Whispers Forum

The promotions in CSS are blocked due to various court cases being filed by different rival groups historically. This has adversely affected all. In most of the grades of CSS, the officers in feeder grade reach much above the starting point of higher grade and there is hardly any financial implication on account of their promotion but for the status. Rather the government has to loose huge manpower hours and a big amount in defending these cases in various courts across the country. In the given circumstances the best and practical solutions seems to adopt a time scale approach, meaning thereby that whenever, an officer in a grade completes the requisite residency period of service qualifying for promotion to next grade, he should be granted time scale of next grade without waiting for a vacancy to occur in next higher grade. When a vacancy occurs in the next higher grade such an officer may be adjusted against that depending upon his suitability. This will avoid in-fight amongst the members of the service on account of reservation, seniority issues etc. resulting in withdrawal of many court cases. This will not only save money to the exchequre but the energy of officers involved in defending the court cases will be much better used for other purposes in larger public interest. I am sure that by adopting such an approach, the government would not only be able to save huge money but also be able to content the rising dis-satisfaction in the members of the service.
SP
Seniormost serving ICS officer V M M Nair celebrates his 101st birth day today
Sir, Wish you very Happy Birthday and many more years good health and prosperous day to com Warm Regards
Col Khushwant Singh

Income tax department, like any other department of in Government of India, is no paragon of virtue. So it is preposterous to think that 100% corruption only exits in IT Department and by eliminating personal hearings corruption can be rooted out.On the contrary, dreaded by Modi fear, all faceless officers simply raise frivolous demands on tax payers and all tax payers need to engage tax lawyers to appear before ITAT. The corner stone of any quasi judicial proceeding is principles of natural justice, wherein opportunity of being heard is of paramount importance. By doing away with that the government is only creating a monster department. This is akin to burning the house to kill a rat.
Amit

Hathras gang rape case has jolted the conscience of every indian. Such heinous crimes could not have been possible without the tacit support of political class. After PM’s belated intervention , CM,UP woke up to enhance the quantum of compensation from Rs 25 to 50 lakhs.
What is this awful thing going on in Uttar Pradesh, one wonders ? The autocratic CM has a lot to explain. Incompetent administration and callous UP police fail to inspire confidence in lower castes. They are, more often than not, insensitive, incapable of taking decisions by defying political authority . Pliability to political masters, is considered a safe bet. Prized postings, no fear of transfers , suspension.
Haughty utterances by Hathras DM and the Police to victim’s family are simply shocking, unpardonable Who ordered forced cremation of the victim during the graveyard hours and in absence of victim’s family members. UP,CM feels his job is over once delinquent officers are transferred / suspended. His experts do not advise him that transfers and suspensions of officers cannot be treated as punitive steps.
Unable to defend the indefensible, Chief Minister, UP has now decided to refer the case to the CBI. But, the family of the deceased, is not satisfied. It demands a Judge-monitored, fast- track inquiry by the CBI. Is CBI losing credibility ? A deep conspiracy is alleged by the ruling party.
The public is outraged. The Opposition led by the Congis take pride in activating its dirty tricks department for adding to the chaos and confusion in UP and for gaining political brownie points.
Unequal society, Political interference, callous Administration &Police ?
We are living in an unequal society, hierarchical , castes-ridden and in artificial silos . Upper castes are treated as the privileged class. Gang rapes, murders, domestic violence, acid attacks, dowry deaths are the new normal? Macabre pre-occupation of goons and misguided elements in Police force. Egalitarian society is a myth.
Situation in all Indian States , is equally reprehensible.
Is there something seriously wrong with UPSC’s recruitment process and DOPT’s training module? Or, is the entire system flawed? Accountability and transparency are missing.
What steps have been taken to depoliticise the top appointments in the States and reduce political interference in day-to-day policing so as to improve the law and order situation in the states.
Will PM Modi please take the call?
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)
Is sushant singh so important?
Yes it is. Because public mind is to be diverted from pressing and urgent issues like unemployment, rural distress, economic miseries etc.
Viswas

Concerned with the dissatisfaction expressed by Armed Forces over the performance of Ordnance Factories (OFs), Government has announced its intention to corporatise them. It has received predictable responses- welcomed by Armed Forces and some others and opposed by the employees who have threatened to go on strike with the tacit backing of IOFS officers. Merely saying that OFs will be corporatised without what exact changes will be brought about means nothing. Maybe a high powered Committee will be constituted to work out the details. In any case, it is worth noting that many corporatised Govt undertakings as well as private ones are in doldrums. Corporatisation is not a silver bullet that magically transform OFs into 21st century companies.
As Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina " Happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." OFs are a collection of many plants producing diverse products with diverse technologies with widely varying work culture and practices. Each one may have problems unique to itself. A one-size-fits-all approach may not work. Such a remedy may in fact turn out to be worse than the disease.
A crisis provides the best opportunity to bring about changes. Here is a golden opportunity to the Managers of OFs to bring about sustainable, irreversible positive changes to all key processes and daily work practices . Review the relevance, suitability and all your processes and change them where necessary. Remember if all of you keep doing the same thing you have doing for last several decades you can't expect a different outcome .Winners don't do different things; they do things differently.
Control your destiny; otherwise someone will control it. Change before you have to. If changes are imposed from outside it will be very painful and may not succeed. Hope some IOFS officers will read this and take in the right spirit.
S Raghavan

True that CSS & CSSS officials are lingering on without any promotion (even in the normal stage they get very late) for the last two years. Government should come forward to settle the cases once for all. In the meantime, they can get the Court's approval for adhoc/in-situ promotions till the regular cases are settled. Really a sorry plight for all brethren who retire without promotion and also those who are serving but feeling disgusted. Why other services are always getting promotions easily whereas CSS/CSSS have to toil even after putting a lot of service. Once they were considered as the backbone of the Government of India but now they are all very upset. Hope the Government does something to boost the morale of the CSS/CSSS soon.
Seth

