Whispers Forum

DEBATE (1)
R K Singh Union Power Minister and BJP MP Bhagirath Prasad are both former 1975 batch IAS officers.
I C Jain
Coterie of IAS officers have taken PM for a ride
When Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the country, people had a lot of expectation from him. He even said in his election speeches that his "Darwaza will remain open for everybody". But eventually the coterie of IAS officers around have taken him for a ride. They are ensuring the promotion of interest of only their cadre people. Although Modi is person of right intent but he is hardly approachable. He should come out of his web and talk to people other than the IAS to understand their problem. When there is a 'coterie' around you, then you tend to get misleaded. The 'coterie' will tell you that 'saheb sab theekh chal raha hai aur bolne wale to bolte rahenge chahe woh sachh ho na ho". Modi should wake up and acquire lethal dimension.
BBS
Why juniors are trolling?
IAS officers only want to retain their exclusive impregnable club claiming copyright to (mis)rule Indian administration.
R K Gupta

Debate
Hardeep Singh Puri, erstwhile successful Indian Foreign Service Officer, presently Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Urban Development & Housing.
Kishore Dudani
Not IAS alone, others also have better experience
It is not only IAS, who have grass root experience. Technocrats as well as others also have even better experience. IAS officers works due to tremendous powers given to them by the government, where as other service employees deliver without any powers in fact with their hard work and sincerity. IAS officers only knows, how to take work from others, they can not work without any support, where as others can perform without any support by themselves. In my opinion, it is good move by the government.
Mukesh Jain
Why so much of hue & cry over punctuality of Trains ?
I don't know why so much of hue & cry is being raised about punctuality of Railway Trains in the country taking into consideration the 3 crore passengers travelling in Railway Trains on daily and that too at a hugely subsidized rates of passenger fares especially of general passengers. A train travels for 48 hours and if there is delay of 2 hours, it is a lapse of 4.6%. If the travel time of an airplane is 2 hours and if there is delay of 2 hours, then the lapse is 100% and not much of a hue and cry is raised. For the delay of railway trains, it is not the management which is responsible but also the illiterate citizens of the country, who have the hobby of frequently travelling, pulling chains on their own whims & fancies and frequent accidents due to lack of investment on infrastructure in the Railways by the Government.
BBS
Epic Problems & epic solutions
Watching for long the administrative one act play in Delhi and enjoying the silence of Pitahmah, Kripacharya, Drona and chiefs of different services ruling over the aam aadmi of the Majestic Hastinapur. Only two guys have dared to open their mouth on the disrobing of the Divya Janma (hope the UPSC is reading this post): one is a Sutputra, stands against but the other whose parentage is not known as he has made a lateral entry into the court, is not bothered about the disrobing as for him she is a society woman. By the time his parentage gets revealed, Hastinapur is gone! Some neighbouring potentates came visiting to extend support to the court only to see if they stood any chance to take over Hastinapur. But made a hasty retreat when they realized same trouble back home as they have done greater harm to their empire than Hastinapur and were spared of Narad Muni’s media attention out of fear for reprisal as the journalists could simply be jailed by the Yuvraj, who is the real Speaker and is a law unto himself. The issue is: Does India want an honest system? Honesty demands courage of conviction and boldness, respect for the law and not the man or woman, transparency and prompt delivery of service and justice. Honesty has been compared by poets to a young beautiful girl who needs security 24x7. Hastinapur or Indraprastha or their proud majesties of the firmament don’t promise that. There is no law against disrobing, they argue. What is wrong for Hastinapur is wrong for the neighbouring potentates. Are they agreeable to clean and honest people friendly governance?
M L Gupta
Why juniors are trolling ?
The government of India needs to be BOLD enough to bring in global experts and leaders at the level of Joint Secretaries , and even as Additional Secretaries . This is the only way for the government to make faster progress in difficult sectors such as health, environment etc.
Prasad

Lateral entry will be a Sin
Lateral entry will be a sin as our system which has no system cannot be trusted at all as it will lead to Bhai Bhatijawad of political goons. Best is inculcate professionalism into the civil service. Reform the Civil Services Examination system. Each Department has specific requirements. Examination and selection process should be department specific. Also Catch them young too, prepare them well from 8th grade onwards. Let them professionalize right from 8th Grade to Ph. D. and then induct them through specific department examination and selection. You would get the best talent at the age of maximum 26. You have to groom the child for the country. There should be no quality compromise i.e. no reservation please. This holds good for whole GOI recruitment. Of course there should be accountability too in GOI.
