Saturday, January 26, 2019

[IAC#RG] COUNTER PRODUCTIVE GUIDANCE TO CBI AND TAX OFFICIALS BY MODI’S SENIOR MINISTERS


To

India Against Corruption



                                         COUNTER  PRODUCTIVE  GUIDANCE  TO CBI AND TAX OFFICIALS  BY  MR. MODI'S SENIOR MINISTERS


Union Minister Arun Jaitley has found fault with the CBI for charge sheeting several bank officials in  connection with the ICICI bank – Videocon loan matter. Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has asked the tax officials not to be over zealous in collecting taxes from the business houses and others.

Guidance given by both the above ministers are counter productive and not helpful in catching the tax evaders and erring senior bank officials. On the other hand, the ministers should have asked the tax officials and CBI to act according to the law and procedures and do their utmost to collect the tax from the tax evaders and catch hold of the senior bank executives, who have indulged in fraud or favouritism.

It is well known that many business houses evade taxes and are helped  by their auditors in submitting false returns. There have  also been instances where tax officials at various levels have colluded with the tax evaders in denying the taxes due to the government . Asking the tax officials to deal with the possible tax evaders with soft glove is an irresponsible guidance, particularly when coming from senior minister. Tax officials have to be necessarily strict and use appropriate  methods to ensure that the taxes due to the government  would be collected, They are employed by the government for this purpose only. It would be ridiculous to ask the tax officials to deal softly with the suspected tax evaders ,which mean that the minister is asking them to persuade the tax evaders to pay taxes instead of forcing them to pay the taxes.  Further, this would encourage the corrupt tax officials to go soft on the tax evaders and collect  bribe money in the process.

It is very well known that serious frauds have taken place in several public sector banks amounting to crores of rupees in recent years ,which have made the public sector banks sick and put them in  in dire straits .Most of these frauds have taken place due to unholy collusion between the senior bank officisals and the business men and inevitably several bank officials are involved in each of these fraudulent  transaction and they cannot be done by one or two bank officials by themselves,without the involvement of officials at various levels It will be a long chain. Further, the board of directors in the banks have also ignored such frauds in number of cases or have been so inefficient ,not to identify such frauds.  Obviously, CBI has to take a holistic view and charge all the suspected bank officials involved at various levels. CBI can not be selective.

Possibly, Arun Jaitley thinks that it is important to keep the senior officials in  banks in good humour and not to displease them by taking action against some of them. This view is unbecoming of a senior minister. He has used the term   " investigative adventurism"  to describe the actions of CBI which is an uncharitable remark.

It is high time that the senior ministers in Modi government should know that they should not interfere in the routine functions of the tax officials and CBI. They already have well defined guidelines and precedence to follow.The officials have their role and responsibility and ministers should understand that they should be allowed to function as per the rules and regulations .

Ministers can certainly comment if they come across specific cases of "investigative adventurism", with adequate proof .  Talking in general terms about "investigative adventurism" by senior ministers will not enhance the reputation of Modi government. Let not the critics suspect that the ministers have hidden agenda.

 People believe that Prime Mnister Modi is very keen in eradicating corruption in the country and catching tax evaders at any cost. Are these senior ministers in tune with the objective of Prime Minister Modi?


N.S.Venkataraman

Nandini Voice For The Deprived

nandinivoice.com

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

[IAC#RG] YOUNG GMC LADY DOCTOR TREATING MANOHAR PARRIKAR QUITS IN DISGUST

A young lady anaesthetist from Goa Medical College who was part of the jumbo medical team posted at the residence of the very ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has resigned from government service on account of work related stress and undue harassment. Is the health of Manohar Parrikar now taking a toll on the doctors too? 

In a very high-handed and atrocious act, while the Goa Medical College is facing acute shortage of doctors, Dr Jagannath Kolwalcar, Associate Professor of Cardio Thoracic Surgery has over the last almost one year been accompanying round the clock Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar while he has been shuttling between hospitals from Goa to Mumbai's Lilavati and then from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to Dukle's clinic at Candolim and after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi is now stationed at his private residence in Dona Paula with Dr. Kolwalcar next to Manohar Parrikar 24X7.

Ironically Dr Kolwalcar who is on contract at the Goa Medical College on a monthly salary of four lakhs is not in the field of pancreatic Cancer from which Manohar Parrikar is now ailing.

