1) Citizens should be responsible!
Joining WA groups on the sly or by force is a breach of privacy and cops indulging in such an act would be a criminal offence. Guardians of law would become lawbreakers which is unwarranted. This is another medium to extract money from citizens which needs to be stopped. Everybody has a right to express their opinion in a democracy and interfering in citizens’ life weakens the nation and democracy.
However, citizens need to be responsible and should not spread the news that is inauthentic without proper verification. Spreading falsehood is a crime and those doing it can still be booked without the cops joining social media groups like WA and Facebook. The nation has the technology to block social media groups from spreading rumours and that needs to be exercised at extreme critical situations and not always. The freedom of speech is the basic right of every citizen and let us respect that. The education is the need of the hour and let us make our country learned as well to follow the law of the land which includes not adding fuel to falsehood stories!
– S.N.Kabra
2) Drowning tragedies
Miserable drowning deaths send a wrong signal among the picnickers in the city. More than 100 deaths are a cause for worry all the time. Parents sending their children to these dangerous spots are having sleepless nights and if they come without any serious mishap then it is their good luck. Beaches are dangerous spots in the city. Picnickers will have to take all the precautions and see that lifeguards are available before entering the water. By ignoring warning signals the students endanger themselves and get involved in the adventure. The students lacked maturity by entering the choppy sea and inviting trouble. Let us take care to save human life from drowning. Prevention is better than cure is right.
– Anandambal Subbu
3) Juhu beach tragedy an eye-opener
Whatever said and done drowning incidents have crippled the city and neighbourhood. This is happening for some time during weekends and mainly during picnics by school and college students. They youngsters lose their composure by seeing water and go mad to face fatal deaths by drowning in the deep sea. Tragedy at Juhu beach accounted for four boys on an outing. Better council prevailed after the Juhu tragedy and siren and Public announcement system are set up in six beaches as of now. Alibaug beach near Panvel and Aksa Beach are also more dangerous spots in the city. It is time to post more lifeguards in these dangerous spots. Picnickers will have to take all the precautions and see that lifeguards are available before entering the water. The students should follow the instructions strictly and now follow the announcements made in the public announcement system. By ignoring warning signals the young generation endangers their lives in the name of so-called adventure. The youngsters lacked maturity by entering the choppy sea and inviting trouble. Let us take care to save human life from drowning. Recent Juhu beach tragedy is a real eye-opener.
– Nikhil Krishnan
4) Logic of postal-orders in denominations of Rs 10 and 20
It was only after revelation through RTI application that Department of Posts discontinued postal-orders in outdated denominations like Rs 1, 2, 5 and 7 because of extremely low sale-figure and high handling cost. According to an RTI response, handling cost of a postal-order was Rs 37.45 to Department of Posts alone in the year 2011-12. Handling cost for clearing-operation of banks is even extra. It is highly illogical that public-exchequer may bear such extraordinary loss in handling postal-orders in denominations like Rs 10 and 20. Rather it is time that higher denominations like of Rs 100, 200 and 500 may be added to avoid the purchase of demand-drafts in submitting various types of fees.
It is better that government-fee below Rs 50 may either be increased or totally abolished or Department of Posts may issue special stamps like there used to be for licences of radio and TV sets may be issued for services requiring heavy use of postal-orders in lower denominations of Rs 10 and 20. The beginning can be done with introducing RTI stamps where presently heavy use of postal-orders in denominations Rs 10 is there. RTI stamps can be issued in denominations of Rs 2, 10 and 50. Presently copying-charges under RTI Act in amounts lower than Rs 10 is not feasible because of discontinuance of postal-orders in denominations of Rs 2.
– Madhu Agrawal
5) Uniformity in paper-size
Department of Justice in its communication dated November 26, 2015 on the matter taken up with the Rajya Sabha committee on Petitions revealed that a meeting of Chairpersons of Computer Committees of High Courts chaired by Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B Lokur (Judge in-charge of e-Committee of Supreme Court) on August 2-3, 2014 emphasised that for sake of uniformity, A-4 size paper-sheets should be used in preparing orders, judgements and depositions. But it is regretting that British legacy to continue with legal-size paper still continues.
Presently A-4 size paper (29.5 cms x 21 cms) is most commonly used size of paper-sheets. All photocopiers used in homes and offices are mostly equipped to handle this size of paper-sheets only. Distinct size of legal paper-sheets for filing and use in courts which is 5 cms longer at 34.5 cms x 21 cms! Now needs to be abolished immediately as per recommendations of committee of Judges made on August 2-3, 2014. System will then become user-friendly and people will not have to rush outside for photo-copying bigger sized legal-papers. Even files are usually designed to have normal A-4 size paper-sheets.
Union government should take up matter with concerned international authorities to have standard usable paper-sheets in square form of 25 cms x 25 cms instead of present practice of having rectangular paper-sheets. Such square-sheets were quite common for bank-ledgers before computerisation. However if rectangular paper-sheets are to be continued, then their size should be modified according to true metric-units say 30 cms x 20 cms. Even computer-stationary used at dot-matrix printers should also have usable size (without perforation) as that of standard paper-sheets.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
