Whispers Forum

I fully understand the anguish and helplessness of Sunita and Ganeshan, regarding turning of blind eye on DC's promotion of ACs promoted in 2014. CBIC is behaving like East India Company, where Indians were not promoted beyond a certain posts. Rightly said only Prime Minister's intervention can wake up the Board from arrogant slumber
Subbarao K P
Information regarding empanelment of other services’ officers ?
Also provide information regarding empanelment of Officers of other Central Services in AS and JS levels.
B Prashanth
RTI - a godsend opportunity for students
For the students, RTI has emerged as a godsend opportunity. All the discrimination and partially can be removed using RTI effectively. Students should be taught about RTI as a part of the curriculum
Daniel

Success of kisan agitation depends on its sustainability and public support. Top business houses could unilaterally escalate prices of farm commodities making themselves richer and gullible consumers poorer. Statistics can be fudged to justify the hike. This apart , replacing lakhs of small middlemen by large corporate houses would create monopolistic situations. Kisan protests are already causing traders’ losses, disrupting distribution, breaking supply chains. Supreme court has noticed the Centre suggesting formation of a panel for resolution. Can consumers not be represented on the panel ?
Invoking Consumer Protection Act 2019 and fighting battles against powerful industrial houses in consumer courts would increase unnecessary litigation.
The scheme in its present form ,is designed largely to benefit private players. There are no restrictions on them from unilaterally, arbitrarily and disproportionately escalate the retail prices of commodities after procurement from the farmers at cheaper rates.
Farmers are aware of their interests better than the government. Do not underestimate them.
Artificial shortages of food grains could also be created by private players through hoarding to jack up prices.
Let the consumers pledge to boycott the products and services of large industrial houses, whose only aim is to earn profit and multiply it .
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)
Obstacle in implementation of the RTI Act
The biggest obstacle in the implementation of the RTI Act is the ignorance of the PIO / FAA and this leads to them to adopt all steps not to disclose the information to an applicant. It is necessary to train the officers to deal with the applications of the Act is dead.
Shrmishta Nair
CBIC Board does not responds
C.B.I.C. has promoted direct recruit AC of 2014 & 2015 batch and promotion orders of 2016 batch is going to be issued for 2016 batch for the post of DC on 01/01/2021. Promoted AC of 2014 batch who are now less than 400 in numbers & have completed more than 6 years of service have not yet been promoted to S.T.S. grade of DC. They were promoted after approval of Union Cabinet, U.P.S.C. & D.P.C. Numerous representations to Board have been sent, but to no avail. Board never responds. It seems Chairman & Members are more interested in Litigation than augmenting revenue. Revenue Secretary F.M. and P. M. are requested to direct Chairman to issue orders of Promoted AC of 2014 batch
Govind

The time has come to rebuild our infrastructure . - Infrastructure development by Government in Delhi will create jobs for one lakh Indians directly and indirectly. That is the need of the hour- JOBS - The Bhavans housing our govt offices are stinking, Covid infested, termite ridden and more . They need to be destroyed totally . - About 75 acres of new green spaces will be added to Delhi . More fresh air is the need of the hour. - We are a 3 Trillion plus economy today. Germany is just ahead of us in GDP. Ms Merkel is spending $300 billion dollars to revamp and rebuild Germany in 2020. Her vision is for Germany to lead Europe in 2021 and beyond . - Indians deserve new 21st infrastructure too such that people can live in open first class cities and suburbs and commute rapidly . A legacy from us senior generation to Young India .
Devindra
Highly derogatory remarks
This is with reference to comments of Anurag Shrivastava dated 22nd December, 2020 regarding CSSS cadre. His remarks are highly derogatory and call for condemnation. Use of such language as used by him in context of a specific cadre is an indication of the general attitude and an abnormal state of mind of the person. His remarks are totally uncalled for. I strongly condemn his remarks.
Saibal Bhattacharjee
This forum is for people who use parliamentary language
Mind your words Mr. Anurag Srivastava. This forum is only for people who express their opinion in a parliamentary language and not like you. After all we are all colleagues and you should know how to treat, if not, at least learn now. As far as CSSS are concerned I can vouch and show you in person how dedicated and sincere we are. We do our work without any pendency whereas only people like you who are insincere delay and try to show your highhandedness to the helpless CSSS. We are attached with bosses and work accordingly. How many of you can manage a seat along with a boss? Never you can. We have lot of coordination work to do and compilation, etc. which you cannot understand. I am not here to admonish you but try to be polite and not rude (at least in this column). Just passing on the files is not the only work in Govt. of India and elsewhere as other things are to be done minutely. Our single mistake may land up in problems whereas you can rectify in your file. So do take care and treat your colleagues properly at least from now. Good luck
Seth

