1) Congratulations to Justice Ranjan Gogoi
Congratulations to Justice Ranjan Gogoi for being appointed as the new 46th Chief Justice of our country. He is the first Chief Justice from the state Assam. Obviously, his hardship, dedication, and sincerity towards his duty made him stand in such an honoured position. It is known to all that the benches led by Justice Gogoi have dealt largely with the issue of corruption in politics and public life. I hope that he will lead the Apex Court in the same way with immense sincerity and honesty without undergoing any pressure of any political party or government because it is only the Supreme Court that is considered as the last hope for the Indian citizens.
– Mohd Usmani
2) Thanks to Apex Court
I extend my deepest gratitude to the Supreme Court for releasing Nambi Narayanan with sheer dignity and respect and ordering the Kerala government to pay him Rs 50 lakh as compensation for the loss of his fundamental right to live with dignity and self-respect for all these years since his arrest on November 30, 1994. But it is a fact that a mere compensation in money does not serve him the complete justice. The Kerala police are responsible for destroying his career and personal life besides sitting back the technological advancement in the space research. The government must give some stick instructions to all such officials who destroy innocent people’s lives by arresting them on baseless evidence.
– M.F.U.Tandvi
3) Kill poison with poison
Demonetisation of old currency-notes on November 8, 2016, was indeed a bold and right decision, but it failed due to poor implementation. If 50 per cent Disclosure-Scheme would have been announced on November 8, 2016, itself, public-exchequer would have been flooded. But people had exchanged old currency on heavy discount up to 40 per cent by the time scheme was announced. Currency-crunch could have not been there if old currency would have been allowed to be accepted at public-utility sale-points and services without any hitch till December 31, 2016, with very limited scope of misuse. Only one ID-proof say Aadhaar card should have been allowed to prevent individuals exchanging notes more than once.
Poison only can kill poison. Sudden demonetisation of Rs 2,000 currency-notes allowing these to be deposited only in banks can strengthen Indian rupee against dollar without affecting commoners because Rs 2,000 notes are mainly being used either as hoarded money or for circulation of unaccounted money. 50 per cent Disclosure-Scheme should be simultaneously announced with the announcement of Demonetisation.
– Madhu Agrawal
4) Let festival bring social transformation
Believing in God or not, is a personal choice. How we perceive God depends on our own mental construct. But, here is a God who has attracted the attention of so many people, irrespective of their belief towards god or even religion.
His structure itself is different from others! He is a culmination of different things and scholars have given different meanings for his structure. Big head refers to think big, small eyes stand for concentration, one tusk stands for retain good and throw away bad, trunk refers to high efficiency, and adaptability, modaka refers to rewards for sadhana, large ears convey us to listen more, axe to cut off all bonds of attachment, small mouth says talk less, large stomach refers for peacefully digest all good and bad in life and his vehicle mouse at his feet conveys keep the desires under your control.
Vighna nivaaraka has given so many learning for our daily life through his external appearance only. His stories give many more understandings which we can inculcate to make our lives better.
Apart from these, the idea of Sarvajanika Ganeshotsava has given a social dimension by bringing people from different castes and classes together. It also played the main role in mobilising people for freedom struggle. In a way, we may say, Lord Ganesha played a role in breaking the barriers towards freedom.
Let us all join together to celebrate the festival and transform the social structure so that as a country, we will have more unity, diversity, and prosperity.
– Akshara Damle
5) HDFC Banker Murder
HDFC Bank Vice President met his end through a murder by a cab driver for the money. This is not the first time that the Ola drivers are going any extent to get an advantage. They misbehaved with lady passengers and going to the extent of molesting them in daylight. This is setting a bad precedence and creating a fear among the Mumbai citizens in general and the bank officials in particular. This is not an encouraging one as the law and order situation needs to be beefed up to avoid such occurrence in future. The money was taken from the HDFC VP at gunpoint and that is a bad vigilance of the police force. It was one more case murder involving a bank official and the bank job is becoming highly sensitive and life-threatening as well.
– Nikhil Akhilesh
6) Strict actions needed against exploitation
It’s a matter of deep anguish that five men died while cleaning a sewage plant in a residential complex in West Delhi. After the Supreme Court’s strict order to the contractors to provide cleaners with precautions, why were they sent to clean the hazardous sewer tank without any safety gears? Though, they are arrested, but who will feed their families and take care of them. These contractors treat their workers like a dictator, if they don’t abide by their orders, they are threatened to be expelled out of work. The SC must take severe actions against this exploitation and order the government to make a law regarding workers rights like the SC/ST Act.
– Qeyamuddin
7) Congress’ marginal victory in Karnataka
Congress Party had a marginal victory over the BJP in the urban local bodies polls in Karnataka. It’s a sign that people are able to understand that Congress is the need of the day. I think Karnataka people have realised the hardships and tribulations that are being faced by small businesses and middle-class people in order to what BJP did in past four years. Now, it is high time for BJP party to realise that why the people are losing their faith in their party and take a lesson that the country cannot be ruled only with rhetoric, rather people want to see the country developing and progressing.
– MF Qasmi
8) Farmers are our backbone
t is great to hear that at a huge and mammoth rally (2,000-acre venue dubbed Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha) in Ranga Reddy district, where around one lakh farmers on 10,000 tractors mobilised chock-a-block from all district, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao spoke of the state’s gift of Rs 12,000 crore to the farmers. Under this scheme, farmers will get Rs 4,000 per acre per season. I appreciate that. Really, the farmers are the backbone of the Indian economy and their facilitation will lead the Indian economy to a notch higher making India among the top developed countries.
– Q Qasmi
9) Snag halts Monorail
After resumption of the monorail couple of days back, snag halts monorail yet again and it raises a high risk of the elevated rail service. All of a sudden, it came to a halt with a technical snag and cable infringement. The monorail got struck near Chembur for over an hour and the passengers were evacuated to safety. This is a second such incident. The monorail between Chembur and Wadala was discontinued on November 9 when two coaches caught fire. This time the cable had caught struck in one of the coaches. Thus, the risk factor is increasing on monorail travel and how to sustain the services with lots of hiccups is a thousand dollar question. The Automatic Train Protection System faced the problem and this has raised a startling question whether we can sustain with the services.
– Chitra Rugmini
10) Water stock encouraging
It is heartening to note that the heavy monsoon rains across Mumbai increased the water level to considerable extent and it is a good news. The Monsoon rains have not failed in recent times and we have a stock level for 285 days supply. Even though much of the rainwater is going to the drains and touch the sea, the lakes have filled up to the brim and we can ensure 24 hours water supply in the days to come. We hope that the rainfall will continue and we will get a sufficient supply of water to manage during the next year as well. However, we should plan and have ways and means to save rainwater methodically. If rainwater harvesting is done during the monsoon season, then we make sure our supply for the full year available through different sources. We Mumbaikars should think in terms of rainwater harvesting so that we can bank on the additional source of water whenever we feel a shortage of water. Moreover, the saved water can be used for plants till the next monsoon season.
– Arati Abhi Rama
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Banker’s Murder .. was not for money as they would make us believe. This was a supari by his co-workers who plotted the scheme and knew where Siddharth is most vulnerable and executed the plan. Police is already on that angle and investigating it. The reluctance of fellow workers to talk to police about Mr Sanghvi speaks volume. As a matter of fact one of the co-worker had phone conversation with the murderer. The killer has already told that it was a contract killing but he is not able to name who ordered it.