How to tackle the State's financial crisis

It is reported that Kerala is facing a financial crisis (especially in the wake of the decision to close down the bars) and the government was planning to stop creating new posts and also imposing new taxes to overcome the crisis. Youth congress has already opposed the move to ban new recruitments. (Actually the proposal for banning creation of new posts and not for recruiting people to the existing posts!)

I would like to suggest the following steps to augment the position in the long run.

a. Review all cases of pending tax recoveries and speed up the recovery measures.

b. Curtail the wasteful expenditure of ministers and top bureaucrats. Outstation travel should be undertaken in exceptional cases only. ( I do not think all the ministers and MLAs should attend all the public functions held across the state)

c. Put a bar on all modification works to ministers' residences. Only the basic maintenance should be undertaken

d. Power and fuel bills of ministers' residences to be reduced. ( petrol and electricity). This should be extended to all offices too.

A review of existing staff strength at various departments to be conducted and any excess staff to be reduced by not filling up the vacancies created by retirement/ death etc. Number of personal staff of the ministers, leader of opposition and chief whip to be halved with immediate effect.

I am sure if the above steps are implemented fully, the state can compensate for the loss of revenue caused due to the decision to close the bars.

VIP Privileges

A new debate has recently started regarding the privileges enjoyed by our elected representatives and their demand for more during their air travel. This has gathered momentum in the wake of a video that appeared in you tube showing the passengers of a pakistan airline not allowing an ex minister boarding the plane after the same was delayed for two hours for him.

While I can understand the special privileges given to the head of the State, Prime Minister etc. I fail to understand the privileges offered to the ex Prime Minister, ex President, etc and also to all those elected representatives in Parliament! The other day there was a ruckus in Parliament over a room occupied by Telugu Desom party, which had been allocated to Trinamool Congress by the Speaker. While the former refused to vacate the room, the latter tried to forcefully occupy the same, put their own name plates etc..

Ad it is reported that Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to offer more privileges to the MPs in the domestic flights like priority booking, priority check in, free access to lunges, skipping the security check etc. One wonders why all these are required for an MP! Being an elected representative of the common man, shouldn't he behave like a common man? Why should he be allowed to jump the queue and checked in at the counter (that too when an online check in option is available)? Considering the fact that many of our elected representatives are having criminal backgrounds and many criminal cases are pending against many, I am afraid waiving the security check requirements for them will be putting the ordinary passenger at risk.

And comes the unauthorised retention of the residential accommodation provided to MPs even after they cease to be one. The estate department has reportedly issued notices to many such "squatters" and has started cutting the utilities like water and electricity to those houses which had not been vacated within the notice period. As a retaliatory measure, yesterday the RLD has threatened the Government with cutting water supply to delhi if the house allocated to their "leader" Ajit Singh is taken back forcefully!! All these acts and demands on the part of the political parties and elected representatives only show their arrogance towards the common man and can be replied to through the ballot only. But how many common men will be remembering these acts, when they go to the polling booths? It is the duty of those who are concerned about such arrogant demands and behaviour of the elected representatives to highlight these at the time of election and educate the voters about the need to teach such representatives a lesson.

There is also a practice of government properties being leased to political parties for longer periods on paltry lease amounts for the parties to construct their office, memorial etc. This practice also should be stopped by the Government immediately. Why should the parties have their offices in such posh areas, if they really want to serve the people as claimed by them? Let them have a smaller place out of the funds raised by them.

Validity of affidavit by a woman not acceptable to government!

The other day I had to visit the village office to get a "same person certificate " in respect of my son, which name has been spelt differently in birth certificate and other records. The online application submitted through the Akshaya centre was rejected with a direction to appear before the Village Officer with the concerned documents and affidavit from two neighbours! I got the affidavits signed by two neighbours (my sister in law and brother in law)to the effect that the persons named in the birth certificate and passport , though differently spelt, are the same. When I presented these to the village officer, she immediately prepared a report to be submitted to the tahsildar, as the certificate was to be produced outside the state. However, before signing the report she scrutinised the documents submitted by me once again and observed that one of the affidavits was signed by a lady. She very politely requested me to get another affidavit signed by a male neighbour as THE AFFIDAVIT FROM A LADY WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE. I was totally taken aback by this statement. However, since I was the person in need, I came back, got an affidavit signed by another male member and submitted the same for getting the report from the Village Officer. With that I could get the required certificate from the Tahsildar too.

