Vox Populi Issue 237

                                                          VOX POPULI
                                                                   by
                                                             S Kamat
                                                                   as 
                                                            Aam Admi
                                       Issue: 237                       Date: 25.06.2018                          
                     Visit: aamadmi.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com 

Contents:

1. BJP Fails In Kashmir

2. One Arvind Follows Another

3. TMC vs. BJP : Who's More Militant?

4. Cancer Cases On The Rise Near Atomic Power Plants In India

                                                         BJP Fails In Kashmir

Pulling out of the coalition with PDP in J&K and allowing that government to fall is clearly the sign of BJP accepting that it failed in the troubled State. This is yet another negative mark on the report card of the BJP's ability to govern. Firstly the conception of a coalition with the PDP was at fault, since ideologies and objectives of the parties were completely different. This led to one blaming the other when anything went wrong in the trouble-torn State. The PDP took advantage of this fact to the hilt since if it was not the BJP at fault then it was the BJP at the Centre that was not doing enough or was to blame. Thus governance needs a foresight of the ability to remain in power and perform which the BJP sorely lacks. It is more of an opportunistic approach that the BJP follows as we have seen of cobbling up a government and we will manage as we go along. This self-serving approach of wanting to be compulsively in power does not work and hurts the interest of the people which we have seen across India. As for Kashmir with the law and order situation deteriorating the BJP would have found it inopportune to ask for Governor's rule therefore it was best to quit the government. Governor N N Vohra has in the next instance almost as if waiting in the wings asked forGovernor's rule in J&K which is a fait accompli now. 

                                              One Arvind Follows Another

By giving the most school-boyish kind of reason of expecting a grandchild Arvind Subramanian has made his exit from the post of Chief Economic Advisor of the Government of India. One would have expected keeping in mind the gravitas of the chair that he was occupying that he should have come up with a more plausible reason for his exit. In any case irrespective of the reason, it is good that we have had both the Arvinds, Subramanian now and the Panagariya earlier leave. Contrary to the fact that these foreign based economists bring enhanced expertise and knowledge to the job in India, it is found that such expertise is not relevant in the Indian context both in concept as well in the possibility of implementation. Thus they end up as glorified advisors without any of their ideas being put into action. They also do not understand the mechanics of the working of Indian government and our infamous bureaucracy and tend to get ignored when it comes to decisions to be taken on any policy matter. Thus apart from the occasional press conference or being called to address some gathering or other these advisors find themselves twiddling their thumbs. Slowly disenchantment sets in followed by disappointment and then comes the act of preparing excuses to find a way out. This is how becoming a grandfather becomes reason enough to leave the post of the Chief Economic Advisor of the Government of India! The other angle to these people coming to India is not to benefit the country but to benefit themselves. Working as the Chief Economic Advisor of the Government of India or Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, the former Planning Commission, has its own prestige internationally considering on the economic front India is a focus country what with its high growth rates when other countries including China are dawdling. Handling the complexity of the  Indian economy, it is perceived that this experience is valuable because it is believed to be so challenging. That is why if your CV says worked in India it is good enough to be short-listed for prestigious international assignments as Raghuram Rajan has seen. Rajan was short-listed for the job of Governor of the Bank of England as reported in the media recently. So all these foreign based Indian economists come and accept India assignments to further their own careers and also to get the opportunity to come back home. While what we should be doing is that give these opportunities to our own India economists. A start has been made with Rajiv Kumar at the Niti Aayog and such other positions should be given to India based economists. These local people will have the expertise of the India story, they have been through the grind here, they are familiar with how things work here and are more likely to come up with proposals and policy measures that are more practical and implementable. One hopes that we will go this way for persons to be appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor and other similar positions from now on.

                                          TMC vs. BJP : Who's More Militant?

Mamata Banerjee calling the BJP a 'militant organisation' is like the pot calling the kettle black. TMC the party she leads has used violence as a primary method to come to power by its confrontational encounters with the Communists and since then using the very same methods to consolidate her hold on power and lately to combat the BJP in Bengal who have been trying to expand their support base there. Mamata Banerjee's upcoming trip to China as the head of an official delegation of the Govt. of India had to be postponed because of the lukewarm response from the Chinese side in setting up meetings with appropriate level officials within their government. Mamata Banerjee could well ponder whether the reason for this is the fact of the TMC having been accused of killing many Communists in the past. 

  

                         Cancer Cases On The Rise Near Atomic Power Plants In India

Media reports have indicated that cancer cases have shot up by more than 200% near the Kaiga Atomic Power Plant and adjoining areas in a study done over the period  2010-13 by the Tata Memorial Centre, the findings of which were released only recently. This goes to show that nuclear facilities near populated areas are a major risk to people including future generations. The Nuclear Power Board and the government remain in denial over the above findings. Their approach has been to pick holes in the report by saying that the report should have been more broad based and that incidence of cancer in any case among the Indian population has been on the rise for many reasons. This, however, does not take away the veracity that cancer has been affecting those who live in the proximity of facilities involved with the handling of nuclear energy. Therefore it is important that the government take cognizance of this fact and reverse the decisions to install larger capacities of nuclear power generation facilities across the country. Even for reasons other than the above there have been massive public protests about the nuclear power station coming up near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra as also lately about the expansion of the nuclear facility in Tarapur again in Maharashtra. Most of the nuclear power stations coming up in a new expansion program across India from Russian Cos., Westinghouse and the French Co. Areva need to be reviewed and the program shut down. This is for two reasons, the first is that these reactors particularly from the West are not even proven in their country of origin and who also do not use them then why should we become guinea pigs for these Cos. to prove their reactor plants. The second is that with our high population distribution near these proposed nuclear facilities we are inviting risks like Fukushima, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl to happen. The incremental demand for power in the next decade at least we can plan to supply through renewables like solar energy and other sources which are safer and less risky. With technology upgradation in the areas like solar costs per unit for electrical power is comparable if not cheaper than that from thermal generation. Moreover renewable power plants have a faster capacity creation possibility. For these reasons the government should give a massive push for electricity generation through renewables. 

