1) Bridge collapse is a big disaster
It was heartbreaking to hear about Kolkata Majerhat bridge collapse which left three dead and several injured. Really, it is a big disaster which occurred only because of the negligence of the government. It is the second bridge collapse in the same state after the Burrabazar bridge collapse which led to 27 deaths and 80 injured on March 31, 2016, but the government is yet to learn its lesson. Actually, the endless callousness of the government towards the repair of the old bridge is the main reason behind the bridge collapse. Now, the government must learn a lesson and take a step to maintain old bridges across the state.
– M.F.U.Tandvi
2) Public looted for notarisation of docs
System allows a fixed fee for getting any document duly attested and notarised by persons authorised as Notary Public, by recording complete details in the registers required to be maintained by persons authorised as Notary Public. Similar may be the system for Oath Commissioners. But it is a common practice in Delhi that many persons charge fees as Notary Public by simply putting a round rubber stamp on the documents without even having a register where complete details about documents are to be recorded and numbered to be endorsed on notarised documents also. There is no provision to check the authenticity of such persons acting as Notary Public. It is a common practice that many authorised Notary Public maintaining proper registers for keeping a record of notarised documents charge heavily in tunes of hundreds of rupees in the place of fixed charges. Delhi and the Central government should publicly warn through newspaper advertisements against documents being notarised without recording properly in the register and registration number endorsed on notarised documents. Documents without registration number must not be taken as notarised documents.
For preventing overcharging, fees for notarising 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 notarised documents without members of the public required to ask for receipts separately. Licences of Notary Public for overcharging should be immediately cancelled, with the criminal action initiated against them. Same should be the system for Oath Commissioners. It is better to give common licenses for Oath Commissioner and Notary Public because common people do not understand the 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 the 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 the government websites. The same system should be in all states.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
3) Govt cannot be blamed all the time
The recent reports of losses of up to $1.9 billion by the Indian air carriers are alarming. This comes at a time when the industry is crippled with various internal challenges including surging oil prices, mounting losses of FSCs, crew management issues and high competition between LCCs and FSCs in the Indian market.
It has been pointed out by the reports that cheap tickets for an hour’s flight have made the current FSC a redundant model to run, as compared to LCCs operating in India. Though the ticket prices have not taken a backseat despite high cost/seat, for now, this will bring no cheer in the long run. Airline industry needs to wake up to the current scenario and adopt innovative measures quickly to overcome such losses.
It is also not surprising to know that most carriers are ill-equipped to withstand cyclical downturns. As in the past, the market has seen the closure of several LCC airlines. The Government too seems to be concerned (along with the other problems) with this alarming report, as it is yet to find a stakeholder for the proposed sale of Air India stake, despite amending its existing bid. This will further delay the process of stake sale owing to lose gloom being witnessed in the Indian skies.
Hence, the need of the hour is to optimise the right channels to ensure that any carrier is running smoothly in the sky. The only possibility, for now, seems to be to review the working model of FSCs and trim non-essential services like FFP and find innovative ways to keep the funding available throughout the operations lifecycle. The airlines may also find sustainable ways to run the aircraft on bio-fuel as experimented by the Spice Jet recently, to keep the costs under control.
On the other hand, it should be understood by the private airlines that the Government can not be blamed on, for all the problems every time.
– Varun Sd
4) Not a good sign for BJP
Government’s negligence and apathy towards core issues of farmers resulted in the protest held by thousands of farmers and agricultural workers. It was claimed repeatedly by BJP that it will be considered as the government of poor and farmers but the resultants are entirely contrary to all the claims. This protest just before the general elections of 2019, is not a good sign for BJP to claim as a strong party on the list. So the government must meet the farmer’s needs and demands as soon as much. Now it is time, the BJP should realise that the people are losing their faith in the party and take a lesson that mere rhetoric and blaming game will not work any more. An action is the need of the hour.
– Mohd Faheem
5) Naming High Courts
Long back, in January 2015, the Central government had initiated move to rename High Courts of Bombay and Madras according to change in name cities i.e. Mumbai and Chennai. But so far names have not been changed even though names of cities were changed decades ago. Even there was no move to rename High Court of Calcutta as High Court of Kolkata.
It is significant that except for some High Courts, all other High Courts are named after states of their jurisdiction. An RTI response had revealed that while all the High Courts constituted after independence were named after respective main states of jurisdiction, High Courts constituted by the British regime in pre-independence era continue to be named as per the British legacy on the basis of cities of their existence even after 70 long years of independence.
The Union government should end the British legacy by renaming all the High Courts respectively to bring uniformity in the system of naming High Courts after names of states rather than on particular cities. Proposed legislation should incorporate a feature that the names of the High Courts may be automatically changed with a change in the name of states (or cities) without any need for the legislation.
– Madhu Agrawal
6) Another terrible incident
One more shameful incident of mob lynching came about in the national capital Delhi, where a 16-year-old boy was beaten to death by locals in the suspicion of stealing. People do not have rights to give punishment of death penalty to one who seems to be involved in any crime. We should trust and respect the law and order and let the administration do its duty. Now, the government must give a severe punishment of death penalty to all the culprits as soon as possible and set an example for others to be restrained from such terrible and distasteful crimes.
– Mohd Usmani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
