Indian Railways Board has since taken a decision to slap a penalty of one lakh of rupees on their catering contractors if food provided to the passengers is of an inferior quality. Not enough as it may hardly serve any purpose for the reason that the contractors supplying food to the railway passengers earn a lot by providing an inferior food stuff and for them it rather works as an incentive to continue with their supply of bad meals. Money is no problem for them as they earn enough of it through nefarious means. They in fact are required to be criminally proceeded against awarding them harshest possible punishment capable of acting as a big deterrent besides permanently cancelling their licence of contract. Those who play with the life of the rail passengers by providing them mal stuff in no way deserve any sympathy. They only deserve a considerable jail term with no relaxation extending the same pattern of punishment to all others who indulge in providing poison in the name of food to the travellers.
There are many a high earning islanders who flourish on black money or the money earned through corrupt practices even at the level of so called low status wage earners. If one goes by the press news, a peon belonging to KDA (Kanpur Development Authority) owns assets to the tune of 100 crores of rupees. Wherefrom he earned this much of property including cash? Obviously through nefarious means. There could be thousands of such people in the city and adjoining areas. If this man is proceeded against with some drastic punishments, chances of which are only remote in the system that obtains on date, he will use money to win the favour of the authorities that be as a bribe to get out of the trouble. Obviously the huge amount of money will change hands and ultimately it goes in the market where it forms a circle with bad money. Such deals taken in totality become the root cause of undue money responsible for soaring prices and they are of the type which don’t fall in the category of the checks the government plans as a curb on every day growing prices. In fact what may serve the needed purpose doesn’t lie merely in imposing curbs on the traditionally identified areas and what may elicit the desired results is to unearth the deals at much lower a level also like that of a petty peon making money to the tune of more than 100 crores. The case under reference is not a solitary instance as there could be an innumerable lot of them.
One owes every sympathy to the poor not just as a ritual but in tangible terms as they are supposed to be a lot deserving help from those who can afford it but isn’t it a difficult job to identify them in the crowd of those who are no more really as such?. A mason who used to be in tatters earlier being paid a petty sum for his work joins his job now well dressed with a wrist watch on his hand and a mobile phone in his pocket and so does a rickshaw puller, and even a vegetable vendor. Thhelawalahs in the streets are the same thing. No more low paid they are earning enough now as against their earlier status of being treated as much poor a category in the society. Even a beggar thumps at your door with a heavy knock as if the alms are his claim now and no more a charity. If the beggar happens to be a woman she is more aggressive with an impression as if she is chasing you like a hound not prepared to spare you unless you quite oblige her; if you don’t, she turns the one using abusive language against you. If you are an enthusiast on helping others on the pretext that they are the poor ones, you may have to go for a deep search to trace a real poor who is hungry and hankers for some food which task of identifying is awesomely onerous. Thanks to the change in social scenario.
When British ruled India they had secured best of luxury for themselves throughout the country and in league with that largest possible bungalows (Rajbhavans) sprang up in every state of India providing residential accommodation to the then Governors now known as Rajyapals and the one at Kolkata initially used to be the residence of Governor General (Viceroy) of India till such time the capital of the country was shifted to Delhi in 1912. The next bungalow built for Governor of Bombay (Mumbai) was more or less equally big and continues as such as on date followed by the ones in other state capitals. The grandeur of size and design in respect of the residences constructed for Governors in newly formed states too in the country after independence are provided the same luxury as the older ones during British time. Rajbhavan of Mumbai was more in a lime light after there was a news published that it saved 1.35 lakh units of power compared to last year by using energy friendly devices and solar energy panels. Such a saving amply gives an estimate as to what could have been the total consumption of the power in the Rajbhavan premises. Isn’t it a wastage in a country like India where economic crisis continues perpetuating? True, heads of states need a symbolic status but there appears to be no relevance to go much beyond proportions on this count. It’s a case of slashing down the amount of luxury in a country like India extending the benefit so accrued to the other sections of the society in the country who are badly hankering for some frugalest possible a spot called a house.