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Vox Populi Issue 236

                                                               VOX POPULI

by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
 Issue: 236                        Date: 18.06.2018
Visit: aamadmi.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com
 

Contents:
1. The Greatest Show On Earth: World Cup Football Russia 2018
2. PSB Losses: Who's Paying For Them? & The Way Forward
3. You Should Not Have Activist Chief Ministers Like Arvind Kejriwal

 

The Greatest Show On Earth: World Cup Football Russia 2018
 

The greatest show on earth, World Cup Football Russia 2018 has begun. What a bang-on start it was for the host nation with a 5-0 drubbing that they inflicted on Saudi Arabia. Putin was all smiles sitting in the stadium alongside the Saudi Prince whose face one could see was getting longer and longer as the game progressed. After that the matches dropped down to the rather drab category with score lines matching them except for the Battle of the Iberias with Ronaldo, the exceptional opportunistic player that he is - though I personally do not like him too much, being a die-hard fan of Messi - single-handedly with his hat-trick drew Portugal level to Span at 3-3. Messi disappointed with the missed penalty bringing credence to his country's charge that he does not do much playing for his home nation, though this year in the qualifier rounds he was better than the earlier years. Starting off the World Cup on a bad note is not going to help Messi in his attempt to win the Golden Boot in what is rumoured to be his last year for turning out for his country. With Belgium's Red Devil’s pulling off a 3-0 victory the score lines are up and hope that continues as the tournament progresses. In the first few days this World Cup is putting one seems the form table or the line-up on those that are expected to take home the Jules Rimet trophy, on its head with Germany losing to Mexico, Argentina put on ice by Iceland and then Brazil held by the Swiss to a draw. There does not seem a dark horse yet but only time will tell. 
 

PSB Losses: Who's Paying For Them? & The Way Forward
 

The whopping Rs. 87,000 crores loss or close to it declared by the PSB's in the 2017-18 financial year should be an eye-opener to the government that serious action is indeed required to revamp our banking system. When the issue of capital infusion came up about a year ago, it was projected that with this some of the banks which were not doing well, would be able to recover and progressively come out of the red. 

These statements were made with insiders in the banking system knowing full well that the sword of Damocles was hovering over their heads in the form of the NPA's. That bird of bad loans has now come home to roost at almost all the banks. Misinformation has become a trend now and the tendency to suppress negative issues while projecting the positives in an exaggerated manner has become a common methodology and the banks and government using these methods is nothing new. Almost every single bank mostly PSB's has been affected which speaks of the rot within the banking system. It has got nothing to do with business risk or market downturn which could be true in some exceptional cases but generally the bad loans have been a result of collusion between the bankers and the trade and industry to defraud public money. They therefore need to be held responsible and accountable for their misdeeds. A case in point is the Nirav Modi scam where the PNB officials played along and Modi took advantage of this to the hilt almost to the extent of bringing PNB down. Just like hordes of vultures are attracted to carrion so also is the wilful defaulters portfolio at PNB increasing as reported at some Rs. 1450 crores since looking at the Nirav Modi the borrowers are adopting the philosophy that PNB is fair game. The malaise that has struck the PSB's has also affected the private sector banks like shown in the ICICI scam involving the Kochhar family and the Videocon group.

Therefore it is time that the government brought the guilty in the banking system who are responsible for the creation of the NPA's to book and proceeded criminally against them. No one should be spared and irrespective of the level that they occupy at the banks, criminal charges should be brought against them. This should apply to all bankers including those that that have retired as well as those serving currently. Unless this is done the message will not go across that the government means business on the NPA issue. The government in the recent past has been chary of instituting enquiries on the NPA's for fear of it being called a witch-hunt and generating a scare scenario among bankers. The bankers on their part have been blackmailing the government by slowing down sanctions of new institutional credit and claiming and also obtaining safety guarantees from legal action against them. This cat and mouse game has to stop and direct action initiated to prosecute all those within the banking system who are guilty of generating the NPA's and also action need be taken against the borrowers who may have resorted to illegal means in obtaining and/or utilising the loans. 

In the meanwhile the banks have been year by year writing off the NPA's, one does not know whether this is being done selectively where convenience deals have been worked out between the bankers and the borrowers. The question is who is bearing the cost of these write-offs and in turn the NPA's, it is the common man or the average savings account holder at the bank whose cost of using banking services has year by year been going up and the banks keeps on levying conditions like unreasonable minimum balance and charges fees on one pretext or another. This to make a category of people selectively rich the average citizen's pocket is being picked by the government run banks. We are not bringing the private banks into this since there you have a choice of moving away to other banks. While with PSB's where the terms and conditions are more or less uniform across different banks there is not much choice left for the account holder but to pay through his nose. 

The methodology that can be adopted is to expand upon the present process of auctioning off the assets of the borrower Co. to recover part of the NPA's by transferring all the NPA's to a Bad Loan Corporation (BLC), staff the BLC with specialist persons competent in finance and sector-wise expertise, and then progressively take action to prune the NPA's. This will take a generation to resolve but a start would have been made. The banking system relieved of the NPA's and the people connected with generating them out of the way, the banks and the industry can start off on a clean slate  to give the country a banking system it deserves which should be reactive, responsive to customers, efficient and cost-effective. This is the only way forward otherwise we will continue to be pussy-footing on issues while watching each of the PSB's going into bankruptcy over a period of time. This process requires political will also and it is time that the incumbent government belled the cat instead of being weighed down with concerns of this election or that.