For the last couple of days or rather a week orders for CSS were issued at all levels and whereas for CSSS is not used, It is a genuine concern for CSSS officers. Mr. Anurag Srivastava using all type of immatured language saying bedchai etc. This should be totally avoided. I would like to request your website should not be used as a bashing of one cadre by the other. Instead of bashing at each other, both should complement the work of each other and one should respect each other's cadre as all of them are working for the Government. The promotion orders of CSSS cadre at all levels should be issued at the earliest so that they are not demoralised as some of them at the senior level will be retiring shortly.
K Madu
Unfair and biased attitude of Board
Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs, promoted 2118 officers from executive cadre of Gr. B to Gr. A cadre post of Asst. Commissioners on Oct 22, 2014 after due approval of Union Cabinet. Hardly 400 officers are left for retirement. They are being denied promotion on one flimsy pretext or other. It is pertinent to mention that Direct Recruit AC of 2014 and 2015 batch have already been promoted and promotion of 2016 batch is on cards. This is unfair and biased attitude of Board. Will Revenue Secretary, F.M. and P. M.O. intervene so that suffering officers get their due and the just and fair image of the Govt is upheld.
Ganeshan D K
Let better sense prevail upon CBIC
CBIC has promoted direct recruit ACs of 2014 & 2015 batch on 1st Jan 2019 &2020 respectively, but not promoted Promotee ACs of 2014 batch, giving childish reasons that they are ad-hoc.On24 July 2020 CBIC came out with Office Order stating that with the approval of competent authority, it has been decided to extend the ad-hoc promotion made to the grade of ACs, DCs, JCs, ADCs, Commissioners beyond 31/12/2015 and till 31/12/2020 or till regularization, superannuation, VRS or demise etc. whichever is earlier. The grave injustice starts from here- a direct Ac can be promoted up to the rank of Commissioner, but an ad-hoc promotee cannot be promoted to the post of DC even after 6 years. There is Hon'ble Supreme Court judgement dated 13/08/1990 in the case of AK Chatterji vs UOI in WP 4532-33 of 1978 where in SC has directed that Promotee Officers in the grade of Asst. Collectors completing 4 years of service, whether regular, temporary or ad-hoc be given Sr. Time Scale with effect from the date on which he/she completed the required service of 4 years as prescribed. It seems CBIC is deliberately not acting upon this simmering issue and waiting for unnecessary and avoidable litigations. Let better sense prevail upon Chairman & Members of CBIC.
Sunita

The appellant sought to know how many students were admitted under HRM quota for a particular academic year in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs). The appellant submitted that he is not satisfied with the reply of the PIO as it was stated that the RTI is not a platform for questions and answers and if such is the case, then how will ordinary citizens know if admissions in KVS are done as per guidelines and no frauds have occurred. The CIC directed the PIO to provide the total number the students who were admitted under HRM quota for the academic year to the appellant. Further, the PIO was directed to provide the hyperlink of the website where the sought for information is available.
Comments
When some information which is already available on the website is sought by an appellant, the PIO should provide the specific web link of the same instead of saying that the information is available on the website.
Citation: S Malarvizhi v. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan in File no.: - CIC/KVSAN/A/2019/601602, Date of Decision: 08/10/2020
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