Harish Kumar
Time to Restructure PSU steel plants
It is the time to Restructure PSU steel plants to eradicate corruption, regionalism, casteism, favouritism, nepotism, TA's groups. it is time to post retired honest persons. Merge Visakhapatnam steel plant, Bhilai Steel plant, Salem steel plant, VISL bhadravati, MOIL, Chandrapur steel plant, nmdc's nagarnar steel plant into RINL and entrust setting up Bayyaram and cudapa steel plants in Telangana and AP. SAIL should have RSP, BSL, DSP, ISP and post honest sincere , qualified retired DGM level person as CEO of RINL. Save Steel plants, Save Public Money.
Rao

DEBATE (1)
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner S P Singh is successful bureaucrat turned politician. 1980 batch IPS officer Singh is today Union Minister of State HRD
B C Joshi
“Tree cutting in Delhi”
Indiscriminate tree cutting harms the ecological balance.It is unfortunate that even the national capital Delhi has not been spared under the garb of infrastructure development. This is causing continuous fall in groundwater level in Delhi while its denizens are facing acute water shortage. All this happening under the nose of Supreme court. Some 17,000 out of 21,000 trees have reportedly been chopped off for redevelopment of central government accommodations in South Delhi colonies . The affected areas include colonies like Nauroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar and Sarojini Nagar. Around 11,000 trees would be cut just in Sarojni Nagar alone.
The construction agency, it is understood, has promised to plant over 10 times of trees that had to be cut in the process. Simplistic, irrational argument. How permission was granted by the Forest deptt for tree axing,is hard to understand. Where is the space left in south Delhi for compensatory plantation? How could compensatory plantation be the solution for cutting old trees. Given Delhi's spiking pollution levels, it is necessary that old trees are not uprooted.
Furthermore, new government houses, in lieu of the demolished ones, should be shifted from central area to elsewhere in order to decongest Delhi.
I think, builders’ lobbies are behind the great conspiracy in the name of “Infrastructure development”, leading to collusive give-and-take between engineers and builders.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
17000 trees cut in Delhi
Referring my post on merciless tree cutting in Delhi as appeared in the Forum, the number I gave was 17000 and not 7000.The exact number has been put at 16500 though the Union minister of Urban development is placing it at 14031. Is that a small number to justify this destruction, Mr. Puri ?
Aarti Khosla
Some IRTS officers be empanelled for the post of Secretary/Additional Secretary
Some of the Indian Railway Traffic Service officers, especially those dealing with the work of operation, day in & day out deal with the power sector & transportation. The officials of this cadre need to be empanelled for the post of Secretary/Additional Secretary for posting in the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Shipping. They will understand the nuances properly and emerge as successful Secretaries/Additional Secretaries of such Ministries/Departments.
BBS

Hardeep Singh Puri is today India’s Urban Development Minister. He is former Indian Foreign Service officer.
I K Gujrati
Tree cutting in Delhi mercilessly
Over 7000 trees face the axe in Sarojini Nagar, and other surrounding areas to make way for 'redevelopment' of Government colonies. Scandalous to say the least. Delhi is already reeling under severe pollution. It is these green areas with trees which give Delhites some breathing space. To cut so many trees which have taken years to grow is criminal. This is not development. This fetish for redevelopment is doing more harm good. Let old two storied houses remain in these colonies. They should be spruced up and redeveloped from inside with modular kitchens and clean toilets. Why break them and build highrises. With house rent allowance having gone up the demand for government house would not be that much. People are preferring to acquire their own flat and live in that. Cutting of such a large number of trees should be stopped. Already the leafy green East Kidwai Nagar has been destroyed and multistoried small flats have come up in its place. we have created a monster in the name of redevelopment. Will someone stop this folly.