                           You Should Not Have Activist Chief Ministers Like Arvind Kejriwal

When activists like Arvind Kejriwal become Chief Ministers they are unfortunately unable to forget their previous background. When Kejriwal was part of the Anna Hazare movement which led to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party the same activist orientation was seen. Further back when you sought an opinion from Kejriwal, he would somehow manage to link it to RTI which was his strength or competence area. For activists results are not important. For them the process of protest and the fact that there is a protest is important. Thus after becoming the Chief Minister of Delhi with the AAP getting a stupendous majority instead of assessing his position, analysing it properly and then deciding upon a work strategy to meet his constitutional responsibilities, Kejriwal started ranting against Modi and the LG and the Central government. Now Kejriwal is not without intelligence but it was patently clear that he was following a wrong strategy of blaming the Centre for everything. This kind of thing is done when a person is convinced that he cannot deliver on the job and then manufactures excuses to throw a smokescreen around himself in the hope that he can divert the attention of the people. Everyone in Kejriwal's opinion is wrong. Now this cannot happen since if you tend to blame everyone then you in fact turn the spotlight back to yourself and your party and people will start asking the question - What's wrong with these guys? The present support that Kejriwal has been receiving from the TMC, JD(S), Telugu Desam and the CPI(M) is only opportunistic keeping a view on the 2019 elections and to wave the flag of Opposition solidarity. If the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections were not there none of these parties would have even given Kejriwal a glance.

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VOX POPULI by S Kamat as Aam Admi  Issue: 235                          Date: 11.06.2018 Visit: aamadmi.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   There was no issue of the Vox Populi after the last one (Issue 234) of 21st May 2018 since I was busy watching films at the National Award Winning Film Festival 2018 25th May - 7th June and thereafter the Goa Marathi Film Festival from 8 - 10 June 2018. 29 films in 17 days. My head is still spinning and have the feeling that I am in a darkened auditorium all the time. There is a small piece on the film festivals below.    Contents: 1. Trump's Trumped Up Diplomacy & The Corporatisation of The US Presidency 2. Transgender Issue In 2018 National Award Winning​ Films 3. Health Jinx In Goan Cabinet 4. Manohar Parrikar's Dilemma 5. Why Is Manohar Parrikar Bluffing?     Trump's Trumped Up Diplomacy & The Corporatisation of The US Presidency   When news first came out about the North Korean detente and the possibility of Donald Trump meeting theIr leader Kim, one felt that for all the criticism that Trump had been facing in his Presidency, there was something in his head. Not only that the fast paced developments since the two Koreas meeting and then finalising the date and  venue of the Trump-Kim meeting, one felt that the Korean Peninsula would be de- nuclearised and finally there would be a de-escalation of tension in the region and peace would be ushered in for the Korean people. The culmination of all this was the very successful Trump-Kim meeting at Singapore on 12th June 2018. One must say here that the South Korean leader, Moon must also be given credit here for the meeting to happen. Critics have made little of the meeting calling the joint declaration very vague and short on specifics, but then these people very well know that more goes on behind the scenes at such meetings than what is disclosed publicly. Not only that for sworn enemies who were cursing each other until recently, the manner in which the meeting was conducted and that a joint declaration was at all released is a great achievement. In this summit, Trump was the one who had everything to lose if things did not turn out the way it was expected. While for Kim either way he would win since sharing the world stage with Trump and the legitimacy it implied to the North Korean government were his major takeaways whether a joint declaration was made or not or a commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula was made or not was immaterial. But what is to be admired is the confrontational style that Trump maintained with Kim and which finally worked. Trump has been using this style with other countries too. China has had a taste of it and under pressure was forced to open up more farm imports from the US. The G-7 too were at the receiving end recently of Trump's bare knuckled style which resulted in no joint declaration at the end of that summit and with Trump vowing to levy duties on European cars coming into the US among many other issues. This is the corporate style that Trump has brought to the US Presidency. Whether it is good or bad only time will tell. That it is unusual, there is no doubt. That it is different from the staid and rigid governmental diplomatic rigmarole is definitely true. But it seems to be working nonetheless. Shades of brinkmanship can be seen in this style reminiscent of the Cold War era to see who blinks first and winner takes all attitude. For a man slighted during the Presidential campaign of being dumb on international affairs to which Donald Trump also contributed no little with numerous gaffes, the man is turning international diplomacy on its head. He is winning upto now, let's see what the future brings in. Congratulations, Donald Trump and keep it up.   Transgender Issue In 2018 National Award Winning Films  In the recently concluded National Award Winning Film Festival 2018 25th May - 7th June here in Goa the first two days showed two films - Nagarkirtan in Bengali and Aalorukkam in Malayalam. Both films were exceptional but touched upon the transgender issue. One had thus the feeling whether this trend would continue in the subsequent films. Thankfully it was not and the later films touched upon their own regionalistic themes which were well told and presented. At one point of time the choice of these two films for the awards by Shekhar Kapoor, the head of the jury this time for the National Awards, one tended to suspect his proclivities. Also one tended to muse whether President Kovind's refusal to give away only some of the awards this year citing time issues was linked to the transgender themes since these has-been RSS shakhapramukhs are known to have strong feelings in these matters. Transgenders deserve sympathy since they are an aberration of nature but bringing them to the mainstream of society is a difficult proposition. Not only that Aalorukkam portrayed that the man after reaching 22 years recognises his dormant feminine feelings and traits and then decides to change leaving his family. This one thought was a bit far-fetched. While the Bengali movie Nagarkirtan showed that the boy from a young age knew the feminity in him and pursued that path.    ​Health Jinx In Goan Cabinet  The political scenario in Goa as we all know has been very much diseased, but apart from metaphor over the last year, the disease in reality has affected our leaders. First, it was Vishnu Wagh, who was felled by a stroke and yet to recover fully, then Manohar Parrikar, suffering from some major affliction obviously if he has to be away in the US for close to more than 3 months now, then Pandurang Madkaikar who was also a victim of a stroke and convalescing in a Mumbai hospital as we are told and lastly Shantaram Naik who succumbed to a heart attack last week. None of these persons can be called old by Indian political standards since even 40-45 year olds are called Young Turks and people in their 50’s lead the youth wings of political parties. Thus one would have to conclude that over the last year Goan politics has been jinxed on health issues, more so the present Cabinet where   it is 3 down and 9 to go. With this would any of the leaders be willing to join this Cabinet is the question uppermost in people's minds? Postscript: Come to think of it, over the last twelve months the BJP Central Cabinet has also been afflicted with major health problems. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, senior Ministers, both underwent kidney transplants. So is there a virus affecting BJP governments? The effect that this has been having on governance is there for all to see. The banking sector crisis and its tackling one can attribute to the fact that Jaitley has not been at the helm of affairs or has not been able to give it the attention it deserves because of health issues. Recognising Sushma Swaraj's health condition, is it that Modi decided to take over the foreign affairs portfolio or is it because he has a penchant for it? Sushma Swaraj has been a cypher in the ministry dealing mostly with th3 soft issues.  Like they say, we have a government in convalescence.                                                     Manohar Parrikar's Dilemma Manohar Parrikar's dilemma in naming an interim Chief Minister are two-fold. One personal and the other political. The personal is that public figures in any field find it difficult to move away or give up their pedestals because of the ego factor, public adulation and the money. We have seen this in politics but the examples in sport are more striking like in cricket Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar were well past their Use By Date but continued to cling on to their positions until they had to be literally kicked out. The same thing is seizing Parrikar's mind now. The other thing is politically Parrikar cannot name an interim Chief Minister since he will only bring about the fall of his make-do coalition. If the BJP loses power in Goa then nationally the party's position will become weaker on the back of the inability to form a government in Karnataka and thereafter the loss in the recent bye-elections. So Parrikar is caught between the devil and the deep sea on his Saat Samundar Paar sojourn. But for a man who prides himself on taking tough decisions when it comes to issues affecting others, he seems to be chary to taking a tough decision when it comes to himself. The issue is about Goa not having anyone in charge for almost four months now and one leg of the three member Committee of Ministers absconding to Portugal for a month long vacation, the situation for the State is becoming more precarious. ​                                              Why Is Manohar Parrikar Bluffing? The newspapers last week carried news that Manohar Parrikar is in constant touch with the government and is managing his work through email and phone. Now email is a method which as someone pointed out does not confirm the identity of the sender, in the sense that it is possible for someone else to use the email account. Another thing is that email accounts are prone to hacking and this can be easily done particularly now that it is declared that email is being used by the CM. So first, should affairs of government be handled through email? Do we not have an Official Secrets Act which defines the protocol for handling government papers? Also all of us have some time or other asked the government for some information or some papers and at that time we have been told that government matters cannot be informed to all even if we are the affected party. An issue of privilege is claimed at these times. But now you share government matters through email that can be easily compromised. The other thing is that Manohar Parrikar when in Goa as CM had no time throughout the day and found 24 hours inadequate for his official work. So it is obvious now that with his resorting to only phone and email his work must be suffering or while as CM in Goa he was posturing all along, posing that he was busy! Why is there a need for all this bluff? There was also no need for the above newspaper report that everything's fine with the CM's office and not a single file is pending.  One could even say that no file is pending since all files go to the Committee of Ministers who is looking after the CM’s work. In one of my early interactions in 2003 with Manohar Parrikar he had told me that I do not understand how government works. I had responded then that I know that his government does not work. The situation it seems is continuing. Goa deserves an interim CM and if Manohar Parrikar loves Goa he should nominate someone to run the government.                                               *************************************