I fully agree with the views of Mr.Seth. Really sorry to say that CSSS employees are the most sufferers. As pointed out by Mr Seth, we are working on most of the Saturdays, Sundays even on Gazetted holidays for the smooth functioning of the office
P Venkataramani
Ministerial people take it otherwise
I am in full agreement with Mr. Seth. The attitude of ministerial cadre with stenographers always remain anti. The reason behind that is, it is only stenographer cadre personnel who have to follow up the matters on the directions of their bosses and ministerial people take it other way.
Hari

During a visit to the most inhospitable terrain Siachen, George Fernandez ,the then Defence Minister, came to know that the defence ministry was not sanctioning the requisite budget for purchase of some very essential equipment, which could make the life of army units stationed there better. He solved the matter by sending the secretariat staff stationed at Delhi to spend some days in Siachen. Thereafter, there was never any delay in sanctioning of budget for the army units at Siachen. Till early 1970s,all the field revenue officers, including the deputy commissioners and sub divisional magistrates, were required to spend specific number of nights in the villages. The British had framed these rules so that the key administrators could know the ground realities and the pulse of the people.
Recently Amitabh Kant, CEO of the Niti Aayog, has remarked that too much of a democracy in India was making tough reforms very difficult in the country. This made me recollect the scenario of Panchayat elections in Punjab in the year 1993. Any candidate for the post of sarpanch, would be detained by the police, if he defied the regime or he would not be allowed to file his nomination papers. Some of my relatives were detained and restrained from filing nomination papers, as they were opposed to the regime. In the year 1998, a roster was made for the reserved posts of the sarpanchs in the panchayat elections but the interference by the regime was as bad as ever. In the subsequent election, when some deputy commissioners did not conform to the unlawful demands of the politicians to fiddle with the roster to accommodate their proteges, they protested with the then chief minister. He had to call a special meeting of the deputy commissioners in this regard, where one or two deputy commissioners explained the law, but there were some, who said in loud voices that they would consult the relevant persons and accommodate them. They were lavishly cheered and one politician, who used to be a revolutionary professor told the CM that only such type of brave officers should be put as deputy commissioners. One deputy commissioner told the CM that he had already got the roster approved by the state election commission, so there was no question of accommodating anyone. CM, looking sternly at the officer said, ''I will hold separate meeting with you.''
One candidate for post of sarpanch, went to the office of BDPO to file his papers. The officer told that person that his papers had already been rejected, after looking at a list, taken out of his pocket. The candidate very respectfully said ,''Sir, all the papers are still in my 'jhola' (small cloth bag). I have not filed these papers so far, how these have been rejected ! 'The officer immediately said, ''Tere kagaaz jhole vich ee radd (your papers are rejected in the jhola itself). After saying these words, the officer barged out of his office and the candidate continued ranting his threats for sometime.
The policy makers seem to be living in the world of their own making, far far away from the ground realities. They need to establish close contact with the hard realities and sons of the soil.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu

In the flux of time, the mode of politics has changed and so have voters. Results of elections suggest that the voters are supporting foul-mouthed leaders who create nuisance and stir up hatred. The BJP has had strength of such leaders and Congress is almost devoid of such leaders. Congress has no such leader who can counter such foul-mouthed leaders.
Sunil Kumar
Why not scrap the central Vista Redevelopment project ?
Why not scrap the central Vista Redevelopment project which on date is estimated to cost more than 20000 crores..If not for other reasons( like environmental degradation) for austerity sake.
Aarti Khosla

Hope the policy of giving extensions beyond the age of superannuation is discontinued forthwith for all. This rule should also apply to the cabinet secretary, chief secretary chairman of PSUs and banks, ceo of the railways. No one is indispensable and the other officers awaiting these postings after long and dedicated service should get their due .
K Srinivasa Rao
WB IPS officers deputation
It is not that they want the central deputation, it`s other way round. Why should they join centre without their consent.
Vikas Singh