Never easy it is to earn money. Even a beggar has to put in hard labour to earn whatever little he fetches. Islam prescribes that it is haram to earn any money without putting in necessary labour for it and so do the other religions too to forbid any mode of earning unless there are due efforts made for the purpose involving some amount of labour or the other. But human tendency all over the world is to follow only those portions of religious sermons that suit them and are compatible to their desires. What is followed in practice is securing easy money some way or the other not necessarily involving much of physical labour. Black money comprises of such earnings accumulated through corrupt practices. Even small traders resort to such a mode of earnings. The government of India recently announced about 35% of relaxations in number of medicines but you go to any medical store they are not prepared to reduce the prices on the pretext of no official information yet received by them. They are the same persons who forthwith implement such decisions the moment they are announced or published in the news papers without waiting for any official information if the prices are raised. Same thing is done by the dealers in petrol and diesel followed by traders in other house hold essentials including road side thhelawalas. Call it easy money but in actual terms it is black money remaining unaccounted for and majority of business people in India, big or small, flourish on it.
No doubt it was UPA to join the initiative on formation of BRICS initially, credit certainly goes to the present Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi who saw to it that it physically takes off. The very name BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the countries to jointly partner the project. The Bank aims at fostering various developmental plans globally. Also the credit to mobilise the case for an Indian to become the first head of the Bank for initial six years with its headquarters in China goes to Narendra Modi, a matter of laurels to him. The formation of BRICS very much fits into dream plans of the Indian Prime Minister on developments in the country. The measure is likely to render a secondary importance to West dominated financial forums like World Bank and International Monetary Fund after it is operational as it may no more be a compulsory dependence on these organisations for the countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as because they have more healthy an option in BRICS available to them now.
Emerge as it did from Modi’s budget presented recently, there is some respite against soaring prices in relation to drugs and also certain food stuffs. The prices of drugs particularly those relating to diabetes and heart ailments including blood pressure are considerably reduced in the range of 35% which places the rates of the medicines back to what was in operation 29 months ago. If it takes a tangible shape this is sure to give substantial relief to a big chunk of patients of diabetes and heart ailment. Moreover, it is something that sets a pattern for days to come when such a relief is extended to various other categories in the medical area. Certain categories of food stuffs and eatables are already rendered cheaper which is much of a relief to common people. In an atmosphere where it had almost become unthinkable that there could be even a smallest possible relaxation in the matter of soaring prices, what is emerging by way of such a relief is not to be branded as the tip of the iceberg but a great pace setter in the direction of curbing the incessant price rise. Well begun is half done and the consumers by and large have a reason to feel convinced on a radical beginning with a positive note.
This post is to be read in conjuction with the link:
http://gallery-neelkanth.blogspot.in/2014/06/highly-explosive-is-population-bomb.html
A few decades back I had been to a doctor, Dr. Manohar Singh, Head of the eye hospital at Bahraich (U.P.,India) as a student for an eye check up. It was in the after noon and I was the first patient to visit, no rush and no queue. The doctor, as if he was hankering for some patient to call on him, attended me with a fullest possible attention seeing to it that the first patient of his, and possibly the last for the day, has not to go back unattended. Compare the change in scenario on date any where in the country and you would come across a sky change where you may have to wait for your turn standing in the long queue for hours together, and may be you are given some other date for the purpose even if the doctor concerned is just an ordinary one. Doctors and hospitals have mushroomed in growth multiple times in the country compared to the past but there is hardly any scope for the patients to get a doctor who could spare necessary time to the patients to their satisfaction. Reason is obviously an abnormal growth in population. You go to a doctor, go for shopping, go for travelling and even entertainment areas like cinema or clubs, you may have to rub your shoulders to get your turn. Measures to control economy at the national level are just a flop sans result orientation as they fail to proportionately match the most explosive and alarming growth of population. In fact more than any other measures to suit the interest of economy factor what is peremptorily needed is to check and curb every day growing population of the country assuming much graver proportions with each day that passes.
Born in 1912, Zohra Sehgal was 102 years old when she breathed her last in the afternoon the other day in a New Delhi hospital. She was a pace setter icon of the Indian film industry and was an era in herself. Before switching over to films she was a theatre artist. But for the problem of blood circulation not regularly reaching the veins of her vital organs during her last days, the cause of her death, she was quite in her form and active till the end of her life. She was an inspiration that way to all the health conscious people in different age groups. When she entered the theatre followed by films it was rarest of the rare ventures for a woman to join the industry of entertainment but she proved herself bold enough to take the plunge. She played her record roles with Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachhan besides several others of the modern era. Wish peace to the departed soul.