VOX POPULI                                                                   by                                                             S Kamat                                                                    as                                                             Aam Admi                                     Issue: 234                     Date: 21.05.2018            skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com 1. Recently Concluded Panchayat Elections in Bengal are a Blot on the Fair Face of           Democracy 2. Karnataka Elections Score 'One All' for the BJP and the Congress 3.   Is The Goa Congress Willing To Compromise? Recently Concluded Panchayat Elections In Bengal Are A Blot On The Fair Face of                                                                  Democracy The recently concluded panchayat elections in Bengal are a blot on the fair face of democracy. Starting from strong-arm tactics used to block nominations of candidates other than the TMC to booth capturing at the time of voting to intimidation of voters to make them vote for TMC candidates, the landslide victory that the TMC won needs to be derided by all those who believe in the democratic system. Added to that the 26 odd people who died during the election related violence are martyrs to the spirit of democracy. If winning elections in Bengal is done in this fashion, increasingly becoming a trademark, by the TMC, it is a sad commentary on Mamta Banerji's belief in democratic values. With her Prime Ministerial aspirations such election management techniques will not help her go far down that road in 2019.                 Karnataka Elections Score 'One All' for the BJP and the Congress The Karnataka elections and their results is a lesson of sorts to the BJP on not what to do. With 104 seats in their kitty what they should have done is adopted the high moral ground by saying that the people of Karnataka did not give them a clear mandate to rule and therefore they would sit in the Opposition as a responsible party. By jockeying for power they not only have lost public face with allegations of trying to buy MLA's but also united the Opposition nationally. This does not augur well for them for the upcoming elections in other States and the General Elections to follow since it will be presumed that the BJP will do anything to grab the seat of power. Like it is said it was a question of just 2 seats but even then it was a case of 'so near but yet so far'. Political sagacity and foresight was important at this time rather than political brawling which was a sorry sight to see. We must thank the Supreme Court for forestalling this ugly drama of horse trading by forcing the vote of confidence within 24 hours that is by 4pm latest on Sat, 19th when B S Yeddyurappa had to resign as CM admitting he did not have the numbers to run the government. One must say that the Karnataka elections was a score of 'One All' for the BJP and the Congress on the scale of debacles. Postscript: The Panchatantra tale of two cats fighting over a chapati when a monkey arrives and walks away with it, is so true in real life of humans, which is what makes the Panchatantra timeless. With the Congress and the BJP fighting for rewards at the hustings it was the dark horse in the form of JD(S) whose H D Kumaraswamy at No. 3 in the count of seats who walked away with the prize.                             Is The Goa Congress Willing To Compromise? Recently the Goan papers were carrying headlines that the Goa Congress has staked claim to form the government. It looks like the Goa Congress is living in a time warp, what they should have done when the Assembly election results came out more than a year ago they are doing now. At that time they were fighting amongst themselves as to who would be the Chief Minister and that led to inaction allowing the BJP-led coalition to pull the rug from under their feet. Now full well knowing that nothing would come out of their claim to form the government, the Goa Congress leaders have gone to the Governor and after that posed for pictures to show their purported 'unity'. However, the Congress can still play a wild card and going by the way of the Karnataka model after the recent Assembly elections and that is  to offer the post of CM to Sudin Dhavlikar of the MGP. Sudin is known to harbour CM aspirations and that could just about give the Congress the numbers for a majority in the Assembly. When H D Kumaraswamy can be made CM with Congress being the one with the larger number of seats, why cannot the Goa Congress make Sudin Dhavlikar the CM making his dreams turn to reality sooner? Postscript: Sudin Dhavlikar's MGP party won 3 seats in the Goa 2017 Assembly Elections which with the Congress' 17 would have tipped the scale of the 40 Seat Goa Assembly with 1 Independent but for the internecine squabbles within the Goa Congress allowing the wily Manohar Parrikar to lay claim to form the government. If the Congress want to come back to power they can think of making Sudin Dhavlikar the Chief Minister ala Karnataka model, particularly in this interregnum when Parrikar is unwell and away from the State. There is a precedent of sorts in this regard with Madhu Koda , an Independent, who leveraged to become the CM and ended up with a record of being the most corrupt Chief Minister in the span of 24 months that he was in office.                                                      ************************* Hi, I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also. IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY. There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs. Thanking you for your patience in reading through this. HAPPY READING VOX POPULI. Yours truly S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apts., Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Goa 403202. Ph:(0832) 2458220 Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com My Newsletter by kamatsrinivas  Alto St Cruz Alto St Cruz, Goa USA Sent to  kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com —  Unsubscribe  Delivered by