Aarti Khosla
Compounded embarrassment
Monthly meeting of revenue officers, invariably presided over by the deputy commissioner, generally used to be full of tense and anxious moments. There used to be more than a score agenda items and one of these will certainly be a trap for you to fumble for words to frame a reasonable answer, for unsatisfactory progress. The deputy commissioner was asking a tehsildar as to why no recovery of dues had been made in respect of the arrears of excess payment made to the farmers for crop compensation. Tehsildar replied, ''Sir, i was busy in preparing and consigning record of rights, next time the total recovery would be made hazoor.'' The deputy commissioner seemed to be satisfied with the answer. But the SDM interrupted, ''Sir, he will not be able to recover entire amount by the next meeting, as there was not any laid down procedure of coercion for recovery of such dues. The farmers have to be persuaded for recovery. I have already written for legislation to also enlist this item to be recovered as arrears of land revenue.'' ''You are not a revenue officer, if you have to wait for legislation for recovery of govt due, ''the deputy commissioner furiously cut him short. There was pin drop silence in the meeting hall after that. When the progress of court cases was being reviewed, the deputy commissioner asked a SDM,'' what is the meaning of 'Hasab rasad jer khewat' and 'Kabal-a-izafa lagan'? ''The officer was taken aback and did not find any word for the answer. The deputy commissioner in a tone of anger with sinister smile asked again. There was no answer. The deputy commissioner completely losing his temper roared,'' I have seen these words in your own judgement, which has been impugned in my court. Write your own judgements and do not entrust this work to your reader.'' On some other agenda items also, the officers were shouted at for unsatisfactory work. The end of the meeting was a great relief.
In one refresher course, HV Krishnamoorty, who had resigned from the IAS, to take up a management job in a industrial house, narrated a story. He said, ''A deputy commissioner got a dressing down from the chief secretary. Later in the day, the deputy commissioner called a tehsildar and passed on the insults on him, which he had got from his boss. The tehsildar, without any delay called his qanugos in the tehsil and insulted them right and left. The qanugos called the patwaris and showed them their dracula teeth while giving them verbal blows .Early next morning, when a patwari, who had only been frowned upon last evening, saw a dog in the village street, he kicked him on the back in anger.
After being insulted in the meeting, the sub divisional magistrates, came out together, and headed for the lawn. They had moved only a few steps, when 2 dogs started barking at them in full fury. They were not deterred by the brick, which, a peon had hurled at them. One SDM, who was known for his wit and humour said, ''Andar oh pai janda si bahar tusi dowen pai gaye o, saada ajj samma e kharaba''. Finding solace in these words, the other insulted soul remarked smilingly, ''Look at their faces, these resemble the one, who is sitting inside''. All of us had a hearty laugh at these remarks, as the resemblance was perfect and as if we had avenged the insult hurled on us. I still wonder, if HV Krishnamoorty had resigned from the premier service for this reason. But 2 other superb human beings had also resigned from this service, who were born on Punjab cadre once. They were MG Devasahayam and PN Balu. Incidentally, all of them were from Tamil Nadu.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

DEBATE (1)
Arup Patnaik, former Mumbai Police Commissioner has joined the BJD in Odisha. He is 1979 batch IPS officer.
P K Joshi
Kashmir coalition, a failed experiment
Let no one play the blame game. When a politico indulges in blame game, it is when they or theirs, are to blame.
BJP ,as major coalition partner, now accuses PDP after 3 years of " Divya Gyaan " of latter’s non-cooperation and anti-nationalism. No point playing the victim’s card. Why did the BJP not leave the coalition two years back ? Was it greed for power ?
Was the pullout a political necessity to escape public criticism ?
The centre should own the joint responsibility of mishandling the issue by following a faulty J&K policy.
Who prevented the BJP from opposing the mass release of stone pelters from the prisons ?
How could PDP tie hands of Indian army, as some leaders seem to claim?
Why did the Centre enforce unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan? What use was the goodwill gesture by India?
It was no time for experiment.
Adhocism dominated major part of coalition era.
Some nincompoop leaders try to justify imposition of Governor’s rule in J&K stating that the Indian army did not have a free hand.
PMO and MHA mandarins will have much to explain.
While confidence is a virtue, over-confidence is evil.
All said and done, give our army a free hand .
Let them give the terrorists and stone pelters a bloody nose and bleed Pakistan army/ISI through a thousand cuts.
