Whispers Forum

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

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

A campaign has been started recently for disposal of pending matters on the initiative of the Prime Minister.
By Government's own admission, two Lakh grievances are pending disposal in various ministries and departments.
The Prime Minister started in right earnest with his slogan of Transparency and Accountability in Governance. Over time, great amount of laxity has developed, coupled with the ingrained indifference and casual approach of bureaucracy right from the Secretary downwards.
It is learnt that majority of the grievances as well as suggestions received are given cursory attention and files are closed with unconvincing responses to the citizens who made them.
Sadly, even the Ministers have not been vigorously pursuing with the Bureaucracy to become more responsive and show positive approach. Recently, MOHFW Minister is believed to have directed that all citizen suggestions need to be responded by an office of JS level. Sadly, the lower levels have chosen to ignore.
Now, a strong action plan needs to be worked out at the PMO level and ensure that non-attendance or casual responses to citizen issues will be added as a black mark in the bureaucrats' career profile.
A K Singh
Madan Mohan has hit bull's eye
It’s highly commendable that Madan Mohan has hit bull's eye and called a spade a spade about the inherent bias in WIC reporting, which we as reader were noticing but deliberately ignoring because most of us are interested in latest news.
Rakesh

DEBATE (1)
Dreaming in the name of PM anyone can be like Mamta Banarjee/ Nitish Kumar think but PM materials must be away from personal vendetta/ jealousy and confident enough to sacrifice for their country but none of them . Shri Modi has vision and allows officers or others to shine but others don’t. So at present no one is competing to be the present PM.
Kumar
DEBATE(2)
Only Modi after Modi.
If no Modi, Yogi / Amit Shah will do.
Antu Jain
DEBATE (3)
I was having the same question a few days ago and discussing this in my friend circle although we would not like to see the day when India needs to find his successor soon. However, India as a country and BJP as a party should always have a backup plan. The contender will be many for the PM post, however I think the following could be the options without any order of preference:
1. Nitin Gadkari
2. Amit Shah
3. Yogi Adityanath
4. Smriti Irani, in case a women candidate is preferred by BJP to kill the aspirations of Mamata and Priyanka. I would love to see the cat fight in this case.
Narendra Rawat
DEBATE (4)
This question mark itself has lost its relevance in the changed circumstances. The presumption of "other things remaining the same" never occurs in politics. Whosoever has occupied the chair of PM has proved to be better than his/her predecessor. History since 1964 till date is testimony to this fact. One thing is certain and that is "nobody is indispensable." There are white horses as well as dark horses who will win the race.
Raj Kumar Thakur

Debate (1)
India is fortunate to have Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. At the moment, it is unthinkable to have another leader to fill in his shoes.
Harshit
Debate (2)
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I can only think of Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari as national leaders, who possess necessary qualities to rule the nation.
Satpal
Debate (3)
Narendra Modi remains hugely popular among the masses. Other than him, Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath could be possible choices.
Sunil
All Secretaries were affectionate
I had no such experience during my entire period of service. All the Secretaries under whom I had worked were very affectionate.
A R Rao