DEBATE(1)
Sachin Pilot is young, visionary and dynamic. He can lead the party in the coming years .
Mahesh Maheshwari
DEBATE(2)
In the difficult times, only Kamal Nath can steer the ship of the Congress party. In Madhya Pradesh he single handedly faced the mighty BJP by mobilizing resources in the recently held elections.
Ankur Jain
Congratulations to CSS fraternity
Heartiest Congratulations to Centre Secretariat (CSS) fraternity on their long pending legitimate demand for promotion.
H S Chauhan
Ever heard two orders from DoPT ?
Have you ever heard two orders from DOPT issued at 10.30 p.m. on Friday (11th December) for promotion as Directors/Dy. Secretaries of CSS (the great people) whereas it was pending for the last two years. What is the urgency and if at all there is, why CSSS orders were not issued simultaneously from Sr. PPS to PSO and PPS to Sr. PPS? The reason behind is the selfish attitude of CSS people who are bothered only about their cadre and they are the GOD who deals the cadre of both CSS & CSSS. They always show scant respect and never care for CSSS as they think CSSS works under them. I am not against promotion given to all the deserving employees but my root question is why to leave one cadre and promote their own whereas both the cadres were waiting for a very long time for their due promotions. CSS should shun their arrogance and try to work impartially. In fact, this promotion has happened because of CSSS Association people who appealed to the present Secretary (Home Secretary) to expedite the promotion processes. CSSS are suffering at the hands of CSS people even for a very tiny administration work as files are put up by CSS only. They don't understand it is a part of a system and they should not indulge in petty politics as they assume they are a step ahead. I challenge every CSS person to work with senior officers for a week and realise how difficult it is. We have left our career behind and dedicated our service to the office/officers for the smooth functioning of office. We are working on most of the holidays/Sundays/gazetted holidays and we sacrifice our Earned and Casual Leave for years. Hope at least now better sense prevail and treat your colleagues properly.
Seth

DEBATE (1)
Now time has come to merge the Congress and the NCP. Sharad Pawar can definitely counter the Modi Government.
G Shankar
DEBATE(2)
Manmohan Singh and Kamal Nath duo can do wonders for the party.Gandhi’s should work from behind the curtain.
V D Garg
“Need for Austerity”
Country is passing through grave economic crisis, falling GDP, rising inflation, shortages of commodities especially farm products due to farmers’ protests and last but not the least, the war-like situation. All former governments enforced austerity measures by curtailing administrative expenses. Consider ground realities.
Here is a list of Luxury Cars used by top govt functionaries in India. Each car costs between 40 and 50 lakhs rupees.
(a)President of India uses Mercedes-Benz S 600 Pullman; (b) Prime minister of India uses BMW 760 LI High Security Edition ;(c) Chief Justice of India and C&AG use Toyota Camry ; (d) Jaguar XE is used by Speaker of Lok Sabha.
Other beneficiaries :
(e) Skoda Superb used by Puisne Judges of Supreme Court & Chief Justices of High court of Delhi, Lt.Governor of Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner; (f) Toyota Innova is used by special Forces and Senior Bureaucrats; Toyota Fortuner used by Union Cabinet Ministers; (g) Maruti Suzuki SX4 is used by Senior Bureaucrats;
Others use public modes of transport , self-owned cars ,bikes etc.
(Source: Official Cars Used)
While Country is already in massive economic distress, War looks imminent. The governments at the Centre and States may find it difficult to pay salaries.It needs to brace for great economic depression.
While VVIPs including the President,PM, CJI / C&AG and Speaker ,Lok Sabha may continue with status quo, others may be advised to use less expensive cars.
Other Steps Needed
Use of fuels must be rationed;Foreign tours must be banned except by IFS officers;Transfers/postings from outstations must be suspended; unfilled posts in govt offices must remain unfulfilled till better times;Total ban on appointment of consultants in governments; Stopping foundation stones laying ceremonies except by PM.
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)
Addl charge for important ministries for long periods not advisable
With reference to Ravi's comment on my additional charges as a routine it pleases me to learn that in case of CSS and CSSS it has turned out to be boon. I wish there were many officers like Home Secretary. Prima facie additional charges for important ministries for long periods are not advisable.
Aarti Khosla

