Whispers Forum

The news that election strategist Prashant Kishor i.e. P K joining the Congress may not be good news for many senior party leaders. The leaders are beginning to fear that now their chair could go. So far they have been successful in getting tickets despite failing to win in the election and they must now be worried about their future. Can party High Command give precedence to P K over established and senior leaders. Many of them must not be happy, especially G-23 members. Apart from this, some party leaders are also mobilizing against P K in the name of preserving the established party ideology. They argue that they cannot keep silent as the reins of the party are being handed over to an outsider in a jiffy, while they worked all their life for the party.
Harsh Saxena

Honor and respect to our senior citizens starting from Satya Yug to Treta to Dwapar Yug we have followed our culture/tradition and paid respect and regard to our elders or senior citizens. This has to continue in Kali Yug also. We are following the tradition even today to pay respect and regard to elders. Let us call senior citizens. There are various ways to pay respect and honor to our senior citizens. Senior citizens are being treated with respect in many spheres of life including society. They are being given preferential treatment. They deserve it also. Respecting our elders should be a courtesy ingrained in every one of us. Senior citizens have a lifetime of experience. Recently Air India now owned by TATA kept the tradition of giving 50% discount on base fare to senior citizens. Worth praising step by corporate entity.
Naveen

The complainant submitted that the requested information has not been provided to him by the LIC Housing Finance Ltd. The respondent submitted that the Hon’ble High Court of Bombay vide Writ Petition No. 2327/ 2009 has already granted stay on applicability of RTI Act to LIC Housing Finance Ltd. vide order dated 18.01.2010 and the matter is sub-judice before the Hon’ble High Court of Bombay. Hence, the information sought cannot be provided to the appellant. The CIC disposed off the complaint..
Comments
A simple issue such as whether or not the LIC Housing Finance Ltd. is a public authority, has been pending before the Hon’ble High Court for more than 12 years. Such inordinate delays would shake the faith of the people in the RTI Act, 2005.
Citation: Mr. B P Thirupalu v. LIC Housing Finance Limited in Complaint No. CIC/LICOI/C/2020/678378, Date of order: 08-04-202
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. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

It seems inflation spiraled out of control in the country. The prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing astronomically. An unemployed country with a burgeoning population is posing a serious threat to the existence of the common herd.
Sunil Kumar
Festivals losing their cultural significance?
Hindu festivals are being increasingly used by politicians for political gains to woo Hindu voters and so these festivals are slowly beginning to lose their religious and cultural significance and are becoming a tool for politicians, especially those belonging to BJP, to increase their popularity among Hindu voters. Crores of rupees are being spent on celebrating these festivals in a grand manner with large gatherings and extravagant ceremonies are organized. In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress state unit has decided to hold religious programmes on Hindu festivals in a bid to end BJP’s monopoly on these festivals. Who will gain from all this as it is leading to only wasteful expenditures?
Vinay Kumar

You reduce the Government expenditure, prices of essential commodities will decrease consequently. Stop misuse of vehicles by the Ministers & Bureaucrats for their personal purposes, reduce personal staff of the Ministers & Bureaucrats to the level of their entitlement, personal parties of the Ministers/Bureaucrats in the name of meetings, stoppage of Tours at the throw of hat without any rhymes (many Ministers on the weekend travel to their home town at government expenses and many IAS go to the capital of their home state every weekend to play golf in which they are life time members), stoppage of Ministers/Bureaucrats taking furniture, ACs, stationary items & groceries for their residences at the cost of exchequer (some new crop of officers take bread, pizza, fruity crate etc for their residences at the cost of office expenses), indulging in constructions according to their wish/satiation at the cost of exchequer (in 2017 a new Canteen was constructed on the 5th Floor of Sardar Patel Bhawan but in the year 2018 it was dismantled to create space for sitting of the Minister, the accommodation as on date is lying vacant) and last but not the least they should set example for their juniors to imitate.
B B Srivastava