Whispers Forum

What I see that in the last 4 years of NDA, businessmen, working class and daily wagers are feeling pinch of demonetization and GST. I could not know why but this is talk of everyone. All want subsidies, freebies, debts waived, free power, free education and free health treatment but do not want to pay taxes. Our politicians and political parties have made all greedy that whenever election comes they announce and people hope that they will get all above. The system is going from worst to disaster and our economy will collapse if not today than tomorrow. Caste related jobs, promotions and facilities, the other factor taking India to the downgrade. But no political party nor politician are ready to understand its long time effects of appeasement by offering reservations. May God save us and this country as this is the only phrase most of Hindu chants.
Ram Garg

Ministers may come and go but IAS officers remain in service and are expected to execute orders as per the rules or policy. If the Minister gives instructions with which you do not agree, you should have the courage to express it in writing. Otherwise you are equally responsible for the fraud or scam. In PNB scam, it is apparent that from top to bottom officers in the Banks, Reserve Bank, and Ministry of finance were aware of the scam. But no whistle blower! It is indeed shameful for all IAS.
Shashichandra Desai
UPSC should recruit more
If there is a shortage of IAS officers, UPSC should be requested to recruit more.
Vijay Kumar

ONE person Dr. Suresh Mehrotra started a project with ONE click on day ONE in 200 (ONE) with ONE computer and ONE employee in ONE room of his house named as www.whispersinthecorridor.com has reached 10 crore hits today .
Congratulations
Congratulations and Thank you for your commitment
Bhupender Kumar
Passenger Traffic in Indian Railways - a loosing proposition
Passenger Traffic in the Indian Railways is already a loosing proposition. Mr. Srinivasan who is already the privilege few of the country wants to have more benefit out of the scarce resource of the country. They are many who still need assistance from the government.
BBS
Govt not taking action ?
Why govt is not taking action against corrupted, falsified age affidavit holders who occupied top slots of govt, CPSE, PESB, UPSC, investigating agencies. These guys continued from UPA to NDA.Will PM take a note of It.. It is the need of hour. otherwise people will lose faith in Govt..
Rao
CGHS stops giving medicines from counter
CGHS has stopped giving medicines over their counter and all medicines have to be indented. The CGHS authorities do not have an idea as what trouble a pensioner has to go through if the medicines are not available in the Dispensary and they are indented everytime. This is nothing but harrasment to pensioners as they are required to go the dispensaries twice or thrice just to get their medicines which I am sure when the serving bureaucrats retire, will feel the pinch.Since now the shoe is on the other foot they just don't care. I hope better sense prevails at the earliest so that pensioners will feel relieved.
K S Palachandran

It is rather strange to note that there is shortage of IAS officers-a much sought after job by all youngsters. One possible reason could be that the State Government under reported the number of vacancies or people selected don't want to join Bihar Cadre.!!! To overcome the shortage of IAS, IPS and IFS officers, UPSC should hold special exam in the next five years for the existing group B officers working in central/state governments who are below 30 yrs of age.
S Gopal
Kudos to BEL
This is due to honest, sincere hardworking, highly qualified, and genuine age certificate holders.
Prasad

Govt. has taken many steps to simplify the tax rules. There are still gaps which need to be filled. As per one of the reports, 2017 (Oxfam), 1% population has 73% national wealth. This is really big concern for any country to have such divide. This may be due to either wrong implementation of policies or wrong policies itself. How to bridge this divide? It is big challenge for the Govt. Let everyone contribute in Nation Building. There are organisations and individuals not in tax net. Certain areas to be addressed on priority like Cryptocurrency which will be difficult to tackle in future if steps are not taken immediately. Few steps for consideration for improving revenue: 1. Govt. has no methodology or mechanism to assess the income of Professionals like doctors, lawyers, traders, contractors, film/TV actors, media houses etc. where tax compliance is not good. Govt. should work out methods to assess the correct income and numbers in this category. 2. Make NGOs and Party fund taxable thru an amendments in Income Tax Act 1961. Let them contribute something for the Nation. Such funds should be completely cashless (receipt and expenditure) and transparent, details to be available on their website. 3. Tax on cryptocurrency transactions. Govt. has very little information in this field. 4. Implement GST in more pragmatic way still lot of gaps exist. 5. Make low income group people i.e. upto 5 lakhs scrutiny free to develop trust and faith with tax department and people pay their due tax and file return. 6. Tax compliance is still very low specially in professional and business category. They are not in the Govt. monitoring system. It means non-filing monitoring system requires re-look. Monitoring system works when something is in system. Think how to identify such people or organisation?
Naveen
Wonderful achievement
Kudos to Dr Suresh Mehrotra for the feat of 10 crores. A wonderful achievement.
Prasad
Wrong suggestion
Jhansi hospital incident : why should the principal of the medical college resign if someone else had committed the mistake of putting the amputated leg as pillow for a patient ? This will not prevent the repetition of such things in future because the culprits will know that they can commit it and get away with the blame being attached to someone else. This is the bane of the current times. The erring minister gets away while an official of the department has to go to jail.
MSK

