Kerala government should assure women’s protection
Sabarimala temple in Kerala was on the boil once again as an eleven member group of women below the age of 50, owing allegiance to the Tamil Nadu based Progressive Women’s Forum – Manathi, made an attempt to enter the hill shrine under police protection on Sunday. But after a stand-off lasting almost 10 hours, the police dissuaded the women from proceeding to the temple as hundreds of devotees blocked the trekking path at Pampa and chased away the Manathi team escorted till there by the police. It shows the Kerala government’s failure to impose the Supreme Court’s decision even after a couple of months have passed. As the Kerala Chief Minister and the police have already assured the women’s protection to visit Sabarimala, it was quite unjust on their part to remain unsuccessful to fulfil their promise.
FT Mulla
Tax payers suffer
Since day one of the current Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sessions, crores of the innocent Indian tax payers suffer unprecedented and extremely huge wastage of their hard-earned money mainly because of most disruptive, most destructive, most corrupt, most non-cooperative, most adamant and most arrogant ‘Gandhi’ Congress. Smart and sensible tax payers will never vote for such most anti-people and most anti-national, so called ‘Indian National’ party in the coming Lok Sabha elections or any other election.
Hansraj Bhat
Witticisms thy name was Nana Chudasama!
The city of Mumbai has lost its voice in the death of Nana Chudasama who was the conscience-keeper of the city. A towering personality by all yardsticks, ex-Sheriff Chudasama was known for his witticisms and the first thing you notice passing through Marine Drive are his one line banners that speaks about real life anecdotes in a manner that citizens loved to hear. He was also associated with social causes and also, charitable projects for the poor were close to his heart for which he went on to spend most of his valuable time.
Just as RK Laxman was famous for reproducing the city mood with his cartoons, Chudasama did just that with his one line banners which were as famous as the Gate Way of India or any other monument which Mumbai is remembered for. Nana Chudasama would be remembered for a long time to come and the city truly has lost its wits at his sad demise. RIP Nana Chudasama. May His Soul Rest In Peace!
SN Kabra
BJP bowed down to Nitish Kumar
Finally, after several rounds of closed door meetings with allies over seat-sharing arrangements in Bihar for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday announced that his party and Nitish Kumar’s Janta Dal( United) will contest from 17 seats each, while the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party will fight from the remaining 6 seats. What is the most surprising in this bargaining is that the JD(U), which has only two MPs, will contest from 17 seats while the BJP, in spite of having 17 MPs, will also contest from 17 seats. It clearly shows that BJP is losing its reputation and power everywhere. What else can be the compulsion that the BJP has now bowed down to JD-U by agreeing to contest an equal number of seats in Bihar?
MFU Tandvi
Heartbreaking disaster in Indonesia
It was really heart-wrenching to learn about the volcano-triggered tsunami that has left at least 222 people dead and hundreds more injured after slamming without warning into beaches around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait. The incident left hundreds of families in immense sorrow and grief and also it caused financial damages in extensive scale. It was the third of the biggest national adverse disaster in Indonesia in the same year of 2018. Now, it is everyone’s responsibility to reach the affected people with every assistance possible for their rehabilitation. I request the Indian government to assure its support and assistance in any possible way. I thank the rescue teams and their tireless efforts to rescue the people and protect them.
MF Qasmi
Revive government-owned IDPL
Central and state governments are bulk buyers of medicines to be used in their hospitals and dispensaries. Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) was a government-owned premium drug manufacturing company in yesteryears which was known for providing quality medicines at a cost much below the famous branded medicines. For example, Calmod was its own brand name for sleeping pill with salt diazepam (5 mgs) as a cheaper substitute sold at a fractional cost of popular branded medicines sold under the tradenames Calmpose and Valium-5.
With generic medicines being sold at exorbitant profit-margins with maximum retail price (MRP) printed at even 400 per cent of that available at the wholesale drug market in Bhagirath Palace (Delhi), there is every likelihood of a big bribe margin in their supply to government hospitals. Thus, the Central government should revive IDPL in a much larger scale than before. Rather Ayurvedic, Unani and Homeopathic medicines should also be produced by IDPL for providing users reliable and cheaper products where nowadays, marketers of honey are advertising extensively for blaming their competitors in selling adulterated and overpriced honey.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Relevance of Revenue Stamps
Revenue-stamps are required for receipts of amounts for Rs 5,000 or above even though payment is made through banks. This useless colonial practice needs to be altogether abolished. Signed receipts become useless in case gumming of revenue-stamps is not proper, because major portion of signature vanishes in case poorly gummed revenue-stamp is somehow removed from the signed receipt. Union government should do away with the requirement of revenue-stamps for any receipt either by cash or through bank. If needed, special receipt-papers printed at Government Security Printing-press on lines of stamp-papers may be introduced at a cost of say Rs 100 for heavy transactions of say Rs 50,000 and above. But such receipt-papers, if introduced, should be conveniently available at all post offices and bank branches (private and public sectors) apart from other convenient centres by having a sales commission.
Union government should abolish Notary Public and Oath Commissioners who just authenticate documents for fees without actually identifying authenticity of persons having signed the documents. Instead, medical practitioners, lawyers, chartered accountants etc. apart from gazetted officers can be empowered to attest such documents.
Colonial practice of having special legal-size paper for use in courts should also be abolished by replacing these with normal A-4 size papers because most photo-copiers used at homes and offices are equipped to copy papers of A-4 size or less. If necessary, court-papers can be in distinct colours. For example, green papers are used at Madras High Court.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