VOX POPULI                                                                            by                                                                                              S Kamat                                                                   as                                                             Aam Admi                                         Issue: 233               Date:  14.05.2018                                 skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com                VOX POPULI IS BACK! VOX POPULI IS BACK! VOX POPULI IS BACK! Contents: 1. Empty Gestures & Littler Men 2. Undermining The Institutions Of Democracy 3. Bank NPA’s : Who's Paying For Them? 4. Rapes That Dot The Country's Geography                                       Empty Gestures & Littler Men Narendra Modi's hurriedly cobbled up trip to China in April to meet President Xi is one of those empty gestures like dropping in on Nawaz Sharif for a cup of tea in Pakistan while returning from an overseas trip a few years ago. Nothing happened with Pakistan and importantly our relationship deteriorated to the extent that today it is at the nadir for the last two decades or more. One hopes that the same thing does not happen in the case of China. The lack of maturity being shown is coupled with the fact that Modi always wants the spotlight on himself and will go to any extent to ensure that full well knowing that sometimes these gestures will fall flat. Thus the April China trip was on the same day when the two Koreas were meeting and the whole of Asia, the US and the rest of the world would be looking towards that meeting. Modi wanted to rub of some of that shine onto himself by scheduling a meeting with Xi. It is a wonder that Xi agreed for Modi to come over since the Korea issue was an important issue for China and Xi would at most have probably given a cursory ear to Modi. The way the world looked at the Modi-Xi meeting was reflected in the BBC news the next day when the coverage was all about the Koreas meeting and there was absolutely no mention of the Modi-Xi meeting. From the media photos in the Indian press that were carried one can see Modi and Xi's pictures with dancers, visiting an exhibition etc. which are of the kind that are done at retreats on the sidelines of summits. One can safely say that it was an opportunity completely wasted. With no major issue touched like Dokalam or others as one newspaper put it, Modi had expressly gone to request Xi not to rock the boat on the shared borders between the two countries until the 2019 elections in India were over.  Talking of littler men, the controversy generated out of President Kovind not presenting all the National Film awards is a shame. The artistic community involved in our film fraternity spend a lifetime in their craft and for which they sometimes get nominated and win the National Film awards. Many get the award only once in a lifetime while others may get it a number of times. Thus for the majority of the awardees it is an important and memorable occasion of their lives to go up and collect the award from the President of India. President Kovind not recognising this simple fact is a shame. Could he not spare a few hours in recognition of the work of the awardees? We are living in the times that littler men and women are being given positions that they are not deserving of and out of that in the false sense of pride that they are filled up with, come up with unseemly and irrational conditions in the performance of their official duties. All past Presidents have given out awards for which they have had to spend hours and have not complained about it. Maybe we will have President Kovind declare that he will give out the Padma awards only up to the Padma Vibhushan while the awards after that like the Bhushan and Shri which are larger in number be given by the Vice-President!                                     Undermining The Institutions Of Democracy  Narendra Modi and his government progressively and with great deliberation has undermined the democratic institutions of this country. The first act of this unholy drama was not to renew the term of Raghuram Rajan as RBI Governor. This act was done with a complete lack of finesse with the delineated purpose of getting rid of the not-so-amenable Rajan and getting in Urjit Patel, who considering his new arrival could be taken advantage of to  push through the ill-conceived and badly managed Demonetisation exercise.  Post-8th Nov 2016 taking advantage of the new Governor, the Central Govt. financial bureaucracy led by the likes of Shaktikanta Das & Hasmukh Adhia, more the former than the latter, took over the RBI completely issuing circulars after circulars, many contradicting each other, knowing full that the RBI would be held responsible for all the repercussions. With Urjit Patel sidelined for the first month or more of his assignment, he had no option but to run away from the media in Gujarat since he was not in the know of things and was unsure of fielding the barrage of questions on the Demonetisation exercise that were likely. Never in free India had a sight been seen of the RBI Governor fleeing from the media! With Urjit Patel thereafter settling down into his job, he commenced paying back the Executive for giving him the assignment by first accepting that the Demonetisation exercise was recommended by the RBI in their Board meeting held on the morning of 8th November 2016 thus letting the Central government off the hook. Later Urjit Patel continued to stonewall the media and even a Parliamentary Consultative Committee on how much of the demonetised currency had come back with the claim that the RBI along with the banks are still 'counting'. Close to two years are coming to pass but RBI have not yet come out with confirmed figures on how many of the demonetised notes came back. The lack of clear cut numbers on the returned demonetised notes stopped the RBI from closing their books of accounts in the year 2016-17, the first time in ages. Thereafter the RBI finalised the accounts by declaring a reduced dividend to the central government by about Rs. 30 crores from what they would normally pay. The question is if RBI accounts were closed for 2016-17 then the amount of demonetised notes that did not come back were obviously estimated, if so why were these figures not revealed to the public. Why is the RBI Governor playing to the tunes of his political masters and indirectly defending them since this data once revealed would obviously provide fuel to the Opposition's fire before and during any of the elections that have been held since early 2017? Similarly in terms of interest rates, the economic conditions like inflation etc. were not amenable for a review of the rates being lowered since early 2017. Even then Urjit Patel marginally adjusted them a tad lower to again play fiddle to his political master's tunes. Thus ever since Urjit Patel has taken over the reins at RBI the  autonomy and independence of that institution has become suspect. In cricketing terms, RBI was the first wicket to fall in the Modi government’s plan to undermine the democratic institutions of this country. The second wicket to fall was the office of the EC - Election Commission when A K Joti was made Election Commissioner and then CEC in July 2017. Joti had served under Narendra Modi as Chief Secretary when Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat. Whether it was pre-planned or happened by circumstance, it was Jothi who was the CEC when the Gujarat elections were to be held. We all know how the Gujarat election dates were pushed out to accommodate Narendra Modi's visit to Gujarat when a number of vote gathering measures were announced and helped the BJP's principal vote puller to be in the public eye, when actually the Election Code of Conduct should have been in force. It was only after Modi returned to Delhi from Gujarat and gave Joti the green signal were the poll dates announced. As we all know the Gujarat elections were a close call for the BJP and  if Modi had not been able to make his whirlwind tour with the public sops prior to the elections, the results could well have been different.  