DEBATE(1)
Many Minus Gandhi Family- There is no dearth of leaders of the Yes Sir/Madam kind in the Congress Party. Successful Chief Ministers have no chance as usual. The voices of “conscience” of Emergency kind are notably flagged “dangerous’ in Akbar Road parlance- they don’t have the guts to act a Jagjivan Ram. What is left of the All India Congress Party? No Satyagrah, no non-violence, no sacrifice(material/political/social/financial), no vision, no mission, no socialism of the JLN kind, no respect for standards set by the likes of Lal Bahadur Shastri and other national leaders, no adherence to the ideology or vision of the real Gandhi, no integrated view of India as a sovereign nation, destroying family as the strongest institution of the Indian society by encouraging perversity and vulgarity in the name of creative arts, literature and films, no effort to unite India but divide to rule only, soft towards conversions of the poor by inducement and immoral means, fomenting trouble all the time, blatant disrespect for the ancient Faiths of India, lack of respect for others’ point of view, patronising corrupt bureaucrats destroying the spirit and pride of the public services(on the lines of Indira Gandhi after the Black Emergency), destroying institutions, institutionalising corruption, insulting the armed forces and their chief and their patriotism, insulting the judiciary and its chief, politicising even COVID-19 vaccine, love for committed press and electronic media only, friendship with the enemy bleeding India on a daily basis by terrorism, commission-khori in defence deals and other sensitive departments, destroying Small scale Industry, contempt for promotion of Khadi or/and village industry, going against the delicensing policy launched by Rajiv Gandhi audaciously in 1985 which struck at the roots of corruption prevailing in Licence Raj, revival of Licence Raj, preference for parallel government. Even if a leader tries to correct course now, Congress cannot be saved. Let another party of the real Gandhi’s ideals be born and rise from its ashes!
M L Gupta
DEBATE(2)
No body. Only poster boy of the Gandhi family is acceptable.
Vijay Tewari
Income Tax Return Filing
A Tiring Job Many steps have been taken to improve the income tax return filing, realising the fact that only 1.5 crores pay income tax in the country of population of 130 crores. This was observed by the highest authority and directives were issued to improve the system to make it tax payers friendly. There are less number of tax payers and paying tax honestly was also observed. This is subjective and debatable. But there is still scope to improve it further by knowing the grass root problems. Last date for filing returns is approaching fast i.e.31December 2020 for AY 2020-21. Tax payers are struggling hard to file the returns specially those .who are using ITR2 in filling schedule CG table 112A even thou tax payers have no liability to pay tax under Sec.112A. SSR case has given enough indications that in entertainment industries 60-70% of contract value is paid in cash which is outside of financial monitoring system of Govt. This excess cash gives rise to generation of black money, corruption and many other ill side effects. CBDT has to work hard how to really make the system transparent and uses electronic payment methods. Let the cash transactions be limited to only Rs.10,000/- which may help in increasing tax revenue when they are in system. There are some points worth considering to improve the ITR filing to make it painless and seamless: 1. Make the filing for all forms online directly using efiling portal like ITR1 without downloading, generating XML and again uploading the filled forms. We have best software experts and can make it feasible easily. 2. Make ITR2 optional if tax payers have no tax liability under Sec.112A. It is painful to fill the table with 60 odd entries in case mutual funds purchased using SIPs are redeemed. 3. Tax Authorities should give the format of table 112A to DMAT providers or intermediaries .to provide the information in the desired format to DMAT holders for calculation of LTCG in case of equity or equity oriented MFs so tax payers can directly lift the figures and fill it in case they are filing returns to show their CGs. 4. CBDT should close all old cases more than five years older where no tax liability is fixed leaving those cases which are in dispute, under scrutiny, in courts, in arbitrations or any other disputes so the tax officials can be utilised for more productive work to find the solution to assess the income of professionals and finding the methodologies to reduce cash transactions . This is major leakage of tax revenue due to cash transactions. Let us hope good results are achieved and return filing becomes painless and seamless.
Naveen