Minister of Railways Sadananda Gowda has since come out with his budget proposals on railways. By and large the budget proposals are received well by the people of the country with the exception of the opposition parties who did twist it beyond proportions but they too had nothing specific to point out as a negative factor. This is surprising that the Indian share market which had a record score on trading a day before the budget was placed on the floor of the Parliament on high hopes pinned to budget proposals reversed its speed just in the negative order after it was declared. The relative link given below can be referred for the purpose:
http://gallery-neelkanth.blogspot.in/2014/07/share-marketindex-zooming-upward-but.html
True it is that the budget is not elaborately specific on its salient features so highlighted but the message is clear that it is a pro people railway budget with the projects which are of a greater interest to the passengers and what led the traders in the share market to feel panicky about it in later part of the day is not clear. Better it was for the Railway Minister to spell out the specifics more distinctly without which the proposals appear to be limping and not desirably self speaking. The very headlines, however, relating to bullet trains, high speed trains, increase in number of trains coupled with special railway police exclusively for lady passengers, online reservation of ordinary tickets including platform tickets and various traveller friendly amenities are enough to make the budget worth it.
Sensex crossed 26000 mark yesterday for the first time in its history with Nifty following it on the same pattern. Today morning the session started on an encouraging note and continued its momentum for first few hours but collapsed reaching -517.97 Sensex and -163.95 Nifty by the time it closed for the day. It was a record high of 26,123.55 points for the Sensex on Monday on expectations of a sound budget proposal of the Railways today after noon as a result of which the stocks of the companies related to railway sector continued surging much upward. The proposed measures like FDI in railways, increasing the number of trains and introduction of bullet trains were the attractive features for the traders and their enthusiasm was fully manifest on their deals on Monday but today it was totally a u-turn for the market and there was a sharp downfall early in the afternoon even before the rail budget was scheduled to be placed. If it was for the better prospects in stocks relating railway related shares the spree should have been continued equally today but it was not. This has made the scenario for the next few days more suspenseful coupled with general union budget due to be placed on 10th of this month.
This is a local news from Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, India). Kanpur Electricity Supply Administration (KESA) where nothing moves unless you grease their palms sumptuously even for your most rightful routine consumer needs in relation to supply of electricity. Certain engineers and other junior staff from KESA were mercilessly beaten black and blue in two different localities of Kanpur the other day for the reason, as the people say, that they wanted to get obliged with illegal gratifications for attending to the jobs they were otherwise required to do free of any charge. Such incidents are more or less a routine as they occur with quick frequency. More surprising a feature is that despite such a thrashing they get every now and then as from the public they are virtually refusing to refrain themselves from resorting to such an evil practice as if they find it worth in view of the hefty sum of money they earn as bribe. Theirs is an organised gang where even an ordinary line man is able to fetch bribe money in thousands of rupees in a day and in fact it is such an undue earning that contributes miserably to the soaring prices in the local market. Normally the crude thrashing they get off and on from public is something to be discouraged by the people in a civilised society but the common men are left with no option as consumers but to go for it in the absence of any other relief available to them as from the governmental administration. If common man’s plight is any consideration one feels inclined to endorse the treatment they are giving to the hefty money makers by illegitimate means with thrashing and more thrashing.
There was a nautanki show with the name mujhe lechalo jee (take me too along with you) where the actors portrayed the role of evil spirits and how they haunted the men and women in the locality. Haunted by an evil spirit a man named Billu suddenly disappeared from the village. Village Panchayat deputed another man called Jhillu to find out what went wrong with Billu. Deep into a forest he found that there was a crowd of people all haunted by evil spirits crying in a chorus ‘mujhe lechalo jee’ and to his surprise Billu was one of them. On reaching the spot he too had the spell of the evil spirit and before he could ask any thing to Billu he himself started repeating ‘mujhe lechalo ji’. Village Panchayat continued sending men to the forest one after the other but all had the same fate. Lastly the Panchayat Chief himself ventured to go and find out what was the mystery but as soon as he reached the spot he himself started repeating the utterance mujhe lechalo jee. Finally what happened was that all who were condemning the evil spirits were themselves in their dragnet.
Our country is like that. Leaders from outside the government join full throated slogans condemning it right and left but when they themselves have the chance to rule the country they go worse. This is what is exactly manifest on the surface after the new government has taken over. Soaring prices including latest rise in cost of petrol, diesel and rail fare, security, economy and law and order are all in a terribly bad shape. All Billus and Jhillus occupying their coveted positions in the new government look only hypnotised by the power to rule they have now and the common man is as helpless as he used to be during the earlier government then in the saddle.