Drugs pedalling and consumption are crimes in the country under the NDPS Act,1985. Ground realities elsewhere in the country are shocking.
In Varanasi, for instance,“ thandai, pakoda, papad, samosas” mixed with “bhaang" (Cannabis, hashish), are available with impunity. The authorities are not blind to such age old practices. CM Yogi is urged to ban misuse of prohibited drugs and substances in the holy city which also happens to be PM Modi’s constituency. The NDPS Act 1985 applies to entire country without exemption. UP CM must demonstrate the political will to clear up the mess from the entire Uttar Pradesh ?
UP is not alone. Every Indian state faces same problems. At hundreds of places in urban and rural India, the menace is widely prevalent. All must be treated at par with Bollywood in taking punitive action.
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)
A request to Ms Nidhi Pandey – Commissioner, Kendriya Vidyayala Sangathan
Mam, I have to say that my daughter kavya Singh was selected under category 3 in class 1 admission process after lottery at no.1 in Ichapore kv, no. 2 in army barrackpore and no.5 at afs Barrackpore. But her name was not selected by the school administration. So Mam, I think that you could help me in this matter because you are my last hope. Please Mam consider my request so that my daughter will not suffer regarding her studies. I have two daughters, one is already in kv afs barrackpore in class 5. Please Mam help me. With kind and humble regards
Arti Singh

It is height of the stupidity that appeals in the Income Tax department will be decided without personal hearing. If the appeals can be decided on the basis of written submissions what the is need for a Commissioner? In the new regime all submissions will be brushed aside by the appeal units and the appeals will travel to ITAT eventually. The whole scheme of face less appeals without any pilot projects will create more trouble for tax payers that it solves. The corruption it intends to eliminate will only travel upwards to Tribunals and other such fora. It is a known fact that almost all DRPs simply confirm the demands and the tax payer needs to go to ITAT. Faceless appeals system will be no different. For sure some tax lawyers are going to challenge this facelessness for its vires.
Amit

The Parliament of India has passed 2 crucial legislations on 20th September 2020. Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 were passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Bills had a smooth sailing in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) where the government enjoys clear majority but witnessed heated exchanges with unpleasant ruckus in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) where the government depends on opposition support. The Bill was opposed by the Congress Party, Trinamool Congress Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and some others but the government managed to get the Bills passed. The Congress party organized rallies against the Bill in Punjab, parts of Haryana and UP and Delhi calling the Bills anti-farmers. The truth is otherwise. Read on: What a silent revolution! What a coup de maître! Prime Minister Narendra Modi has carried out another surgical strike and a bloodless coup d’ etat. The kulaks have responded with coup de main. In a clean sweep, the real farmer has been liberated from the stranglehold of the powerful kulaks. Recall the farmers’ historic status: serf, robot, begar! They were simply labourers- serf to their Lords & Ladies, unpaid labour or robot and working without payment called begar, which for the first time was abolished by the Constitution of India but soon acquired new form under the kulaks claiming to be farmers and cornering every government scheme for welfare of farmers. All that the working tilling sowing harvesting farmers got was a small quantity of chanaa-chabenaa to say it metaphorically and some dope (liquor, opium, charas etc) while the kulaks became Crorepatis, as agricultural income is exempt from Income Tax and kulal-politicians proclaim to be only either farmers or social workers. Many of the Indian kulaks had extended their empire to foreign countries buying 1000s of hectares of land and even islands. These kulaks manipulated democracy, rigged elections using money and muscle power and became MLAs/MPs/Sarpanch, chief minister or minister and manoeuvred to alienate the poor farmers of their land which they acquired for “public purpose” and millions of them came to own big “Farmhouses” i.e. properties worth Crores in every state in India. They don’t do any farming in the farmhouses themselves but act like absentee landlords engaging poor displaced farmers and cultivate, inter alia, weed, opium for exclusive parties and other commercial activities evading taxes. Reforms in the agriculture sector were overdue. It is time to restore the land under more than 1 million such farmhouses to the poor displaced real landowners.
M L Gupta
HP Govt doing commendable job
Good that HP Govt is recognising talent of domain specialists Techno Administrators
Bharath

The secret world of drugs mafia, murders, rapes, casting couch, alleged murders of two actors, are all that constitute the tinsel world. The secrets of glamorous Bollywood’s underbelly have jolted the conscience of every right thinking Indian. No attempt was ever made to weed out the scum. Investigations by ED, NCB and CBI have revealed an organised racket with links in Dubai, deep state of Pakistan and Narco-terrorism! Count down has begun.
Of late , the # Me Too movement lying dormant for sometime has resurfaced. The latest allegation comes from an actress slamming sexual innuendos against an infamous Director-Producer of Bollywood. Lack of deterrent action in the past emboldens perpetrators to carry on their business with impunity and perpetuate the evil practice. The Bollywood’s cultural standards and values have reached their nadir. The film city can't take it any more.
Ironically, a large number of Bollywood celebrities continue to appear as brand ambassadors in TV ads and participants in a famous laughter show. These exercise deleterious influence on gullible public especially the impressionable youth. There is an emergent need to scrub, disinfect and purge the film city.
In this context, UP govt’s announcement to set up a film city at Noida, is timely. It will have production studios, outdoor locations, post production facilities, special effects studios, hotels, workshops, an amusement park besides an international airport in the neighbouring Greater Noida. The central govt will, no doubt, face opposition from the Opposition and criminal lobbies. But, a strong political will should overcome it. The outrageous public and the digital Media ,on their part, must boycott all accused super stars, their movies and brand endorsements.
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)