The country stands solidly behind the Indian army
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
Lateral Entry
It is argued against Lateral Entry at Joint Secretary Level by GoI that IAS offers a vast reservoir of knowledge about the country and first-hand experience of the problems faced by public and understand requirement as to how to encourage industrial environment, how to attract investment in health, education, agriculture, infrastructure etc. It is IAS who knows how to take policy decisions in the interest of country at cutting edge level of Joint Secretary. They consider themselves as “Mr Know All” and treat any non-IAS, be in Govt or private, with a strong sense of contempt. If the IAS were so great, by now all the problems in our country would have been solved. Almost all ministries and departments have been headed by an IAS officer both at the centre as well as in states for last 70 years. However, what have we achieved, how many problems have been actually solved, is for any one to see. The fact is IAS has only tried to maintain and extend their hegemony over entire administration, without any accountability. They have systematically pushed all other services to inferior levels by presenting them as good-for-nothing. All successes are credited to IAS head and all failures are imputed to the subordinate bureaucracy or the respective departmental officers, who are not allowed the freedom to function to sort out the problems. It is a chance that out of 4-5 Lac appearing for Civil Services the lucky 150 get a few marks more. Can a successful candidate claim to get same success level if he takes exam again? Can it be said that all others who could not get more marks are dumb. Many of them make it in second or third attempt. Many highly talented, who were not so lucky to get through, take up other assignments, including in private sector and achieve heights that an IAS can’t even dream of. The facts is talent can’t be linked merely to success in Civil Services exam. Talent is available everywhere in the society. The Govt has taken a very right step to tap pool of talent wherever available, including private sector, for policy level decisions. As for the allegation regarding ‘toeing the line’ it is well known that present bureaucracy doesn’t have spine in fear of loosing cushy job (how many of them can find proper job outside?). The one coming from private will have the courage to chuck the contract job if pushed to take a decision not in the interest of task at hand. Therefore, Lateral Entry is a welcome step by Govt of India.
R K Gupta
Only one Challenge to Minister of Railways: Punctuality of the Trains
Most of the people who are travelling in trains are suffering due to one or other reasons because of late running of the trains : Students are missing interview dates, examinations, medical tests, people are missing court dates, important meetings, ceremonies, patients are missing doctor's appointment, admission in the hospitals, medical treatment etc. etc. There as many reasons as many people travelling in the trains. Railways have many great plans and targets like doubling the revenue, running of bullet trains, creation of jobs and so forth. Many great claims are also being made. Keeping all the things in line, can Minister of Railways ensure the trains run in time and save the people from their sufferings. It will be a great service to the people and as well as to the Nation. It does not require rocket science technology. This challenge can be met simply by fixing the responsibility and accountability in case of late running of trains. CRIS has all capability to develop small software for this. It requires parameters like Train name and numbers, starting time, destination time, delayed time ( late less than 1 hour, late between 2-3 hours, 3-4 hours, 4-5 hours, 5-6 hours, more than 6 hours), reasons for late running, responsible person/persons, action taken etc. and based on these data daily reports can be generated for the perusal of the Minister. Now Minister of railways can see what is the performance of trains in terms of timing and late running. Only one challenge is to be met no more i.e. no late running of trains. In Europe, US, Canada etc. trains are maintaining timing within 1 minute. Can we expect this thing in India. Let us show good results in timing of running the train. Railway staff is well paid and rise upto Principal Secretary level. They get bonus not less two months but not able to maintain the timings. Where is the gap? We think Minister of Railways will meet the challenge and see the trains are running in time to prove it. All the best Sir.
Naveen

Debate (1)
“Successful” bureaucrats turning into politicians ! Number would be legion, if, Indian states and UTs are counted. The serving bureaucrats cannot be successful without political blessings. And, there is a price for it. Thumb rule is : You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. The serving bureaucrats get paid for politicking . Good implementers of illegal decisions. Politically ambitious creatures. All at cost of silent majority of honest civil servants. They are rewarded, after retirement, with gubernatorial assignments, nomination into Rajya sabha, UPSC membership, Election commissioners, CAT memberships, CIC and other sinecures. Some fools join political parties after retirement. I need not spell out their details.
