Hope the ‘one-night wonder’ is safe and reliable
Hancock bridge to be replaced by an assembled one in a single night sounds great and optimistic. A fully assembled road overbridge in a matter of hours in one night sounds great but hope it has the strength to hold the heavy traffic. Safety standards of roads and bridges are very poor in our country where they collapse like pack of cards and extreme caution should be undergone to see that such structures are reliable. We have the technology to build one-night wonders but to err is human and keeping fingers crossed that these are fixed to perfection and no untoward incidents happen in future.
Assembled overbridge to replace the Hancock bridge in a single night would be a monumental wonder but it would require top class maintenance to keep it going and hope the authorities are prepared for its upkeep with all the spares and other accessories to keep it safe and going. Bridge should be tested for strength and reliability before it is thrown open for public use.
S.N.Kabra
Bomb hoax on board of plane
It is becoming a regular feature to delay flight take off with a bomb hoax scare in recent times. But in the present case the bomb hoax came on board on a Mumbai bound plane and that is very unusual. It appears like a terror attack on board of plane. Air India flight was forced to return to the airport. The plane made an emergency landing giving jitters to air passengers. No bombs were found following thorough search and it was a hoax call. It was just a ploy by the woman, who was in an inebriated state, just to return back to Kolkata. The air crew was put to test in a most ticklish way to handle an emergency like situation in the end.
Anandambal Subbu
Public being looted in name of notarization of documents in Delhi
System allows a fixed fees for getting any document duly attested and notarized by persons authorized as Notary-Public, by recording complete details in the registers required to be maintained by persons authorized as Notary-Public. Similar may be system for Oath-Commissioners. But it is common practice in Delhi that many persons charge fees as Notary-Public by simply putting a round rubber-stamp on documents without even having a register where complete details about documents are to be recorded and numbered to be endorsed on notarized documents also. There is no provision to check authenticity of such persons acting as Notary Public. It is a common practice that many authorized Notary Public maintaining proper registers for keeping record of notarized documents charge heavily in tunes of hundreds of rupees in place of fixed charges. Delhi and Central government should publicly warn through newspaper advertisements against documents being notarized without recording properly in the register and registration-number endorsed on notarized documents.
For preventing over-charging, fees for notarizing documents should also be publicised through media and websites of appropriate governments. Chargeable fees should be made part of rubber-stamp to be fixed on notarized documents without members of public required to ask for receipts separately. Licences of Notary-Public for over-charging should be immediately cancelled, with criminal action initiated against them. Same should be system for Oath-Commissioners. Better is to give common licenses for Oath-Commissioner and Notary-Public because common people do not understand difference between Oath-Commissioner and Notary-Public. Even typing-charges per page should also be fixed so that Notary-Public and Oath-Commissioner may not be able to overcharge in name of typing documents. It should be compulsory for Notary-Public and Oath-Commissioner to have typing provision. List of Notary-Public and Oath-Commissioners together with their respective addresses and phone-numbers should be put on government-websites.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
