1) Live-stream of court proceedings
It refers to the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India on July 9, 2018, expressing the willingness for a live streaming of its proceedings. But live telecast can be feasible only for a few selected court-proceedings. The need is to provide some practical mechanism whereby recordings may be replayed in case of need. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had to issue contempt-notices on September 20, 2012, to two English dailies Pioneer and Indian Express allegedly for their having misreported court-proceedings.
With court-rooms equipped with necessary wiring-slots for the purpose, the Supreme Court should take immediate steps for compulsory audio-recording of proceedings in all court-rooms right from Supreme Court to trial-courts including High Courts. Such audio-recordings may be available on annual subscription to those having subscribed for the same, soon after court-proceedings are over for the day. Provision of providing the recording of daily proceedings of individual court-rooms may also be there on payment. System will induce much-needed transparency, accountability and responsibility for all present in court-rooms also effectively checking corruption at different levels in the judiciary. It is also observed that at times judges forget their verbal directions on the next date of the hearing.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
2) Encourage Football in India
Football-fever in the world is over with the World Cup final match played at Moscow (Russia) on July 15, 2018, between France and Croatia. Football is the most favourite game in the world leaving Cricket much behind being, placed at No. 7. India once held No. 1 position in Hockey too, but that also vanished with Cricket monopolising in India with Cricketers earning enormously through crores of rupees given annually to individual Cricketers by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) as salary, match-money and award money apart from huge income from other sources like from advertisements.
It is a matter of concern that world’s second largest populated country India with a population of more than 130 crores does not figure anywhere in the world’s most favourite game of Football, while Croatia with a small population of just about 43 lakhs managed to reach to the World Cup Final. It is time that a planned craze may be developed in Indians to make Football and Hockey also their favourite game like Cricket so that India may also dream of winning the World Cup Final in Football. Playing football is also healthy requiring strong bodies and a sharp mind, unlike cricket which is more or less a game of chance.
– Madhu Agrawal
3) Pothole blues continue
It is indeed a traumatic experience for road users in Mumbai city. Even the highways are having potholes and that hamper the traffic. Traffic snarls are seen on focal points and the Sion-Panvel Highway suffered the most. CBD Belapur Bridge was a bottleneck in the past for the expressway travellers and with potholes and craters, the position has become bad to worse. Motorists were caught unaware and the five-hour jam saw a long queue of vehicles on the street. The repair work must be completed during the night hours and that too in a phased manner. The chaos continued for six long hours and it is a waste of time as well as energy. While the conditions of the bridges are so bad, the roads in the city look pathetic with full of potholes. Potholes pose a problem for the two-wheelers, while four-wheelers are troubled with craters. With water filled in all the potholes, manoeuvring the vehicles is a herculean task for the drivers. Thus, the pothole blues continue and the pain undertaken by both the drivers and the pedestrians is horrible. The BMC is cutting a sorry figure as their rain readiness promise has gone to the winds. The potholes woes will continue for two more months till the end of monsoon. It is now or never a situation and a wakeup call for the BMC.
– Nickhil Krishnan
4) Storm in milk cup
State-wide strike by the dairy farmers turned destructive as agitating farmers pour milk on late Maharashtra chief minister YB Chavan’s memorial. It is a matter of shame that an essential item like milk is thrown to the drain in the name of protest. When millions of children in India are suffering because of malnutrition, wasting milk in an agitating way is not good for the society. The Milk revolution was brought to India by Dr. Verghese Kurien and now the name is spoiled through a strike. How long can we see the height of intolerance in India? Why are the farmers protesting when they are getting good yield price for their products? While the Chief Minister is ready to discuss, why is there unrest? The farmers are on a collision course. This may create an artificial scarcity of milk in main cities like Mumbai and surrounding areas. It is understood that the shortage of supply will be felt from day three and the scarcity of milk may shoot up the price for milk packets. House-wives will feel the heat. People especially young babies will suffer because of the shortage. It is time to stop such agitations with an amicable solution.
– Jayanthy S. Maniam
5) No ‘ache din’ in NaMo rule
Retired people in India who have worked for the government offices like the Police departments, Post Offices, Provident Fund Offices, etc., get a monthly pension of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, while retired people who have worked for private organisations for over 35 to 40 years get a monthly pension of only Rs 800 to Rs 1,100 a month. Why is it so? With Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country, we Indians are not even seeing better days. In fact, our days are going from bad to worse? And it will be still worse if Narendra Modi wins the 2019 elections.
– Jubel D’Cruz
6) Remove middlemen!
It was shocking to learn that the precious milk is being spilled and wasted as a mark of protest to hike milk prices by Rs 5 per litre! Milk prices are already very high and on par with fuel and any further hike would hit the consumers hard. Inflation is on the rise and commodities including vegetables are so expensive that they have become beyond the reach of the common man. Protesters should be taken to task by the govt as this is pure blackmail and items of essentials should not be allowed to be wasted or their prices hiked inappropriately.
Farmers’ demand for less procurement price for milk may be genuine and middlemen should be removed so that they get their proper dues. Cooperative societies should support farmers with better storing facilities so that milk does not turn bad and farmers too will get a better price for their produce!
– S.N.Kabra
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
