Whispers Forum

My own estimates are based on presence of black or undeclared assets. Per estimates, India has close to 26000-28000 tonnes of gold, nearly 1,25 lakh tonnes of silver. Besides the quantity of diamonds and investments in land. All put together the amount of converted cash is close to 28-30 lakh crores. That is close to 4.5-5 trillion Dollars.
The estimates of gold are based on the presumption that 25-30% gold ever mined in the world had found its way to India. The total gold mined is believed to be 171000 Tonnes. This translates to 45000-50000 tonnes having come to India since the time gold has been mined in the world. However considering the pillaging of gold by invaders and then the East India company, the actual amount may have diminished to present estimation above.
Silver mining was never known in India, but fondness of the metal for utensils, Jewellery etc, meant huge imports over the years.
There is no way the value of diamonds can ever be discovered and guesstimates may peril any adventurer in this direction.
Black money has always been and still is an important component of land and property dealings. The cash component ranged from 30% to 75%. The component of cash to cheque has narrowed substantially over the years, but old cash already assimilated in the economy has nevertheless to be computed.
Ajay Agnihotri

CSS always behaves like men at Jantar Mantar and even on smallest pretext going to courts against everybody and has largest number of cases any service has against the Govt. How can they behave in such a childish manner that they can Gherao the DOPT Minister ? It would have been better had they used other foras ?
Rahgu
Definition of 'authorized service' ?
Department of Personnel & Training, representing the feudalistic minded IAS fraternity, is stalling the promotion of Central Secretariat Service Officers by raising questions about the definition of 'authorized service' in age old CSS officers. I have obtained a lot of information about misuse of office perks & facilities by the Ministers and blue colored IAS chaps. If the promotion of CSS officers is delayed any further, I will not shy away from bringing the matter of misuse of office & perks before the Press. I am also a past retired Secretary level officers.
B B Srivastava

The appellant sought information regarding the note-sheet concerning the amount of honorarium for those who were involved in a particular project and also the promotional post of Xerox Operator. The FAA stated that partial information post 2011 including inspection of the files has been provided to the appellant. The CIC directed to conduct an enquiry to examine the cause behind the six missing pages in the file no. A. 12025/6/95-GAS. The CIC further directed that the enquiry report should be submitted before the Commission within three weeks.
Comments
It is the duty of the public authority to maintain its records and failure to do so may lead to penal proceedings against those who are responsible for the safe keeping of the records. Disciplinary proceedings may be initiated against an individual for destroying any information.
Citation:: Jabardeen v. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in F. No.CIC/NIHFW/C/2017/118524 F. No. CIC/YA/A/2016/002118, Date of Decision: 20.07.2017
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India - Right to Information Act 2005- RTI Foundation of India

China is India's permanent enemy. We must talk tough with China and remain battle-ready. India’s candy-floss foreign policy emboldens China to wild gesticulation, over estimating its potential. India must keep enhancing its missile technology, naval quotient. All at fast pace.
China’s mindless pestering through government-controlled daily the “Global Times “ and official spokespersons deserve forceful reposte from India.
China threatens attacking India, if , it does not first withdraw troops from Doklam and stop “ interference “ in Bhutan.
India must set its own pre-conditions for settling border dispute with China on holistic basis. Aggression is the best form of defence.
Consider the following factors
China must be continuously warned about its continuous infringements of bilateral and multilateral treaties to satisfy its insatiable appetite for land
(a) China must vacate Tibet and restore its autonomy to pre- 7 October 1950 position when it was taken over by China . Guarantee of non- interference in future is a must ;
(b) Must restore Aksai Chin to India. Forcibly occupied by China in 1958. Nehru’s historic blunder.
(c) Must demolish and stop further construction at Doklam. Recall how Aksai chin road was constructed , not insidiously. But, missed out by IB. Pt Nehru broke the news to Parliament an year too late. Lot of fireworks was generated in Parliament.
(d) Must stop bullying India ;
(e) Must stop poking Bhutan;
(f ) Must stop abetting Indian Maoists ;
(g) Must stop incursions into India -- HP, AP, Sikkim, Uttaranchal
(h) Chinese intelligence is hyper-active in inciting the north-eastern militant groups. In retaliation, the unrest among the Chinese Uyghur muslim population, must be addressed.
(i ) Declare Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist and blocking India’s application by misusing its Veto power.
China must be warned by World powers for continuous infringements of bilateral and multilateral treaties to satisfy its insatiable appetite for land. It is increasing by the day.
A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)

