1) The strange appearance of a student
It is totally shocking and sorrowful that nearly after two years JNU student Najeeb Ahmed went missing and police, as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), remained unsuccessful to bring out factors of his disappearance. Now, the Delhi High Court allowed CBI to file a closure report in the investigation. It is so surprising that there was no clue about Ahmad’s missing. How perfectly he was missed that everyone even CBI, the Apex Investigation Agency of the Indian government, were left clueless. It shows that his disappearance was a plan which was designed incredibly by some masterminds. It is also possible that there might be some political factors behind this case as Najeeb’s mother had pointed out.
– M.F.U.Tandvi
2) The logic of repeatedly extending the last date for filing Income Tax Returns
India is a country where most people defer abiding by rules in wait for last dates like is usually seen in case of filing Income Tax returns. It is quite usual that the Income Tax Department repeatedly extends the last date for filing returns even without a valid practical logic. This year too, the Income Tax Department has twice extended the last date for filing returns for those requiring an audit of account-books first from original September 30, 2018, to October 15, 2018, and now again to October 31, 2018. It may be recalled that till a few years back, this last date was October 31 which was not practical because of the festive season around that date.
If Income Tax Department considers September 30 not sufficient for tax-payers to file Income Tax returns, it may make it on November 30. To motivate early filing of returns, some incentive may be provided to those filing returns by September 30. However, October 31 must not be the last date for filing Income Tax returns because of the festive season usually around this date. In the case of others, the last date of filing returns can be advanced to June 30 from present July 31.
– Madhu Agrawal
3) Confusing observations by Delhi HC
It refers to confusing observations made by a bench of Delhi High Court on October 4, 2018, on the decision of the Delhi government to give preference to the Delhi residents for medical-treatment at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital run by the Delhi government. It cannot be denied that medical-treatment in case of emergencies are definitely right to healthcare by all citizens irrespective of the state they belong because medical-emergencies can occur even to outsiders while visiting Delhi.
But it is definitely an unjustified burden on the Delhi tax-payers to bear the cost of free medical-treatments, medicines, and investigations provided to non-Delhi residents by the Delhi government in hospitals run by it when people from outside Delhi come specially to avail such free facilities by registering themselves in Out-Patient-Departments OPDs of hospitals under Delhi government. The extra-ordinary rush of non-Delhi residents at OPDs of hospitals under the Delhi government deprive Delhi residents of the unique facility of free medicines and costly investigations which are not available even in Delhi hospitals under the central government including prestigious All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS). The Delhi High Court should direct free medical-treatment for all including non-Delhi residents only in emergency-wards of hospitals under the Delhi government. Aadhaar cards with Delhi address should be compulsory for patients coming to OPDs of hospitals under Delhi government also to get free medicines and medical-tests.
The Delhi High Court can rather direct all hospitals under a Central government in Delhi to provide similar free medical-treatment, medicines, investigations to all individuals from any state of India without any priority to Delhi residents because the central government is funded by the tax-payers of the complete country rather than from Delhi alone.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
4) Ban Facebook
The biggest disaster and crisis of this new era is that every individual’s privacy is at risk. Let’s take an example, one of the biggest platform of social media Facebook, where one puts his personal profile, discovered the breach, finding that attackers had exploited a code of feature called “view as” that allowed them to take over 50 million users’ personal information. It was an attack but on the other hand, Facebook itself admitted that the numbers given to Facebook for two-factor authentication were used to target advertising, which clearly reflects their negligence towards our privacy. It should be banned. Because Facebook no longer remained a platform for sharing ideas and communication source, rather it has become a money-making an app which steals numbers and personal information on the name of offering a better, more personalised experience and violating the universal right to privacy.
– Ismail Mulla
5) Dreaded dengue deaths
People in Mumbai are suffering from dengue and the fever spread in epidemic form. A number of dengue deaths during the month of September was the maximum. Unlike Malaria, it is the day mosquito that causes this illness. It is reliably learned that almost every hospital in the city is having victims of this dreaded vector’s bite and the patients are facing high fever, body pain followed by weakness. Many are being turned away for lack of space in the hospitals and the medical facility required meeting the patients to cure the dreaded dengue. It is time to have hospitals exclusively dedicated to dengue fever and reduce the number of deaths forthwith.
– Calicut Krishnan Ramani
6) Champion Modi
It was good to read Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the Champion of the Earth Award received by him from the United Nations was the recognition of Indian culture and values. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is an earnest effort towards sanitation. A major change in the mindset is visible. We are all elated to know that the UN’s highest environmental honour was presented to our PM. Now, the responsibility has increased for the PM to justify his Award. He must order the immediate pullout of all the machinery from the Cauvery delta regions installed for extraction of hydrocarbons that will impact the environment. The next axe must fall on the proposed expensive eight-lane highway being built between Chennai and Salem against the struggle by farmers and environmentalists. This will prevent thousands of trees from being axed. If he can make headway on these important matters, he will become a fitting personality for the UN’s highest award for environmental protection.
– Divyesh Chovatiya
7) Formulate National Employment Policy
This is the clear sign of the government’s failure that higher growth rates are not being translated into more jobs and after the increase in productivity, they could not spur a commensurate rise in wage, and that is why young people with higher education level suffered an unemployment rate as high as 16 per cent. According to a new study released by Azim Premji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, which confirms the specter of jobless growth and increase in divergence between growth and jobs. The government must accept its failure and formulate a National Employment Policy, to take account and try to reduce the number of unemployed youth, which is a great concern for the young talents.
– Qeyamuddin
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
