjab National Bank in Second Appeal No. CIC/PNBNK/A/2018/130662, Date of order: 12.05.2020
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

It is heard loudly in power corridors that the IAS lobby has clipped the wings of IRS-IT service by pushing for faceless system in the IT dept. Of late IRS-IT has bagged many coveted posts like CVC, EC, ED etc., which were normally given to IAS. IRS gained prominence under the present govt. Biding for their time IAS lobby successfully got implemented faceless system which curtails the power and reach of IRS-IT. It is the reason it seems many IRS officers are opting for VRS.
Vikas
New Year gift to young officers in Commerce Ministry
As many as 22 Engineers promoted as Dy. Directors in Commerce Ministry: In a true new year gift to the young officers, the Commerce Ministry promoted 15 officers of Indian Supply Service (ISS) and 7 officers of Indian Inspection Service (IIS) to the Senior Time Scale post of Dy. Director on 31.12.2020. The credit of timely promotion goes to the dynamic Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, his personal staff and all the ministry officers and staff involved in the process, who worked during odd hours to ensure timely promotion to the officers. The ISS and IIS Group-A officers are recruited through a 3-stage Indian Engineering Services (IES) exam conducted by UPSC.
CM
FM must intervene to avoid unpleasant work atmosphere iin CBIC
CBIC has issued ad-hoc Promotion order no. 160/2020 dated 29/11/2020 from DC to JC. In every para the word - ad-hoc promotion order - has been used. What is stopping the Board to issue such an order for upgrading Promotee ACs of 2014 to the Senior Time Scale of DC, when it is not even promotion, but Non Functional Upgradation ? FM must intervene at this juncture and issue instructions to Chairman to follow this simple, just and equitable solution and avoid unpleasant work atmosphere among officers.
Dwarkadhish Mohapatra

In the year 2016, Punjab state legislated, ''The Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Act'', which was later amended in the year 2018. It had taken almost 11 years to make this law, which has not been implemented till day. The institutional loans have been partially waived off, but the loans from private lenders at very high rates have not been touched despite existence of legislation in this regard. In the year 2016, farmers of Tamil Nadu had marched to New Delhi in the most miserable conditions. In the year 2017, agitating farmers of Madhya Pradesh had to face the bullets and in the year 2018, thousands of Maharashtra farmers had to undertake long march to Bombay, in the most inhospitable conditions. It is a gospel truth that even before the legislation of 3 new laws in Sept 2020, the life of the farmers' of this country was uncomfortable. But the farmers now consider the new laws to be their death warrants.
''O jaane walo jao na ghar apna chhorh ke, mata bula rahi hai tumhe haath jorh ke,''this soulful song was picturized on great Indian actress Nargis,in magnum -opus of Indian cinema Mother India, where she beckons her fellow villagers not to leave the village, after the fury of the floods had devastated it and they started to leave. Presently, the farmers, across the country, are leaving their lands and villages and converging near Delhi, when they think that the three new laws ,recently legislated, will oust them from their lands and farmery permanently. Their houses, their cattle-heads, their fields and their orchards are missing them and beckoning them to return for their sake. Legendary film maker Mehboob kKhan, had very thoughtfully made this film ,very minutely depicting the miseries of the farmers, at the hands of nature and the greedy money-lenders. The film was made at his own village Bilimora, in Baroda district of Gujrat state. Sukhi lala, a greedy shahukar of the village, so heartlessly inflicted atrocities and insults on the family that it compelled Birju, one son of Radha(Nargis), to become a rebel.
Prior to making Mother India, Mehboob Khan had made AAN in the year 1952. In this film, he portrayed that the extremely loyal farmers also acted as sword-arm of any benevolent regime, in time of any external aggression. But, if the ruler turned out to be a tyrant, these loyal brave hearts, did not hesitate to raise their swords against such rulers. In film 'Shikasat', made by Ramesh Sehgal, in 1954, the atrocities against the farmers have been vividly delineated and, as in AAN, in this film also, Dilip Kumar delivers the farmers from tyrraneous and miserable life. Incidentally, it was Ramesh Sehgal who gave break to Sunil Dutt in film Railway Platform in 1954 who played Birju in film Mother India later, in 1957.