Coming to specifics, N K Singh, N N Vohra, K K Paul are the prominent ones. All experts in keeping successive ruling dispensations on the right side. Reasons for their initial appointments and successive extensions, are matters of discussion in bureaucratic circles. Names of hundreds other pseudo-intellectuals are withheld due to space constraints. Moreover, it will result in unsavoury controversies. NDA has been as brutal as the UPA. No improvement. Utter misuse of discretionary powers by political masters.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
No need to worry about lateral entry
There is no need to feel aghast at the notice issued by the Department of Personnel & Training relating to lateral entry. This is based on the accepted recommendations of second administrative reforms commission contained in its 10th report titled' Personnel Administration". The NDA government is not responsible for it. The UPA Government had set up the second administrative reforms commission. What is wrong in thinking about profitability. So far the existing bureaucrats have carrying on their shoulder losses, delays and feudalism. In United States of America the collectors/commissioners are recruited from the market.
BBS
Look at the genesis of the problem
This refers to comments by one of your readers (arti khosla) which seeks to lay blame on every one whether they are party to the deadlock or not.
It is necessary to look at the genesis of the problem which arose because of an unprecedented assault on the top bureaucrat in the govt. by supporters of the CM. This strikes at the root of functioning of govt. The bureaucrats are naturally not only agitated but also afraid how to deal with the ministers on day-to-day basis. It is simply not enough to say that case has been registered. This is a matter which pertains more to relationships between ministers and officers. The responsibility rests with CM and CM alone to meet the officers' representatives on his own and assure them of due dignity and proper treatment.
Neither the LG nor CG govt. can get involved to solve a problem created by the CM, nor can they be blamed.
Rest is all motivated propaganda by the party in power.
A K Singh

DEBATE (1)
The most successful bureaucrat-politician is in my opinion, Mr. N.K. Singh. He enjoyed maximum stint during congress, then switched to BJP, then to JDU, and finally again to BJP. He has always switched sides at the right time and remained in important position always. Another one is Mr. N.N.Vohra. He has also remained always in important positions, irrespective of the party in power.
S Chatterjee
“Mystery behind lateral entry as Joint Secretaries”
Why not induct them as Under Secretaries or Deputy Secretaries? Get familiar with the nitty gritty of government functioning and then compete on merit with the home-grown officers of organized services . And, why only as Joint Secretary , not lower ?
Let me demystify the ulterior motive. Politically mischievous and self-protective. It is common knowledge that any officer equivalent to the rank of Joint Secretary and above, cannot be prosecuted by anti- corruption agencies including the CBI, without the prior approval of competent authority. The Supreme Court struck down Section 6A(1) (a) and Section 6A(1) (b) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Act) as unconstitutional. But,the ruling dispensation over-ruled every thing including recommendation of ARC-II. The status quo ante was restored to protect all lateral entrants. No fear of Prevention of Corruption Act, arrest, raids, prosecution, chargesheets by CBI. My Baap Culture
All illegalities flow from political conspiracy in cohoot with the corrupt, pliable bureaucrats; ever ready to prostrate before the political class in lieu of coveted postings as quid pro quo. These officers will soon be joined by their distant cousins, sorry, domain experts from the private turf. All are happy. The business tycoons, the most. The honest bureaucrats are in a bind, speechless, clueless.
What “domain expertise”, is sought to be attracted by the Centre, one wonders ? There is no dearth of talented officers in the country specializing in different fields : Economics, Statistics, Finance, army of chartered and cost accountants, pool of technical officers and IT professionals.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
Lateral entry for JS - an eyewash
The lateral entry for JS is an eyewash. Firstly, these positions are contractual positions, 3 years contract which can be extended to 5. So at the end of 5 years, the person chosen will no longer be a JS, Besides, such provision s have always been there. MHRD has been Professors from IITs or Universities as JS on 5 year deputation. At AS and Secretary level this has been the norm for Secretaries in DST and DBT. Even current DST secretary is a Professor from IIT Kanpur. The basic disadvantage by this announcement is for our own IAS and other Civil Services brethren who are at the mercy of the DOPT for the choice of postings. Now Outsiders have been given a choice to apply for particular posts. Before opening it to outsiders all empanelled Civil Services people should also be asked for their choice of postings, may be 5 options could be taken from each prospective Civil Services empanelled Officer. I am sure lot of current JS in the ministries are well qualified for these 10 postrs but they have been allotted a ministry, not of their choice, by DOPT. The current JS should also be allowed to apply for these 10 posts, where the Government wants lateral entries. Clearly this will not happen as there seems to be a plan to legitimize entry of a certain "class' of people in the Indian bureaucratic set up.
