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.
