Planning Commission spends Rs. 35 lakh to renovate two toilets in Delhi

Planning Commission spends Rs. 35 lakh to renovate two toilets in Delhi

I always thought it was silly to have separate toilets for staff / workers / managerial persons in organisations. My rationale was that we all have the same biological systems for excretion and physiological relief. It is not that different levels of the organisational hierarchy are Physiologically different.  

http://news.in.msn.com/national/planning-commission-spends-rs-35-lakh-to-renovate-two-toilets-in-delhi

The installation of smart cards is interesting. 

During the early days of the debate on UID, a justification was that it has "millions of uses". 

Application builders should note that the UIDAI application portal would soon be updated to include smart toilets to enable application development in the area.  

Well, here is another use of UID, perhaps the best way it could be used. 

After all, if the government is feeding the poor by uniquely identifying them, the government must uniquely identify those who excrete, as an audit to know how much of the intake is coming out! 

The input / output ration would indicate whether the welfare benefits are actually reaching the beneficiaries!

Food Grain Wastage

Unbelievable wastage of precious food when millions starve is criminal.
Follow the link for Times Now TV story.

Thinking Aloud: Time to wake up UID supporters

Thinking Aloud: Time to wake up UID supporters

You have the watches, we have the time!

This is what the Afghans believe. They have fought off whoever tried to subdue them. This, they done for centuries. 

The Mongols, the British, the Russians and now the Americans - all have failed in their attempt to rule Afghanistan. 

Have we not learnt anything from history. Now, our government has entered into an agreement with the Afghan government to train their soldiers. Could anything be more foolish.
Time was when India had a strictly neutral foreign policy. We did not suffer the consequences of alignment in the cold and not-so-cold wars of the past.

Now, with the tilt, nay, active connivance between US and India in Afghan affairs, we are bound to attract increased militancy of a fundamentalist religious variety.

Is being dragged into fighting America's Afghan war? 

Right to Information (RTI) 

The Prime Minister's statement, which he read, was astonishing. Is this is his view or was he merely reading from a text given to him by someone else? While paying lip service to RTI, he was laying the basis for diluting the RTI Act. He attempted to make a few points decrying RTI. These were lame apologies for shutting out public scrutiny of government's actions. One was that it is detrimental to efficacy of institutions. Is he of the view that transparency detracts from efficiency.

Democratic Governments are not a rulers. They are servants of the people. They are mere representatives.

A second point he made was that RTI increases work of government employees. Is he not aware of Sec 4 of the Act that seeks suo motu disclosure; Or was the person who wrote his prepared text oblivious of this requirement of the Act?

Courageous and honest government officials do not fear transparency. As a former government officer, this writer was never inhibited by the thought of his decisions and notes being made public.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The tree of corruption wilts under the glare of sunlight. Only children of darkness prefer the shelter of pitch black nights to hide their conspiracies and deeds.

Let the people of India rise with one voice to strengthen people's right to information. 

The Law Minister believes that arresting business persons affects investment. Would it be right to conclude that the corollary is that business people are not be arrested, even for crimes?

Coming from none other than the highest law officer directly responsible for rule of law, his thinking is perverse. No explanation, such as the ones being put out, would be of any use.

The explanation is that he was responding to media queries and was a "spur of the moment remark of general nature, and not specific to 2 G". This was in response to questions from the Supreme Court bench hearing the 2 G case.

With such thinking and obfuscation, would rule of law be possible in this country? 

Why do our Netas need protection from people?

Our netas need to be protected from the people. The Mahatma was gunned down by a religious bigot. There was incessant communal violence, then. Yet, Nehru never had any security.
Why do the present-day netas require protection from the people, who they claim to "Represent"? Haven't we heard Renuka Chowdary protesting on TV that the neta-class to which she belongs, represent the will of 120 Crores of Indians. She too has some protection from her representative, perhaps not as vigilant and obvious as seen in the picture.