IThe complainant sought attested copies of his answer book, some confidential documents and other related information. The CIC noted that the RTI application was received on 03.01.2014 and it was transferred to the Electrical department on 16.01.2014. The evaluated answer sheets were in the custody of the Electrical Department and the same were provided by PIO (Electrical) finally on 18.06.2015. The custodian of the confidential documents was the gazetted section and the Electrical Department and both were asked to furnish the requisite information but the delay occurred due to their non-performance in furnishing the sought for information to the personnel branch. The CIC observed that complete information had since been furnished to the applicant but the delay in furnishing the requisite information was due to wrong return of the transferred RTI application by the PIO (Electrical) and due to the time taken for collecting details from gazetted section which was the custodian of the relevant records. The CIC directed them to submit an explanation for the resultant delays of 14 months and 17 months respectively for furnishing the requisite information at the next date of hearing before it which is scheduled on 04.04.2018 at 04.45 PM.
Comments
In case of any malafide denial of information, a penalty of Rs 250/- per day extending to a maximum of Rs 25,000/- may be imposed on the PIO under the provisions of the RTI Act. The onus that the denial of information has been in good faith lies on the PIO.
Citation: Amarjeet Singh v. Northern Railway in File No.: CIC/BJ/C/2016/000001, Date of hearing: 20.12.2017, 22.02.2018
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICand PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

Over 10 crore hits!Whispers has certainly come a long way since it started. While its founder Dr Suresh Mehrotra deserves congratulations the credit goes to those who have been supplying information the corridors correspondents so as to say and many specially bureaucrats who regularly see this website. Some of us the regular contributors to the Forum though faceless have been with the website almost from its very beginning. When I sent my first post the number of hits was not even few lakhs. When WIC reached a milestone of 1 crore there was quite an excitement from the founders. How is it that everything is silent at 10 crore hits. Mehrotra should reach out to those who have contributed to give his website this milestone.
Aarti Khosla

Direct Tax with good governance Direct Tax is major revenue for the Govt. to run various welfare schemes and to run the Government. Govt. has come up with a good motivational advertisement for the public to pay the tax and file the return with emphasis on less than 1% cases are scrutinised. There is only 5% liability for low income group to pay the income tax. People are not afraid of paying the tax but are afraid of fear of difficulties and harassment during scrutiny. Govt. has to find some other method so the people can pay tax and file return. Making the public aware of tax payment is paramount instead of other measures. To allay the fear of scrutiny, Govt. may consider for low income group i.e. people earning upto 5 lakhs, there will be no scrutiny. This will definitely increase the number of tax payers and return filers as people will come forward to pay the tax without hesitation and fear. It is always in the Govt. hand to withdraw whenever desired results are not achieved. Secondly the Govt. may consider to make party fund taxable thru an Amendment in Income Tax Act to increase the revenue to reduce the deficit . Thirdly it is expected that recovery from top 100 loan defaulters may reduce the NPA within reasonable amount. Fourth point to have gate keeping and monitoring of Foreign Exchange transactions through a single point may be RBI. Let us hope the Govt. consider the above points and take informed decisions for the Good Governance.
Naveen
Concession may be extended to Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/ Duranto trains
Following suggestions may be considered by Railway Ministry in the interest of the Gallant Heroes. It will be a befitting tribute to them. The concession may be extended to Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/ Duranto trains. The concession may be applicable to 1AC /Executive class travel on nominal or differential payment. The validity of pass can be for three years with renewal every three years instead of present one year. This will mitigate the inconvenience experienced by senior citizen Gallantry Medal Holders.
K Srinivasan

I agree with the above comments. Department of Expenditure has made it mandatory i.e. on line bid opening, posting of award of contract on CPP as well as Deptt website. Even e- procurement is mandatory. But there is no monitoring / check by DOE.
Krishna Kumar Marwaha
I wish many more crores
I remember the celebration hitting one crore mark of ‘whispersinthecorridors.com’. The site is liked by so much that it has taken a much shorter time in hitting ten crores mark. I wish many more crores.
K N Jaggi
Extend facility of 1AC travel on nominal payment
As far as Railway concessions for gallantry medal holders, following initiatives are suggested to Railway Ministry extend the facility of 1AC travel on nominal payment or difference. The above facility may be for all the trains including Shatabdi/Rajdhani/Duranto trains. Railway pass renewal can be for longer duration, say once in for three years instead of yearly basis. The Pass can be a smart card instead of present paper pass Railway Ministry may consider this as a tribute to the Gallant Heroes.
K Srinivasan

Jhansi’s incident involving amputation of leg of an accident victim at a government hospital is a national shame. Amputated leg is used as a pillow to rest victim’s head. Principal of medical college must be arrested forthwith. Any suggestion of her tendering an apology tantamount to an affront to the country. It is criminal negligence. A bio-hazard. Law of the land does not provide for escape routes like "apology" or holding inquiry by the perpetrators. And, suspension is not a punishment. Yogi's endless visits to temples is criminal waste of taxpayers funds. Extremely irritating. His prayers' cannot bring good governance. He must stop political lecturing and laying foundation stones. UP's happiness index is zero under present dispensation. The ambitious Modicare plan neither covers medical apathy nor provides for punishment for lack of empathy on part of political and administrative executive. What is the outcome of inquiry in mass murder of children in a Gorakhpur hospital due to lack of oxygen? Medico- bureaucratic negligence has gone unpunished, as always ?
A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)

It is mandatory for all the Government officers to file their Immovable Property Return (IPR). Despite repeated requests, they abstain from filing the same. Officers do not show interest in exposing their properties. This attitude can be seen as covering up corrupt practices of the officers while the Government claims to be transparent and pledges to weed out corruption from the systems. It all shows that the Government is taking a cavalier attitude to the problems of common man by not taking strict action against corrupt officers.
Sunil Kumar