I wish to share with fellow surfers my disgust and anger after reading Arundhati Roy's latest novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. I hope you all have heard the name of this lady who won the Man Booker Prize for her first book in 1997.She came out with this second book after 20 years. I found it among the New arrivals in the India International Centre Library and picked it up to read. What a waste of time ? The book is neither a fiction nor history. It is simply a tirade against India for 'occupying Kashmir' and killing innocent Kashmiris by torturing them. According to her innocent boys are caught by our security people ,tortured and killed for awards and medals. In the long conflict in Kashmir some aberrations have taken place but Ms. Roy has portrayed our uniformed men worse than devils out to kill harmless ,innocent people. For her other innocents killed by jihadis do not matter. For her India is forcefully occupying Kashmir through her military. The stories of torture in her so-called fiction narrative are too gory to absorb. She is outright insulting our present Prime minister by calling him "Gujrat ka Lalla' , Manmohan Singh is Trapped Rabbit. She has insulted many leaders by using humiliating expressions for them. The book is a real trash bordering on vulgarity for use of four letter words too often and some filthy abuses too. There is no plot. Starting with a story of a hijra she rambles on to Kashmir and politics. It is disgusting to find that the book has been included in the list for Manbooker Prize again. What will foreigners think of India after reading it ? Already in a review in the "New York Review of Books' conclusion has been drawn and I quote "Roy seems to be saying: This is the country i live in. This is a nation whose citizens are capable of greed, corruption, indifference, horrific mob violence" etc. Kashmiris and Pakistanis will of course adore her for what she wrote. She has all through supported Maoists and now militants in Kashmir endorsing what Pakistan wants. My advice to her, 'please leave this country. Go live elsewhere’.
Aarti Khosla

Prime Minister's experiments are failing because he is surrounded by IAS officers, who have tried to give an impression that they are the only Civil Servants of the country. They are also other Civil Servants in the country. A Deputy Secretary level IRTS officer posted in the Charkradharpur Division of South Eastern Railway gains more experience than any IAS officer of the country. He has 10000 people working under him/her on 24 hours basis. He has to deal with 2 steel plants, several iron ore mines, several coal mines, power houses and last but not the least his own Department wherein people work and train runs on 24 hours basis. No feudalistic mentality IAS people are bothered about the welfare of other services. On one hand they say that as that are shortage of officers at the level of Director and Deputy Secretary in the central Ministries/Departments , they need to induct people from out side but on the other hand hundreds of Central Secretariat Service Officers are waiting in the wing to get promoted since long. The Ministers give commitments but they are unable to honor the same as they are reigned in by the IAS officers. The CSS officers propose to take very soon a step of mass scale VRS. As a result the working of the Government of India is going to come to a stand still.
Nivedita

The two are not comparable. The psu officers have security of job, where they can continue in their jobs, irrespective of output. Does not apply to private sector executives. If they are so keen, let these psu officers opt for private sector,they will know the difference, when they get pink slip in no time!
Samir Chatterjee
Date with RTI
After the enquiry is over, the complete details should be provided to the public or at least the concerned officer. After all, what is there to hide? If it is a judicious process, the facts should be brought out in open and available for scrutiny. The information commissioners should sit together and take a common call rather than taking differing decisions which leads to conflicting decisions and confusion.
Umashakar

I would like to request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discard the use of word like Dalit, Backward Class (BC), OBC etc. Is it not a blot on a gentleman of India who is also first a human and last an Indian citizen. All Indians have equal rights, of whatever caste he may be. I watch media showing that atrocious deeds are being made against Dalits whereas the same may happen with any person. This use of word takes the communal happenings in India. Government should take measures to stop use of the same and must come out for some respectable word by making the people to know and understand. As on date if something happen with a Dalit/BC/OBC, it is highly highlighted which creates all the mess in India. Nowhere in the world these types of casteism remarks are seen or read. Hope we Indian will understand and themselves would come forward to stop calling Dalit/BC/OBC etc.
Ram Kumar Garg
Different yardsticks for different services in GoI
This colonial era discrimination must end sooner than later to adhere to 'Sab ka saath, sab kaa vikas'.
Parth

