Whispers Forum

SURVEY (1)
Most glamorous Women Politicians
Krishna Gaur, Dimple Yadav, Mimi Chakarborty and Priyanka Gandhi in that order.
Partha Garg
SURVEY (2)
Nusrat Jahan is talented and glamorous actress who became Member of Parliament. She has mind of her own and speaks her thought without being guilty about it which is the need of the hour of the present day political class who does not study the subject but just say for the sake of saying. She is new but has spark which speaks volume about her talent. She is truly patriotic too.
Nidhi Jain
PM’s promisse of smaller government and larger governance nowhere
As per Whispers’ news item dated Oct 11, 2019, DOP&T has issued a calendar to cadre-controlling authorities of all central services, to complete their cadre reviews and send proposals to Cadre review division of that department. PM had promised smaller government and larger governance. He has totally ignored his promise of providing good governance and is creating more and more posts in the PMO without adequate workload, leading to centralization of authority. Ministries, divested of initiatives, await directions from the top office. All cadre review exercises are resulting in creation of extra jobs in all cadres, accelerated promotions without matching workload. Two union ministries like the Finance (Economic Affairs)responsible for Indian Economic Service (IES) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that controls the Indian Statistical Service (ISS) got undue benefit. Every Tom Dick & Harry got quick promotions through UPSC by relaxing Recruitment Rules for not having requisite number of years of services. There were more vacant posts available at higher levels but limited number of takers. Can the government of India not take the opportunity of drastically reducing the number of posts at higher levels, as promised by Modi government and improve the promotions prospects of job holders at lower levels. The format designed by the cadre review wing of DOP&T ,is absolutely flawed ,biased in favour of senior functionaries. In Min of Statistics, all jobs have been grabbed by the ISS Officers including Administrative. They are controlling their own cadres. PM, as in-charge of DOP&T ,is requested to review the defective model formulated by its cadre review wing and make it unbiased and non-discriminatory. The job of Secretary MOSPI, should be handled by an IAS officer and the Chief Statistician of India must report to him. This is absolutely necessary to remove the total chaos in that ministry, at present.
Narender Singh

If indeed the Government is deciding to lower the retirement age of Government employees, it is a retrograde step. This again proves this Government is anti employees and does not care for the bodies like Pay Commission under whose recommendations the retirement age was increased from 58 to 60.With longevity having gone up and people remaining quite young even at the age of 60 there is actually a case for raising the retirement age and why not. If politicians can go up to 75 or even beyond it why the Govt. employees can not work up to 60 or even 62.
Aarti Khosla
Sandhu comes up with elegant anecdotes
Sandhu comes up with elegant anecdotes, that strikes a chord in many field officers. This putting 'topi' on the lower level field officers for splurging on the senior officers' visits and of ministers is widely prevalent in many states. One expects the PM, with his honesty worn on his sleeve, would put and end to this. This is happening in different ways even now, by the ruling party in the districts be it BJP or other parties. Kerala is somewhat of an exception, not so much. There, the lower level officers are blunt and direct. Even in Tamil Nadu it is that way. When I was in the field, I used to insist that whatever food expenses was met for me, I would pay. The officer demurred and said that it is a small amount and don’t worry. But I insisted. Then he said that sir, apart from you, your driver, your camp peon, other officers who come to meet you, all are being taken care of by us. I then said, that I will pay for me and my driver. He said sir you will not be able to afford it and came up with a high value. The break up included fire wood, chicken (I am vegetarian), booze, and said all this is expected. It is difficult to stem this. Sandhu should bring out more anecdotes like this.
Ravi Srinivasan

This year the Board of Direct taxes supported by senior IRS officers has taken two important steps to eradicate corruption in their department. First is the amendment to the law to the effect that cases more than four years old cannot be opened. More important is that dealing in these cases will be faceless. This means a permanent loss of power of harassment as also 'extra' income for the junior officers. But junior officers are smarter than the Board imagined them to be. To compensate for the forthcoming loss, the junior officers opened a large number of 5 to 10 year old cases before the four year rule came into force. Now they have time up to 31st December 2019 to harass the assessees either for extra income or for ego massage. Most of the victims are salaried persons. The loss of reputation to the Income tax department is immense but there is little the Board or the Minister can do about it.
Prof. N. C. Saxena