Nivedak
Delhi govt. crisis is the sole responsibility of CM
Even after physically assaulting the Chief Secretary, they still did not accept that they made a blunder. Otherwise, within two three days of the event they would have approached the officers admitting their mistake. If that was done, officers would not have started non-cooperation and CM would not have to dramatize and embarrass the LG by starting dharna.
N Ramu
A disgusted citizen

DEBATE (1)
Another successful bureaucrat turned politician is R K Singh , currently Minister Power in the Government of India. He is former 1975 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
B P Nag
Lateral entry – an attempt to get rid of IAS officers
Lateral entry is nothing but to get rid of IAS officers from crucial ministries. We all know plus minus 150 IAS are selected out of approx 4-5 lakh people from all disciplines who sit for civil services examination every year. They have to cross several hurdles like the prelims, mains and finally to sit before the chairman several illustrious members and professors experts in their disciplines and clear the interview. Now starts foundation course and two years professional course at LBSNAA Mussoriee. All about Indian history particularly of the freedom struggle, framing of constitution, constitution itself growth of Indian industrial revolution, agriculture green revolution growth and development of Indian economy international relations, particularly with Pakistan and neighbours, agrarian distress and revloutions as naxalites movement etc. One has to pass these exams then posted to State cadres. In States IAS have to learn ropes right from Patwari Kanungo, tehsildar SDO ADM Collectors Commissioners. Day in day out one has to work with grass root rural population including village level to district panchayati raj institutions including conducting elections from village panchayat level to that of Lok Sabha. Before IAS are posted as Joint secretaries in Govt of India they have sufficient experience working in various departments of the State governments and as Deputy Secy/ Director in various Ministries of the central Government. Only after one;s IAS service of plus minus 20 years as above IAS is posted as Joint Secretary that too your service record is only and only Excellent throughout. Otherwise Cabinet Committee on Appointments under the chairmanship of PM not only will simply reject you but the concerned Ministry itself may not recommend name of IAS to ACC. Such vast experience of the geography , history and majority population of the country dealing with their problems first hand including problems and requirements as to how to encourage indusrial climate in States to attract investments health education agriculutre irrigation etc etc IAS joint secretaries at centre required to make policies and take decisions for the large masses of the country. Because they have the vast reservoir of knowledge of the country. The Government in one go want to circumvent the such time tested process of how an IAS occupies the cutting edge post of the Joint Secretary . The UPSC , the lBSNAA Mussooriee the Administrative outfits of the Governments of the States time to time short and long term refreshive courses /programmes both in top Indian academic institutions including IITs IIMs ASCI and Oxford, Cambridge LSE in UK Harvard Stanford Princeton MIT etc in the US. Govt wants to throw away such great practices , great exposure of such service the IAS in one go. Really very bad . They want to bring people of their favourite industrial houses / institutions as the IAS officers will never toe their line / agenda if it is against the constitution of India and not benefiting large and poor masses of this country. Very sad day for the country
ML Chauhan - retired civil servant
UN Alone Guilty
It is a proof of the utter failure of the UNO as an institution that it has, in 70 years, failed to settle India’s complaint against Pakistan on Kashmir. It means the UN has no respect for international law, human rights and issues concerning member countries. How many years it took the USA to settle Saddam Hussein (Iraq) issue or Afghanistan? The UN HR Commissioner has perhaps appreciated human rights violations in those two countries! The member country that has shown the highest respect for international law, practices non-violence as state policy, contributes to the UN Peace Keeping Missions by way of man and material is shamelessly accused of violation of human rights in Kashmir. Is it a joke? The UN High Commissioner for HR or other agencies have promoted human rights violations in Kashmir by refusing to condemn Pakistan for sponsoring terrorist activities, funding and providing military cover to it to violate human rights of the people on a daily basis. There is vested interest of the HR commission of the UN as non-solution of the problem keeps their hugely paying jobs safe and guarantees tax-free huge pension. They should pay for the time wasted by students since 1948 to read all the muck produced by them on the topic. The UN must apologise to the people of India for the deaths of innocent civilians and armed forces personnel killed in Kashmir due to its inaction, inertia and procrastination to decide an open and shut case. It should tell India that it is unable to do anything on its complaint pending with it. The moral of the story: never lodge a complaint with the UNO but decide it by the power of the sword.