So while Dr Kolwalcar has since February last year been perhaps only monitoring Manohar Parrikar's pulse and BP, poor patients at the Goa Medical College are having their cardio surgery either delayed or postponed with some patients breathing their last for lack of medical care. 

It would be interesting to know under what provision, our Dr Kolwalcar is accompanying Manohar Parikar as a virtual Page boy on this so called official duty. A grave and great injustice to the patients of Goa who have been denied the services of Dr Kolwalcar for almost a year. 

Can the welfare of the patients of Goa be compromised on account of the unjustified whims and fancies of Manohar Parrikar on whose health care the tax payers of Goa have already been burdened by crores of rupees. Why should every other Goan not get the same level of medical treatment that is being afforded to Manohar Parrikar? God Save Goa.

 


Aires Rodrigues

Advocate High Court

C/G-2, Shopping Complex

Ribandar Retreat,

Ribandar – Goa – 403006


Mobile No: 9822684372


Office Tel  No: (0832) 2444012

Email: airesrodrigues1@gmail.com

                         Or

           airesrodrigues@yahoo.com


You can also reach me on


Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues


Twitter@rodrigues_aires


www.airesrodrigues.com


[IAC#RG] RIGGING of JEE Mains 2019 exams to cheat students

To:
Shri  R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary
Department of Higher Education
Ministry of Human Resources Development
Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi

BY EMAIL

Sir,

I had hoped to meet you today during the Wednesday morning open house / meetingless day for Central Govt offices. However, the Republic Day rehersals prevented it and the MHRD was shut till lunch when I visited.

Nevertheless, I bring to your kind notice the shocking admission just now by the NTA on the official website of JEE Mains that at least 10 out of 90 questions posed in the first shift of the JEE Main exams on 10.01.2019 were incorrect and thereby all candidates of the shift have been awarded marks for these questions.

You will surely recall all the various warnings and cautions I have been sending you which are seemingly being ignored in your department.

Since it is quite obvious that this catastrophe has come about because of deep and pervasive corruption of CBSE and JAB whose corrupting virus has been embedded now into the NTA, I am once again fervently calling upon you as the CHAIRMAN of NTA's Governing body to cancel / recall the results of the January exams and not persist with this folly of Mr. Joshi in attempting to "normalise" the marks by percentiles or other such pseudo-scientific psychometric or statistical methods.

There is no way for such massive discrepancies between the papers to be equalised now so as to do justice to the examinees. The entire admission process for the NITs based on these tainted results must also be stopped and I hope that you shall not continue to cover up this SCANDAL but will ensure that all information about NTA and its exam is provided to the citizens immediately so that such corruption is not repeated.

Furthermore, I have noted carefully from Mr. Vineet Joshi's, IAS Supremo ER sheet that he never seems to have practiced much as an engineer after obtaining his Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT. So if he is actually an engineer from IIT I am sure he would be able to explain to you, or to his peers, how the NTA is generating percentile scores to 7 decimal places for tie-breaking when the underlying discrete integral scores (-90 to +360) of these exams only have 3 significant figures or 1 decimal place. Even a class 10 school boy would not make such an error. Or is the performance of a candidate in these NTA conducted CBT's to be contaminated by the allocation of other students to his shift or to other shifts by some secret procedure ? I hope not, for this is exactly what transpired in the SSC CGL online exam scam of 2017 whose results were cancelled !

Hoping that you will see sense to stop this corruption in NTA and shall act very swiftly. I look forward to receiving a reply from you as soon as possible.

sincerely



Er. Sarbajit Roy
National Convenor
INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION
B-59 Defence Colony
New Delhi 110024
Tel : 8010205897

[IAC#RG] Priyanka Gandhi

People are shocked. No one expected Priyanka Gandhi to pick up the gauntelet and enter politics from UP, the home turf of her esteemed ancestors, and the State that creates, makes or breaks national Governments, grand ambitions, political grandeur and International balance of forces. 

Inadvertently, Modi rise, but particularly, his totalitarianism, his bid to rule India through a fascist Zeitgest, contributed to this development. Modi represents a kind of messainic evil, a golem in heat, who cannot and will not brook any opposition. Despite their strengths, regional forces would have been able to fight such a wily, Pied Piper of Hamilion. 