The Appellant sought the copies of all the official circulars, orders etc for ensuring “Adequate Safe Drinking Water to Public of Rajasthan in least minimum time” sent from time to time by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation to State of Rajasthan from 2002 till 29 March 2017. The PIO submitted that the desired information from the year 2011 onwards is available on the website of the concerned Ministry. However, before that the subject matter was handled by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and hence, all the physical records available with them which were transferred from MDWS, are not in a consolidated and a ready-made form. The CIC directed to provide an additional reply to the appellant giving him proper hyper-links and sub-links where the desired information from the year 2011 can be located. Further, the inspection of the records related to the period before 2011 was ordered.
Comments
Information of such nature should be suo-moto disclosed by the Public Authority on their website for the ease and convenience of the public at large as a part of their obligation under section 4 (2) of the RTI Act. The PIO should provide the proper hyper-links and sub-links where the information sought by an applicant is available instead of plainly referring to on the website.
Citation: Sunil Pareek v. Ministry of Jal Shakti Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Decision no.: CIC/MODWS/A/2017/606108/MODWS/02019, Date of Decision: 31/10/2019
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. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: - Right to Information Act 2005- RTI Foundation of India

India invites 27 members of European Union Parliamentarians to show normalcy in Kashmir. One wonders why so much hue and cry is being raised by the Opposition ?
It is India's sovereign right to invite anyone for mobilising international opinion. This will bolster up our stand on Kashmir especially as the EU had recently expressed concern about the situation in Kashmir. More importantly, India must gather support of as many countries as possible before embarking on legitimate annexation of POK including Gilgit and Baltistan.
The Congressmen and pseudo intellectuals were blocked from visiting Kashmir due to their unholy nexus with Kashmiri separatists and the ISI. It was , a clear threat to national Security at that point of time.
There could possibly be no issue with MEA's invite to the EU lawmakers to visit the valley, though selection of delegates could have been arbitrary, based on pick and choose. They allegedly belong to the right wing parties of Europe. The entire west is turning to right-wing ideology, anyway.
So far ,so good. But, I am somewhat perplexed by the private nature of the visit (not officially sponsored by the EU). Will the MPs influence their countries, back home ?
One hopes, the foreign jaunt does not end up as a 5-Star holiday, enjoying MEA’s hospitality. Surely, the decision on invite must have been taken by the MEA on holistic considerations after taking into account all secret aspects to which the critics are not privy.
PM will surely be able to convince the Indian Parliament, starting from Nov 18,2019.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Day in and day out IAS officers are promoted on fastest track and boss over other Central Service officers even upto officers of 5 years senior batches. No one sees anything wrong here specially IAS who consider themselves God’s own creation. How demoralising it is for other Services, no one realises. Just to please one Service i.e. IAS, entire government machinery is relentlessly working. Why be then concerned with one IAS officer of a batch becoming boss of another IAS officer? When will anyone realise and end completely unjustified hegemony of IAS ? Their 87 batch got posted as a Secretary and 91 batch as Additional Secretary ? Will any one see situation in other Central Services ? Are those not doing important work ?
Devendra Sridhar

All terror alerts sounded are fake, fabricated. Mere tactics to create false scare in the public mind , divert attention amid political rhetorics by leaders with scant or no regard for security threats from across the border.
The leaders, after Assemblies’ poll results, are now obsessed with governments formations through horse-trading.
Scramble for power, quota-sharing of ministerial portfolios, sweet promises to public (Not necessarily honest) are prominent activities taking away their times. No time for offices and redressing public grievances.
Leaders are part-time ministers and full-time politicians.
At micro-levels, 90% time spent on politics and 10% on public welfare.
The gullible public refuses to react, protest. The paid media is callous, unfazed. Politicians' sole objective is to earn cheap publicity and brownie points for others' hard labour and achievements. How brazen?
Democracy, surely, is bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Dear Fellow Congresspersons,
Congratulations on the revival of the party's electoral fortunes, beginning with Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections. Government formation will, of course, depend on Dushyant Chauthala's stand and our ability to rescue him from Blackmail pressures being exerted by the BJP government at the Centre.
However, Haryana has finally shown the way to the entire Congress Party: when it comes to survival, State leaderships in the Congress Party can work together despite bitter differences.
Once old Congress hands come together, they can break all strategic shackles and self-defeating game-playing limitations imposed from within by the party's own central leadership which is being blackmailed by the BJP government into agreeing to sacrifice the Congress Workers, the state units and the Party's winning ability.
Hereafter, this is the way forward for the Congress Party.
Namit Verma
ICS officer Sen passes away
He was a very kind and large hearted officer. I was an undersecretary in the Dept. of Defence Production when he was the Secretary. On one occassion when I had a problem I approached him and he was gracious enough to guide me and help me out of the problem. I will never forget his humane approach.
Lakshminarayanan