It would have then been another story completely for Gujarat as well as the rest of the country. This trend of undermining the position of the EC has continued since then and for the upcoming Karnataka elections we had the dates leaked by a BJP functionary to the media even before the CEC had announced them to the media. The question is how does the BJP  know of the dates in advance unless they are giving it to the EC! This is the extent to which the EC has been subverted by the present political dispensation.  The third wicket to fall was that of the Supreme Court. Ever since the Narendra Modi led BJP Government came to power in 2014, the battle of attrition between the government and the Supreme Court was continuing. With a pendency of cases running into crores across the courts in the country, there has been a severe shortage of judges more so at the Supreme Court. Even after the collegium of judges give their recommendations the CJI and the Supreme Court have to wait for the say-so of the Government before the judges can be appointed to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. This love-hate relationship has continued through the tenure of many CJI's to varying degrees with some going in for outright confrontation to some others extending the hand of co-operation to government. With the present incumbent, CJI Dipak Misra facing the same dilemma, he apparently decided to become the willing collaborator by trying to please the government and thus win favour for the judiciary. This is where Misra made the mistake since the government follows the approach of - 'no give but all take'. The government interpreted this collaborative behaviour as acquiescence and started playing hardball to get the Supreme Court under Its thumb. In the meanwhile Misra's approach towards the government was seen in other circles mostly by the Opposition political parties that Misra was the government's man. A number of judgments along with the dissent among the Supreme Court judges on the 'favourable roster' that added fuel to the fire has led to a motion of impeachment against the CJI since dismissed. Thus we are seeing how a lack of leadership by Misra as CJI has made the Supreme Court fall into the hands of the Executive as is again evidenced with the refusal of the Executive to elevate a Justice K M Joseph to the Supreme Court despite the collegium's recommendation. One must also say here that the Supreme Court and the judiciary has not really applied themselves seriously to the pendency of cases in the courts and continues to be procedure bound rather than concentrating on speedy delivery of justice.  Apart from the above numerous other officials at all levels of the bureaucracy and the country's investigating bodies have been rewarded for giving favourable reports and/or judgments to the ruling junta functionaries which exonerated them from multifarious criminal cases of all varieties. An example of this is that Narayanan who headed the SIT that went into the 2002 Gujarat riots in which Narendra Modi was an accused and who was fully acquitted, was given the post of Indian Ambassador of Cyprus, a cushy posting to loll in the sun of the Mediterranean. Similarly other members of the SIT were given important and influential postings. We have lately seen Maya Kodnani being acquitted in the 2002 Gujarat communal riots cases on flimsy grounds mostly lack of evidence since the police do not put in any efforts to investigate such cases knowing full well that they will be thrown out of the courts. Then you have the Justice Loya case who had acquitted Amit Shah, BJP President in a murder case, where it is not clear whether the judge died of natural causes or was murdered.   This is how with institutions getting compromised both governance and the process of delivering justice have been subverted in this country under the present government eroding the foundations of Indian democracy.                                            Bank NPA’s : Who's Paying For Them? PNB Chairman has said that by Dec 2018 the bank would be out of the woods as far as the Nirav Modi/Choksi financial bungling scam. Another headline recently reported that NPA’s of some Rs. 2000 crores would be written off by Banks this year from the pile of Rs. 10 Lakh crores. Yet another headline in the financial papers reads that NPA’s will be on the increase in 2019. Clearly our banking system is in a major mess with the person in charge, the Finance Minister with serious and debilitating health issues, first it was the heart and now it is understood to be the kidney, which precludes his giving adequate attention to his onerous responsibilities. Thus before we have a multi-organ failure of the country's banking sector and the situation goes beyond the point of salvage we need to first get a fully functional and competent Finance Minister. The point is does Narendra Modi have anyone in mind and that is the moot question. There are no choices available for the Prime Minister with the possibility of calling back Yeshwant Sinha from retirement being out considering that he is singing a skewed tune compared to the government line and having called for Arun Jaitley's resignation many times in the past it would appear by appointing Sinha that the government was running the ship with an incompetent person in Jaitley. With Yeshwant Sinha having now quit the BJP, Narendra Modi has not much choice left to replace the Finance Minister.  Since the Nirav Modi/Choksi scam of some Rs. 10,000-12,000 crores, multiple banking scams have surfaced across the country with different banks running from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 6000 crores mainly relating to loan default and/or utilisation of funds other than for stated purpose leading to inability to clear loan dues since in the first place they were never intended to be repaid. This is clearly the case  in  the latest disclosure of the nexus between IDBI and Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran. This is one end of the scale of bank customers while at the other end common customers operating savings bank accounts are being harassed no end, with charges levied if minimum balances are not maintained and the latest is that account holders will be charged each time that they use the ATM. In Vox Populi I had written sometime back in an earlier issue that there will come a time when bank account holders will be charged for just stepping into the bank, so much for a service oriented industry! These are the same account holders that are forced to shoulder the brunt of the write-off  of the NPA's. Thus the common man will be paying through his nose for the shenanigans of bank officials and the mercenary money-grabbing ways of others like industrialists and those who avail big-time loans.  