An application was filed by the Appellant under the RTI Act seeking information on two points regarding documents concerning disposal of his appeal against the order passed by the Disciplinary Authority. The PIO denied the information under section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act.
The Respondents submitted that the information sought was regarding the notings concerning disposal of the above appeal by the Appellate Committee and the comments etc. made on the appeal by the above committee. The Respondents stated that the above information cannot be provided as these are internal documents of the bank. The CIC ruled that there was no ground to invoke Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act to deny the information in this case. Since the disciplinary proceedings are over, there is no ground to deny the information sought by the Appellant. The CIC directed the PIO to provide the information, free of charge, within twenty days of the receipt of the order, under intimation to the Commission.
Comments
On the question of disclosure of the note-sheet of the vigilance files, there have been a series of orders of the CIC which are inconsistent with each other.
Citation:: Shri Shiv Kumar Gupta v. UCO Bank in File No. CIC/SH/A/2016/001227, Date of decision: 19th July 2017
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is the co-author of the books: RIGHT TO INFORMATION – LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India - Right to Information Act 2005- RTI Foundation of India

It is not possible for Sharad Yadav to topple Nitish Kumar for the simple reason that Nitish in a more astute politician. The fact that he joined hands with BJP instantly shows Yadav has his brain in the back and not in the forehead.
Chipti
What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment ?
"What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment of all Group A organised services? DOPT interprets eligibility for JS empanelment which benefits only IAS since DOPT is cadre controlling authority of IAS, by IAS and for IAS only. As per JS Empanelment ‘Guidelines’ of DOPT O.M. no. 12/3/2008-EO(SM-III) (Part-II) dated 24.07.2014, eligibility criteria is (i) Officers who have rendered 17 years of service in Group-A, AND (ii) Drawing pay in the scale of Rs. 37400-67000 + Grade Pay Rs. 10,000 in their respective parent cadre/service. The guideline does not discriminate between type of pay drawn. The only criterion is officer should be drawing GP of Rs. 10,000 in PB4 in his cadre. But, DOPT illegally interprets for NON-IAS that non-functional upgradation (NFU) to GP Rs. 10,000 does not fulfil criteria no. (ii) for JS empanelment. This discrimination violates Article-16 of Constitution. IAS is also not ‘actually’ promoted to GP Rs. 10,000, based on occurrence of any vacancy in this grade in his State cadre. IAS also gets non-functional upgradation to GP Rs. 10,000 in his state cadre due to time-bound upgradations (not vacancy bound), if any of his batchmate in any other State cadre gets higher grade pay. IAS drawing NFU GP Rs. 10,000 is treated as eligible for empanelment as Joint Secretary, while non-IAS are not eligible. 7CPC in Para-7.3.31(b) says that theoretically, an IAS officer need not ‘actually’ be promoted to the Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) to be considered for JS empanelment. It needs only one officer from a batch in any of the States to be promoted to the higher grade (of GP Rs. 10,000), to render the WHOLE batch posted in different States eligible to be upgraded to the higher grade (of GP Rs. 10,000). This condition is achieved in the minimum possible time (16-17 years) for being eligible as Joint Secretary in Govt of India. On the other hand, the officers of Central Services have to await for actual promotion to the SAG which is ‘vacancy-based’ and which could take anywhere between 18 to 25 years. In Para 7.3.24, 7CPC has recommended that officers drawing NFU GP of Rs. 10,000 would also be eligible to apply for deputation posts in the higher grade through empanelment in the Central Staffing Scheme as well as to posts outside the Central Staffing Scheme. In Para 7.3.41, Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy member have recommended following eligibility criteria for JS empanelment: 1. All officers of All India Services and Central Group `A’ Services participating in the Central Staffing Scheme who have put in 17 years of service will be eligible to apply. 2. The existing proviso for the AIS, viz., the appointment of at least one officer of the batch year of the Service from any State cadre in the (pre-revised) scale of ₹37400-67000 + GP ₹10,000 should be dispensed with. Hope DOPT listens and our PM acts more tough to get non-IAS officers also empanelled and appointed as JS. DOPT dared to defy PM’s order of June 2015 that all non-IAS officers upto 1995 batch should be empanelled as JS by 31st December 2015.
Bharat
Joint Secretary empanelment
The eligibility conditions should be relaxed 1. Any officer in GP 1000 should be eligible 2. Count deputation to any ex cadre post in place of mandatory requirement of CSS deputation at director level
Rajesh
What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment?
It is high time that these directives are followed in letter and spirit and that too without delay.
Parth