In 1989,when the extremism was at its zenith in Punjab, and no solution was in sight, the new PM,VP Singh, immediately after taking the oath, came to Golden Temple at Amritsar. It raised hopes of the people towards a solution. But nothing happened in the next some months, except that the same PM came to Golden Temple, once again.On 20th December ,this year, a day after the martyrdom day of Guru Tegh Bahadur ji , PM paid obeisance at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, again raising hopes of solution of the problem. This is the right time to save the farmers from the sukhi lalas, who will reach, every nook and corner of the country, at breakneck speed, if brakes are not put now. Let statesmanship replace mundane politics.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu
Failed to serve masters in 1962, doing it now
Pakistan was the first country that treated India with contempt in 1948 and grabbed the entire territory of PoK- Indian land. Then came China in 1962 audaciously and grabbed the entire Aksai Chin territory of India. When it tried to repeat the misadventure during Prime Minister Narendra Modi it was met with a stout reply and successful diplomacy checking China in its tracks on expansionism through economic and military strategy of string of pearls and economic cooperation. The failed China and Pakistan supporters have grown wings in the democratic liberal set up of India and want to serve their masters now loyally. So, they are openly inviting China to attack India. As a part, they have devised the farmers’ agitation and violence in Punjab. They are confident of destabilising the government at the centre and states specially chosen for the plan- Punjab, Bihar, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and the 7 sisters in the NE, J&K UT and Ladakh UT. They are moving with strategy whereas the politicians don’t even realize the enveloping dangers to national security, territory and sovereignty. They are caught in the maze of political jargons like communalism, regionalism, language etc. They do not acknowledge the great achievements of every single communist country in the world in registering high industrial and economic growth rate in the past 73 years and world class corporates creating huge wealth for them. On the contrary, the communists in India cannot boast of a single corporate giant promoted by them in any state of India ruled by them even though industry, education, health and agriculture have been in state subjects within the executive authority of those communist regimes. They only destroyed every industry creating jobs or wealth. And they do not regret having done so. They carry the same with whatever little others have succeeded in achieving. All other parties with pretensions of socialism, progressivism, liberalism, Gandhism, anti-Gandhism, Left-Right-middle etc. have similar record. Attacks organised on the Indian economy are meant to harm India as a nation and destabilise a strong and popular government under Narendra Modi, so that they can render service to their masters now and rule poor India as regents on their behalf. In the early years of our independence we were a pitiably poor country. Besides poverty, we were a feudal country of millions of fealty serving their masters for free called beggar (which was to be outlawed by the Constitution of Free India later). The mesmerism of Marxism in those days was so powerful that associating with the communist ideology was a statement of being forward looking. Many people named their children after Marx, Lenin, Stalin and even conjunction of Marx & Lenin coining a new name. Later Mao was added to the litany. As political power came in the hands of such people, they shifted priority to their siblings and dynasty. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was struggling to take India on a path of industrialisation and all round development and the communists were opposing every move of the government. As ignorant and idealistic youth, my generation bought the dream of a revolution promising everything, particularly equitable distribution of wealth and means of livelihood and income. It came as an intensely painful disillusionment to see the insincerity of the leaders professing ideology publicly but acting pragmatic in life. We are in the year 2021 and it is a different India. The exploitation of the Kisan, Majdoor, Farmers (in case they are assigned a different category), students and poor citizens must end and political parties adopt service to the people as their motto and work sincerely to solve problems by explaining the benefits of the 3 Laws instead of the current tod-bhod ki rajniti and make a public appeal to the farmers to call off the agitation forthwith.
M L Gupta
Thanks whispersinthecorridors
11 IRS-Customs promoted to PrCC/PrDG of Customs grade. Thanks to whispersinthecorridors
Nilima