But, isn't is a gender discrimination to suggest that an affidavit signed by a lady is not acceptable to the State Government and even a lady officer has to abide by this dictat, without any objection? Are our feminine liberalists unaware of this stipulation by the Government? Why nobody has raised any objection to such a blatant gender discrimination?? In fact I posed this question to the lady village officer herself, but she did not have a answer . I would like to know the reaction of others to this

Status of aadhar card as address proof

The UPA Government had created the UIDAI for creating a unique identity to every citizen of the country and this identity card was proposed to be used for transferring the benefits to the beneficiary's account direct. After an initial hesitation, the present government has also decided to continue with this initiative. However, I experienced a different treatment from the State Government officials.

After settling down at my place of domicile I decided to get my address in all the documents changed to the present one and accordingly I started with aadhar card which was issued while we were staying in Hyderabad. Using the online functionality, I could request for the updation of address e\with the new address and to my surprise within a period of 10 days I got a confirmation that the address had been updated and the revised aadhar card could be downloaded from the site.
The next was trying to get a new electoral card for me and my wife using again the online functionality f the Chief Electroal Officer. The application was duly uploaded and the Booth Level Officer (BLO) visited us to collect the documents. The BLO also asked for a proof of address and when I offered the aadhar letter , she requested to give some other document like ration card, telephone bill etc. Luckily I had a telephone bill in my new address and I enclosed the original with my application and a copy thereof duly attested with my wife's application. While my application was approved in the next two days , I was informed by the BLO that she had been asked to get an address proof for my wife for processing her application. When I contacted the person concerned as suggested by the BLO, he informed that some document in the name of wife has to be submitted as her address proof and the husband's address proof is not acceptable as wife's address proof!!!! Then he also suggested to furnish copy of electricity bill/ gas connection/ ration card to prove her address. While the electricity bill does not give the address in it, I asked my wife to go to Taluk office and submit the copy of the aadhar letter duly attested. As a matter of precaution, I asked her to carry copy of the gas connection voucher (which was luckily in her name) also with her. As expected, the official at the Taluk Office, Cherthala refused to accept the copy of aadhar letter and instead settled with the copy of gas connection voucher!!!!
So the moot question is, what is the value of the aadhar? I understand that RBI has permitted Banks to accept the aadhar card as KYC document for opening the Bank accounts. And here is a government official who is ready to accept a document issued by an agency of a public sector oil company against another document duly issued by an authority created the Government of India for this special purpose. What a contrast!! Anyway I am happy that at least I got a confirmation to the effect that the application of my wife has also been approved, though we are yet to receive the electoral cards.

So what is the status of Aadhar, can somebody enlighten?

Another Hartal

Kerala witnessed one more Hartal on Tuesday, which was "successful" i the sense that hardly any vehicle plied on the road and almost all the shops were closed! But what have the organisers gained? Do they think that they could gather some sympathy for their colleague who was murdered or the entire population of the state had whole heartedly welcomed their call for Hartal? I am sure NEITHER.

The unexpected Hartal had only put the plans of many people into a disarray. And the visuals shown in many news channels were evident enough for the muscle strength of the organisers for making the hartal a success. At many places, violence was unleashed, it is reported. One visual in almost all channels showed the workers destroying the fruits in a shop and beating the worker in the shop severely. No law enforcing persons were seen in the near vicinity! Has the government thought it fit to remain as a mute spectator to such hooliganism in the rare hope that the organisers will gain negative publicity?

Does not the elected government of the state have a responsibility to give protection to the life and property of its citizens? Why is the police strictly instructed to book the culprits immediately when such violence takes place? As the people indulged in such activities could be identified from the visuals available will the police and the government  take them into custody  at least at the end of the day? And what happened to the High Court order for recovering the loss from the organisers of such hartals? Will the government implement it in the right earnest? Or is it that they will brush aside all such cases under the "political cases" category?

The "Say No to Hartal" had conducted a seminar at Ernakulam on the topic recently where leaders of various political parties and other organisers had vaxed eloquently against this practice, but none except the volunteers of "Say NO to hartal" were seen on the roads on Tuesday. Neither anybody had even issued a statement condemning the Hartal call.

At the same time I condemn in the strongest words, the brutal murder of the person at Kannur and urge the Government to speed up the investigation and bring the culprit to book and get them required punishment immediately. 

I hope better sense will prevail over all those concerned in the State for stopping such murders in the name of politics and also the Hartal calls which will inconvenience the general public