Just prior to 2014, Modi was built as a 'Mahanayak' by the Corporate-reactionary International-national media, a number of vested interests ranging from agents of global finance capital to crony capitalists to Intelligence moles out to make money by demonising Muslims, and sundry, anti-national forces. 

In all this, Modi, and forces behind him, forgot, and underestimated, the UP Brahmin. 

Only a 'Mahanayika' could have defeated a 'Mahanayak'. This is the iron law of history. Brahmins of Uttar Pradesh understood this. 

Making Rahul Gandhi go the Sanatani way was the first move. Fielding Karuna Shukla, Atalji's niece, from Chattisgarh, was the second. Defeating BJP in three Hindi Belt States was the third. 

The right atmosphere for Priyanka's entry had to be created. Analysts should not make the mistake of downplaying UP's mood, and the mysterious, 'Durga-iconic' hold of Indira Gandhi and female power or Shakti, on its psyche. People of UP see Priyanka as an embodiment of Indira Gandhi. She will be seen and built as the new-age Shakti. You can imagine the electoral consequences. 

I make a conscious prophecy that Priyanka Gandhi will change the dynamics of Uttar Pradesh and India. In 2019, Congress will sweep UP. This will lead to tectonic changes in Indian politics. New forces will be unleashed. New narratives will be build. Out of darkness, a new dawn shall arise...



Monday, January 21, 2019

[IAC#RG] RTI ACT: A VERY POTENT WEAPON TO BATTLE CORRUPTION AND NEPOTISM

After decades of hectic lobbying, the efforts of civil society for getting the Right to Information law in place bore fruit on 15 June 2005 when the President of India gave assent to the Right to Information Act 2005. Over the years however the greater challenge has been the actual implementation of the Act. Unless the RTI Act is further strengthened Good Governance, Transparency in the Administration and Zero Tolerance to Corruption will never be a reality.

The Right to Information Act has been hailed as the hallmark of our democracy. The Act aims at making the government transparent and more accountable. The effective use of it would, in the long run, curb corruption. Right to Information Act has become a powerful tool in exposing corruption at top places in the government.

The Right to Information is derived from our fundamental right of expression under Article 19. If we do not have information on how our Government and public institutions function, we cannot express any informed opinion on it. This has been reiterated by various Supreme Court judgments since 1977.

Bureaucrats have been conditioned to conceal and not to reveal information. They are not accustomed to providing information freely. This has all changed with the RTI Act. The 'good' bureaucrats, who have nothing to hide, and thus, nothing to fear, have welcomed this change. These are the good officials who are genuinely interested in the betterment of Goa. However the 'bad' bureaucrats, who are either corrupt, or simply have a non-cooperative attitude, are now compelled to fall in line with the RTI Act. After having been exposed by the RTI act, politicians are attempting modifying the act to escape its ambit. Any attempt to dilute the RTI Act should not be allowed and must be vehemently opposed. There is need infact to reinforce this Transparency law and bring the political parties too within its ambit.

We are all part of society and if there is something wrong we must all take responsibility. A lot of information was earlier suppressed by the Government, allowing room for corruption. The RTI Act is a tool that can be used by every individual to make an impact and bring about change. A properly worded RTI application with a 10 rupee stamp on it is all it takes. We have finally woken up to realize that Right to information is a key component in the attainment of economic, social and political rights of an individual as well as the community at large.

The RTI should give the common man a feeling of participation.  A few thousand RTI applications across Goa by concerned citizens on issues concerning the public can usher in a major change in Goa. There should be a determined move towards our true liberation. There is a need to spread across every village the usage of this Act so that transparency and good governance triumphs. We now have the power; we only need to use it. The RTI Act is very simple and user friendly. It is not enough to be only a desh premi, we all need to be RTI premi too.

We all have to be ardent followers of the RTI Act. It needs to be a people's movement for transparency, so that even if RTI activists are gunned down, the spirit of RTI and the crusade   never dies.

The 37th President of the United States of America Mr. Richard Nixon had in 1972 very rightly said "When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and - eventually - incapable of determining their own destinies."

 


Aires Rodrigues

Advocate High Court

C/G-2, Shopping Complex

Ribandar Retreat,

Ribandar – Goa – 403006


Mobile No: 9822684372


Office Tel  No: (0832) 2444012

Email: airesrodrigues1@gmail.com

                         Or

           airesrodrigues@yahoo.com


You can also reach me on


Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues


Twitter@rodrigues_aires


www.airesrodrigues.com