Whispers Forum

A very good initiative started by Post Offices to provide doorstep services including Aadhaar related using services of Post Man and Gramin Dak Sevaks . It will make life easier for people living in villages and towns. We have good India Post Payments banks network consisting of nearly 650 Payment Banks. In all we have approximately 1,50,000 post offices, sub post offices, branch post offices etc. and using most probably Finacle software for Core banking Services. Financial Services are now available on digital platform and services can be used in any place throughout India. But still to open an account and maintain it, it requires local address for KYC or its update which is blocking the growth of business. For example a person from Bihar moves to J&K and another person moves from Assam to Bangalore and having Aadhaar with Bihar and Assam addresses respectively. They should be allowed to open a account in J&K and Bangalore Post office with their present addresses in IDs. It is humbly submitted to Hon'ble Minister for Communications, Electronics and IT to please dispensed with requirement of local address in opening and maintaining the accounts in Post Offices. The address given in Aadhaar can be taken for opening an account along with PAN, mobile number and e-mail address. These four or three IDs-Aadhaar, PAN and mobile number should be sufficient to open an account any where in the country ir-respective of address location given in Aadhaar. Meaning thereby Bihar person can open an account in J&K and Assam person can open an account in Bangalore with their present IDs. This will ease out many problems of general public of KYC and its update.. Now we may have Digital bank where banking services will be provided on digital platform and may not be having many branches of the bank. They will all authenticate their IDs, mobile numbers, PAN cards and e-mail addresses online and services will be made available. We may adopt similar approach for the growth of post office business and services. We should remember the Kodak case not adopting the change in technology and ultimately Kodak lost the market. In villages and small towns where bank branches are not available, post offices are only solution to provide financial services. We should strengthen further with practical and pragmatic approach so the people can get services with ease not with restrictions. Hon'ble Minister may consider the request for dispensing with local address requirement for opening an account and maintaining it in post offices.
Naveen

There are so many laws with regard to urban construction in India. They are openly flouted, bribes are paid to Municipal staff and nothing happens. Land grabbing is rampant, nobody takes any action, title suits are filed, cases drag on for thirty years, till the complainant gets old and incapable of following up cases, which are then dismissed for default. It is high time the law of Torts is strengthened in India. People should be able to sue for damages and get awards of hefty damages for personal wrongs done to them, just like in the USA. This will also reduce the rampant law breaking and bribery.
Naveen

Gujarat state has passed an anti land grabbing law. As usual, Gujarat has shown the way. This law should be passed by all states in order to reduce instances of land grabbing which is now rampant all over India.
Vijay Kumar
Youth must be given opportunity
Sir, thank you for raising this issue. I am also of the view, youths have good academic skills and energy should be given preference, otherwise they will be disappointed for not getting job. They must be given opportunity to gain experience and understand the work of govt machinery. Not everybody is expert in this world. Everyone has to start afresh and will get experience.
Kiran Nayyar

Navin has highlighted a very genuine problem in his note" KYC and its updates". His suggested remedy is also very simple and therefore effective. Many who are forced to change their residence due to transfer or retirement etc are facing a genuine problem for local address. For example, a person who because of old age chose to move and relocate to his son'/daughter's residence is not able to open a bank account in his new place of residence since he has no address proof. I join Navin in appealing to the authorities to waive off the need for local address.
Raghavan
Sunil Paliwal appointed as Chairperson, Chennai Port Trust
Congratulations. Welcome to the family of Chennai Port, where once upon a time I was official Trustee and Independent Director in KPL.
A R Rao

The appellant has sought information regarding license issued for poppy cultivation to an individual and other related queries. The PIO informed the appellant that the information sought being 32 years old is not available. Being dissatisfied with the same, the appellant filed first appeal and the FAA upheld the PIO’s reply. The respondent submitted that the information sought being too old cannot be traceable. The CIC directed the respondent to make all possible efforts to search the relevant information and provide the same to the appellant. In an alternative, an appropriate affidavit enumerating the factum that the information sought is not in the custody of the public authority should be provided to the appellant.
Comments
It is seen that old records are not traceable with many public authorities and nobody is held responsible for the loss of documents. Many public authorities are not undertaking destruction of records on regular basis which they are required to undertake.
Citation: Mr. Lal Singh V. Central Bureau of Narcotics in Second Appeal No.CIC/DOREV/A/2020/108647, Date: 12.10.2021
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

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