M L Gupta
Govt bent upon destroying all institutions !
The current government seems to be bent upon destroying all the institutions including the RTI. The Information Commission has miserably failed to do the work it was entrusted with. And now, even the status which was granted to it is being withdrawn. With the status of a Secretary, how will the information commission function ?
Sunil Kaushal

All are responsible for mess !
A strange spectacle is being played in Delhi. The Chief Minister of Delhi is sitting on dharna along with a few colleagues in the visitors' room of LG' house. His grievance is that the officers are not working in Delhi. The officers say they are working but they are boycotting all meetings with the Chief Minister or any other Minister. How can the Chief Minister or any Minister work without bureaucracy listening to them and carrying out their orders. This is sheer indiscipline and in the normal course disciplinary action should be taken against the officers. The LG ,it seems is enjoying this drama instead of mediating between the two and counselling the officers to do their duty and not disobey the elected Government. The anger of bureaucracy against an incident which happened a few months back that of manhandling of Chief Secretary has been long registered and the probe is on. There is no justification for them to hold the Delhi public in ransom .This simply is a clash of egos and they are behaving in this manner because of political climate against AAP Government. All characters in this drama be it the Chief Minister IAS officers, LG or the concerned in Central Government are responsible for this mess.
Aarti Khosla
Finance Secretary is God's own man
If as per your reports, certain people are conniving against him, God will punish them. Let them be in no doubt.
Vijay Kumar

debate (1)
Nagabhairava Jayaprakash Narayan, founder and president of Lok Satta Party is a former civil servant who made it to IAS in 1980 standing All India topper [Rank 2]. He resigned from IAS in 1996 because he found faulty governance as the biggest hurdle in the path of progress. His 16-year-long career includes several achievements in agriculture, irrigation, technology and youth Rehabilitation projects in Andhra.
Smart Smart everywhere, not a glimpse to see !
It was only in the year 1978 that the concept of Adarsh schools was introduced in certain pockets of the state. After 40 years, it has become obvious that the scheme has miserably flopped. A few years back, a new slogan was given by the state govt to make the gullible people believe that the govt was serious about the studies in the government schools and now even that pompous slogan of 'Parho Punjab' along with 'Khelo Punjab' has been buried deep in the dusty files of secretariat and directorates. The Meritorious schools have since lost its lustre in only a few years of their establishment, so the Education department is now bringing new and attractive product 'Smart schools'. Let us see what change these schools bring to enhance peoples' faith and trust in government run educational institutions.
In the year 2014,the Centre government had brought in new concept of smart cities and hundred Indian cities were selected to be converted into smart cities. Lot of politics played part in the initial selection of such cities. Thereafter, major time and resources of Municipal Corporations and local self govt was spent in formulating imaginary projects, answering the thousands of queries of the state and the centre governments, and making presentations here, there, and everywhere .What has come out of it so far ? Not anything worthwhile except for some grants, which have not brought any perceptible change for the betterment of citizenry. I am not aware as to when the New Delhi city was built any catchy slogan was given to it ,like' Beautiful city' or 'Heaven 'city'. Chandigarh, which is universally known as a 'Beautiful city' was never given any magic name, when its construction was started Slogan of free smart phones to the students adorns the political files only so far.
