A to Z

Alas! Where is my great country moving?

Bother, not you and I, alone but all should

Casteless society one can hardly expect now

Doctors and health care not in reach of many

Engineers and Technocrats are of no good quality

Foreign aid and Investment aren’t in requisite fields

Good governance preached more and practiced less

Heavenly promises to the poor on the election-eve

Ideal leaders and simplest souls are rare in Politics

Jackals and Mafias active ever for ruling the roost

Kama sutra and sexy life order of the day and night

Love and compassion aren’t the goal of many saints

Money and Media take care of the powerful humans

Nobody, rather not many, are fit to fight the injustice

Ordinary souls are helpless against organized gangs

Politics and bureaucracy exhibiting the worst signs

Queens, Kings and their protégé trying dynastic rule

Republic of India democratic in form, despotic in content

Socialistic pattern of Indian society nowhere in the scene

Travelling across the nation reveals such a dirty environ

Umpteen scandals keep exposing the Indian public face

Very soon we propose to overtake China in numbers

Will our planners and rulers mean business in action?

X-ray of the Indian Diaspora keeps decrying our inaction

Yester year Indians played a role much better than ours

Zealous & serious we should be to soon match the West

Skeleton From The Cupboard

Former Chief of Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) Sri Madhavan Nair may have kept the Antrix Devas Space Band Spectrum agreement away from the knowledge of both the Space Commission and the Cabinet, although the deal had already been concluded.

The above revelation has been made by the Secretary of the Department of Space, Sri K.Radhakrishnan, while communicating to the Prime Minister in recent days. God knows how many more such skeletons are about to fall from the cupboards of PMO? Two-three events / activities of the Government of India (connected to PMO) widely reported in the media and commented upon in the Apex Court of Law in recent days have exposed the hallow nature of advisory mechanism working under the very nose of the Prime Minister.

Energy Getting Exausted

The State of Tamil Nadu has a demand of 11000 MW of electricity but it generates only 8000 MW. It purchases power from Private Producers at the rate of Rs.7/- to Rs.15/- per unit to meet the additional requirement although the consumers are charged only @ Rs.3.50 per unit. This involves the extra cost of Rs.1.75 crore per day.

The Power Manager viz., the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is alarmed over the poll promises made by both the political parties DMK and AIADMK on the eve of general elections to the state assembly for free distribution of Mixies, Grinders, Fans, Fridges and Washing Machines. The compensation to the TNEB or its distribution company arranged as of late is received in instalments through the state's annual budget provisions throwing its finances out of gear many a time.

There is no doubt that such free distribution of electrical

gadgets to the lower middle and deprived sections of the society would not only act as a means of social justice but also induce an additional economic acitivity namely an increase in the production and sale of such gadgets giving benefits to the manufacturers. Indirectly such a step would result in additional demand for power on a regular basis to run those Gadgets putting extra strain on the energy producers and suppliers at such a heavy cost as mentioned above.

Every state government promises and tries to generate and supply the electric power at a reasonable cost without any power-cuts but many of them fail miserably as we have seen so far with one or two exceptions here and there. Demand for power is bound to increase manifold in the days to come in tune with the development and additional purchasing power in the hands of consumers.

Incomplete Performance

When domestic savings and investment fall short of the requirement, one needs to resort to foreign aid in the form of grants or loans either from foreign governments or from International financial institutions. As is true of every other developing nation, India too requires foreign aid for some years to come with a view to supplementing its domestic resources provided both by Public and Private Sectors.

It is not gratifying to note that India has been found wanting in utilizing the sanctioned foreign aid to the tune of Rs.1 lakh crore by Ministries like Urban Development, Water Resources and Energy as reported by the Government Auditor viz., the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

“As on March 31, 2010 unutilised committed external assistance was of the order of Rs.1,05,339 crore"  the Comptroller and Auditor(CAG) said in his report tabled in Parliament on Friday, March 18, 2011.

It is also a point of concern to us that the Government has paid commitment charges of Rs.86.11 crore during the year 2009-10 in the form of penalty for not timely utilizing the aid approved by multilateral and bilateral lending agencies. The CAG further attributes the above failure to inadequate planning resulting in avoidable expenditure in the form of commitment charges.

God knows the reason for the inability of Planning Commission of India for not having reviewed such a poor performance on the part of the concerned ministries in the Govt. of India. The Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries concerned are unable to ensure full utilization of the foreign assistance made available to the projects which almost amounts to a criminal neglect on the part of all those involved in advocating foreign aid and all those agencies involved in implementation of such projects for which foreign aid was sought and obtained.

Who is to bell the cat and pull the Indian bullock cart together in a desired direction?

Disputes among Public Sector Undertakings

The given arrangement, as per the ruling of the Apex Court till now, had been that the disputes arising between different public undertakings can be referred to the Committee of Union Secretaries for resolving their inter-se disputes. But looking to the delay and inefficient functioning of the afore-said Committee, the Apex court, namely, the Supreme Court of India through its Five-member Constitutional Bench has reversed its earlier decision and enabled the undertakings to take up the matter directly to the apex Court hereafter (Dinamani of Friday, February 18, 2011).

It is no doubt a fine reversal of the decision for the better. But as a retired bureaucrat I feel pity and bemoan the system losing its importance in the given context. It reflects very badly on the top officials of the Government of India at this juncture. This is a sign of continuous degradation in the style of administration one is forced to confront and experience with no justification whatsoever.

Brave and timely action of Tamil nadu Human Rights Commission

Hats off to the T.N Human Rights Commission for the bold and timely action against police officers responsible for punishing a reformed individual on false charges despite his genuine pleas on his good conduct. The victim is one Shanmugam from Madurai and the police staff involved are Messrs Mutharasu, Inspector of police, Head constable Sambandam Viswanathan and Rajarajan of Tanjore Tamil University Police Station. The above police staff tried to harass and prosecute Shanmugam on the charge of stealing 10 gram of gold ornaments.

The tendency of the police is normally to suspect the history-sheeters but when they prepare the same they at times overlook the genuine nature of the person involved. As I normally reiterate, the good-natured and innocent persons should not be allowed to be harassed while bigger devils are at large due to their political connections in the states.

One should indeed admire the Commission member Mr K.Mariappan for such a step taken in view of several such bodies like Central Administrative Tribunal and Information Commission  failing in their duties to protect the genuine parties.

(Dinamani of Friday, February 18, 2011)

P.M paints Chavan CVC row villain

The P.M told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 that the list of candidates for selection of CVC was made by Mr Prithviraj Chavan, the then Minister of State in PMO and in-charge of DOPT and he didn't know personally the real antecedents of P.J.Thomas as a candidate. Prithviraj Chavan makes a plea that the state government of Kerala had failed to point out a charge-sheet pending while giving the vigilance clearance. All this shows how manipulative P.J Thomas was and how vulnerable or gullible the PMO officials have turned out to be in this regard. 

One should however admire the P.M for the support of his advisors and officials and who had also ensured no action against the wrong doers. This is not the first time he has done so. Look at some of the ministers in G.O.I as well as in state capitals who had been known for being shirkers  and ditchers when a similar calamity takes place. Umpteen number of examples can be quoted if one wants it.