The Nirav Modi/Choksi scam at PNB is clearly a case of collusion with bank officials involved up the chain of command or responsible for their negligence and/or laxity on the job. Similar irresponsibility is shown in the other cases involving the scams and/or NPA's where there has been deliberate manipulation to clear loans and due diligence was given the go-by by bank officials. This is not to say that the entire banking system is rotten but one can safely say that majority of the top management in banks, both public as well as private, can be held guilty to the charge of connivance at one time or other or for one case or another when it comes to loans sanctioned that have since become NPA's. There is therefore the need for a complete revamp of India's banking sector before good money for re-capitalisation is again thrown at bad people, practices and procedures. This bail-out money could well be used for much needed alternate development activity around the country where many a deserving program is being starved of funds.                                              Rapes That Dot The Country's Geography The Unnao, Kathua and Surat rape cases with their callousness and brutality show that after the Nirbhaya incident in 2012 nothing really has changed in the way that women particularly children and even infants are seen by men not as human beings but as objects to satisfy their lust and sexual aberrations. The Ordinance brought in to accord the death penalty to rape offenders convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 is absolutely the correct measure. There was a need to have an exemplary punishment that would act as a deterrent to offenders and with it the declaration that the government had the will to enforce it. After the Nirbhaya incident when it was declared that all rape cases would be handled by fast-track courts one has come to realise that such courts have turned to be misnomers being caught in and unable to get out of the rigmarole in the Indian legal process and allowing the rape cases to drag on. The ambiguity or confusion on handling rape cases in the fast-track category can be understood with the government recently coming out with an announcement that rape cases involving victims who are minors will be dealt in the fast-track category! So what is the truth? If one looks at the frequency of rape cases across the country particularly where victims are below the age of 16 years and link it with the locales where the rapes have occurred, the age group and occupation of the offenders, one comes to the preliminary conclusion that we should not let our girl children remain unsupervised. Where the parents by virtue of economic compulsion have to go out for work  be it in urban or rural areas and there is no one in the family who can keep an eye on the children we find the children are at risk particularly the girl child. Thus the girl child needs to be under supervision as much as possible and kept in a safe environment. One of the methods could be is that we have our NGO's actively involved in this program by providing social shelters in localities particularly urban slum areas and in villages through the anganwadi system so that the girls are under some protective care. These shelters operating from 8am-8pm can be offered free of charge for the lesser privileged families and a nominal charge levied on those who are well off. Progressively these shelters can be moderated to become training centres for the children for inculcating skills and for socio-cultural activity. Thus we will not only have our girls protected but also become more accomplished.  The other thing that can be done is to ask all children not to accept any inducements like sweets, ice-cream or other food items from non-family members or strangers. Under the pretext of offering children these inducements the offenders take advantage of them. For this a concerted advertisement program has to be undertaken by the DAVP, one does not know whether it exists anymore, to educate children and their parents the risks of accepting things from strangers. This program can be expanded to cover schools where the idea can be reinstated in the minds of the children again particularly the girl child. But how much this will work is doubtful since the range and variety of inducements in these days of TV advertisements is extensive and very appealing and to have a child refuse something that he desires requires a great amount of will-power and self-discipline which their parents have to inculcate.  Then there is the issue of family values that needs to be tackled where added to the bravado that the young males exhibit generally, we find that in northern India the boys in the family tend to be handled more permissively than the girls. This leads to the boys targeting girls beyond the normal teasing what we call ched-chad and looking at them more as an object to satisfy their lust. This happens more as a group behaviour. Such tendencies can only be controlled by the parents of the boys and senior family members instilling the proper values of respecting girls other than in the family and putting them under a code of rigorous discipline. Any incidents which comes to the parent or guardian's notice should be immediately dealt with by exemplary punishment. This is easier said than done since social strata Issues and the impudence that wealth and power brings will come in the way and for seniors in the family to modify and change traits is a generational exercise. Nonetheless a start needs to be made.  Again if you analyse the incidents of rape in the last decade or so, you will find that it is probably the deprivation of sex which drives the rape impulse in offenders most of the time. That is why you have car pick-up drivers taking advantage of single women, Ola/Über drivers performing indecent acts when women passengers are alone as also trying to rape them, rapes happening at construction sites, slums etc. Recognising that we have a problem we as a society need to take a courageous decision and legalise prostitution. Once there is an avenue for men to exercise their sexual urges one hopes that the incidence of rapes will reduce. The other is a more broader approach and that is to have people stay as much as possible in their native places. We are today encouraging more of our people to leave our villages and move to urban areas. This leads to separation from their families and is one of the reasons for the increase in rape cases in slums and housing clusters in our towns and cities. In the villages the men stay with their wives and there is always a sense of  nervousness to attempt rapes since they are known in the village. In the places they move to like slums the curtain of anonymity that is the fact that they are not known encourages the proclivity to rape. Overall this encouragement of migration of population to urban areas is a Western thought which will not work in India. In the West the migration was encouraged so that land areas could be freed up and organised agriculture implemented. In India what is happening is that the urban migration is one of the reasons that leads to land going fallow which will end up with drastic food shortages nearer to famine in the future and in the interim prices of food will be driven up taking it beyond the reach of the needy since food will then become imports dependent. The related negatives of urban migration in the Indian context among others are slums and  higher cases of rapes.                                                          ******************************** Hi, I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also. IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY. There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs. Thanking you for your patience in reading through this. HAPPY READING VOX POPULI. Yours truly S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apts., Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Goa 403202. Ph:(0832) 2458220 Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com Sent from my iPad My Newsletter by kamatsrinivas  Alto St Cruz Alto St Cruz, Goa USA Sent to  kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com —  Unsubscribe                       Delivered by