My close relative's village was selected under the 'Adarsh Gram Yojna' by the member of parliament, under the highly publicized govt of India scheme, for each member of parliament to select one village in each parliamentary constituency, to convert it into an Adarsh village. The Sarpanch and some members panchayat were also related to us. Member parliament fixed meeting in the village to chalk out development plans of the village.Special pandal ,nice chairs and tables and all other paraphernalia were arranged. Catering for the guests was ordered to a city hotel. Many officers including deputy commissioner, senior superintendent of police accompanied the member parliament. The Sarpanch had very carefully drafted the 'Honour paper' (Maan patar),which is in other words is a 'Charter of demands' or (Mang patar).He asked for a college, a 100 bedded hospital, a veterinary hospital, a panchayat ghar, a girls' higher secondary school, besides turning it into a sub-tehsil and a block. Grants for stadium, drainage, village ponds, dharamsala, houses for the poor and for toilets etc were emphatically demanded. Naturally the chief guest had to agree to most of them. Everyone in the village was happy. Six months passed and nothing happened except that panchayat became poorer by about 2 lakh rupees. spent on the first meeting of the Adarsh village. Whenever the member parliament was approached for the grants, he would say that so far no funds were received. After 2 years the member parliament gave some money out of MPLAD funds, but not before the panchayat organized a function, but at a lower scale than the previous one.I made inquiries about some other such villages, which were also awaiting the funds. Their fate was also similar. More than 4 years have passed, nothing has happened to the village. Sometime after the smart cities scheme was declared, it was also in the news that some selected villages would also be made smart. At that time the Panchayat had lobbied hard to get the village selected as a smart village. But the wisdom has dawned on the village. now. During the next visit of the member parliament to the village, only ordinary tea was served in the house of the sarpanch. The sarpanch, in a lighter vein, told the member parliament that during the next elections, we should try to mention in the manifesto that if their party won, they would bring smart govt at the centre and Adarsh govt in the state.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

Debate (1)
Yashwant Sinha, former Union Minister and once BJP stalwart, is also a former civil servant who later joined politics. Sinha joined IAS in the year 1960. Before joining the politics, he completed 24 years of service and resigned from his post in 1984. He joined active politics when he became a member of the newly formed Janata party. He became a Member of Rajya Sabha in 1988.
Serving the Nation with proud
As per one of the reports, 1% of people have 73% wealth of the country. It is big digital divide and inequality among equals. There are reports about parallel economy in the country. Parallel economy may be one of the reasons for unequal distribution of wealth. Banks NPAs is increasing each passing days which puts extra burden on the Govt. exchequer. Govt. is facing big challenge to meet the account deficit. This parallel economy may be due to people not paying the required taxes and there are large number of tax exempt institutes which are permitted by the Govt. Can some method be devised that these institutes also pay the taxes on donation and contributions as the same will be utilised for the nation buildings. Tax compliance for salaried class is higher as there is no option to evade it. But the Govt. has no methodologies and procedure to assess the income of professionals like doctors, lawyers, traders, contractors, film stars, sports persons etc. In this area concerted efforts are needed to assess the income of professionals so the tax compliance is higher and generate more revenue to the Govt. Cryptocurrency is another area where information and knowledge is limited with the Govt. and requires hard work to understand it fully so these can also be taxed properly. To work on these areas, Govt. has to reorient the priorities to deploy the staff to work in innovative way to get the desired results instead of wasting time and energy to chase the low income group people who has deposited Rs. 50,000/ cash and purchased mutual funds of small amount say Rs. 50,000/-. We have to create a trust among the people and awareness about paying taxes in the interest of the Nation. Let us start a small step in this direction making Sr. Citizens having income below 5 lakhs scrutiny free. It means that there will not be scrutiny of ITRs of Sr. citizens having income less than 5 Lakhs. This has to be publicized in big way to create trust among the assesses and tax authorities or Govt. It will have a great impact on the perception that Govt. cares for Sr. citizens and others also in long run. It will give positive results and number of return filers and as well as revenue will increase. This has to done in correct perspective to create a positive response from the public. We believe and care our Sr. Citizens. Think out of box for positive results.
Naveen
Targetting Finance Secretary
It will be recalled that in 2016, a concerted campaign was started against the then Revenue Secretary by sections of bureaucracy in revenue departments who found him inconvenient because of his honesty and integrity. He was subsequently also promoted as Finance Secretary.
Now once again, those who are unhappy at the strict actions on his directions against various wrong-doers, are making a determined effort to ensure that he is shifted. They are indulging in devious games like sending false complaints against certain honest officers investigating high profile cases and forcing the Finance/Revenue Secretary to act against such honest officers. They are also hinting that he is from Gujarat, thereby indirectly they are targetting the PM. This is serious matter and the common man will not accept such dark activities by the dishonest people.
Manu Ashar