The appellant sought information regarding enrolment of an Advocate in the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana. The information was denied on the plea of being exempted under Sections 8(1)(d), 8(1)(e), and 8(1)(j) of RTI Act. The CIC observed that the public has a right to know as to whether a person who claims to be an advocate is enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council or not. Hence, larger public interest mandates the disclosure of the information sought for.
Comments
The “public interest” override clause of the RTI Act allows for disclosure of information which is otherwise exempt from disclosure.
Citation: Mahender Pal v. CPIO, Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana in Second Appeal No. CIC/BCOI/A/2018/104444, Date 23.10.2017
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. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: - Right to Information Act 2005- RTI Foundation of India

Whenever an 'entitled' person in our society breaks the law, we see a strange reaction. If a case is filed on corruption charges against an official ( a genuine one ) his colleagues would react " बेचारा। फंसा दिया उसको। मंत्री चोरी करे तो कोई कुछ नहीं बोलता। " Or someone could say " CM is very vindictive against civil servants. X is much more corrupt but CM took no action against him as X is CM's caste.". In short, there is sympathy.
2. If an army officer is caught taking a bribe and action is intitiated, then people immediately say " Government shouldn't take such harsh action. He should have been asked to resign quietly. Otherwise, this would weaken our armed forces and help our enemies.".
3. When a PM/CM/Minister commits a crime, then his party takes a standard defence " This is political vendetta ". Once a CM was charge sheeted. In his defence he said " I did not understand these complicated financial things. The Secretary/CS recommended and i signed". I believe a PM recently also took the same line of defence.
4. If a /Supreme Court/High Court judge does something wrong, no one even mentions it for fear of contempt.
5. If a rich man commits a serious felony, he has a band of highly paid lawyers who will prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the alleged culprit :
- was not in town the day the crime occured, or
- the cctv footage or photograph is not genuine, or
- the complainant is a prostitute/pimp/blackmailer/mentally deranged blah blah blah, or
- new evidence is 'suddenly discovered' which demolishes the prosecution case. For example, a speeding SUV kills four people sleeping on a pavement but it had no driver!
Then, of course, the high priced lawyer has 'other' specialisations to win his case. It's just that the fees go up.
Likewise, doctors and scientists are holy cow. They can do no wrong.
Therefore, the expression " Be thou ever so high ............that the law can never catch you.".
In Britain, the PM and his wife had to go to the thana to get their son released. That is Rule of Law.
We boast of jugad or the Rule by Flaws.
Prabeer K Basu (R)
(BH:76)
IRTS can be abolished
IRTS cadre looks after the work of Transportation and Commercial matters in the Ministry of Railways. This service can be abolished and the work of Transportation could be handed over to the IRSME and the work of Commercial matters to the IRAS .
BBS

I have on two occasions brought out in the Forum the blatant injustice of using 360 degree assessment to empanel, promote or post officers of the IAS and other Group A services. This most unfair practice is keeping honest, hardworking and deserving officers out of their career advancement simply because a casual enquiry from any member of their service and a junior in their office has not brought forth a favourable appreciation of the officer out of jealousy, petty-mindedness or some grudge. I personally know of a very bright woman officer who was not empanelled as Joint Secretary because of unfavourable 360 degree assessment by a senior in her service and a junior in her office. One does not even know who were asked about her. In the case of this lady she learnt somehow about the senior who was asked. It was one whom she rebuffed as the man was trying to be funny with her. As for the junior he bragged about taking revenge from the 'madam' for scolding him once on his shabby office work. As brought out by another surfer today in the forum great injustice is being done by following this archaic practice adopted by Germany for their military personnel during World War II and later adopted and given up by USA because of lack of objectivity in such assessment. Lack of transparency is the hallmark of this vicious practice. This practice is totally illegal. But who will go to the court as people have lost their faith in the judicial system too.
Aarti Khosla