                                                                     VOX POPULI
                                                                           by
                                                                         S Kamat
                                                                                as 
                                                                         Aam Admi

                      Issue: 232                     Date: 18.12.2017

                      skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1. Madhu Koda Got Off Lightly

2. Of Sexual Harassment & Justice To Victims

3. Taking Care of Trees, Saves Lives Also

As I am sending this the Gujarat elections results are streaming in on TV. BJP as expected is leading in 107 seats while the Congress+ are leading in 74 seats. My prediction for Gujarat (Total Seats -182) is: BJP - 100-105, Congress+ - 70-75, Others- 5-10. Any bets! 

                                                  Madhu Koda Got Off Lightly

The infamous Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda who after playing his cards  deftly in coalition politics and becoming the CM went on to make thousands of crores in coal scams was recently sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined Rs. 25 Lakhs. Considering the amount of money Koda has made by corrupt means, one must say that he got off lightly. For shameless politicians like Koda 3 years in jail is a blip in their time scale and Rs. 25 Lakhs is a drop in the bucket of his ill-gotten gains. It is time therefore that our justice system should award punishments commensurate with the crime which will act as a deterrent to the criminally inclined. 

                                       Of Sexual Harassment & Justice To Victims

Since Harvey Weinstein has been accused of sexual harassment, the 'MeToo' sites as well as independent media disclosures have seen women coming out with claims of being harassed/molested that has led to the Time Magazine Person of the Year, 2017 as the Silence Breakers given to them. This taint has affected even senior film stars like Dustin Hoffman, many politicians on both sides of the Atlantic and has also reached the doors of the White House with Donald Trump being accused by some women of having taken undue advantage of them, while George Bush Sr. has been accused of groping by a number of movie stars. It is not only the women but men also have came out in the open with accusations against many film stars notably Kevin Spacey who has become persona non-grata in Hollywood because of his homosexual escapades over the years. There are a couple of things in these incidents which merit analysis. The first being the image of the Western women as independent, strong-willed and capable of standing up for themselves has changed to show that they are as much vulnerable, fragile and prone to physical abuse as Indian women. The second is that justice in these cases not necessarily as awarded by courts but by society has been summary and immediate. There has been no question of being proven guilty prior to being punished. There has been also no rejection of the accusations by those involved. The reason for this could be that those accused knew that they were found out and realised it pointless to contest the claims. Also they would have realised that rebuttals would keep the matter active in the media and to avoid unwanted publicity the best option was to accept the fact and lie low. In India also the 'MeToo' sites made an appearance with linkages to the 'casting couch' in the film world but generally the victims refrained from naming specific persons who took advantage of them. The India 'MeToo' exercise was more in the nature of making awareness by a show of hands that sexual harassment and exploitation of women exists in our society. That one could say is nothing new. As for justice in this context one is reminded of the Tarun Tejpal case where he was accused of molesting a woman colleague in Goa. The case is dragging in the courts reaching up to the Supreme Court and charges against Tejpal are yet to be framed though a substantial time has elapsed since the particular incident took place. Where rape and molestation cases are supposed to be fast tracked the Tejpal case is setting records in framing charges which is the first step in a judicial process. Shows you how rich and influential people can continue to mentally harass victims by using the creaking wheels of the Indian judicial system to slow down justice. After all, this is India mere bhai ! 

                                          Taking Care of Trees, Saves Lives Also

We have yet another tree fall in Chembur which has taken the life of a woman, the breadwinner for her family comprising of college and school going children. This time it was a Gulmohar tree which crashed while the woman was sitting on a bench under it. The last time again in Chembur a coconut tree had collapsed on a woman that resulted in her death. There have been countless incidents like this of tree falls in Mumbai particularly in the last rainy season resulting in death, injury of people or damage to public property. The situation is similar across India's metropolises with tree cover like Bengaluru. In the latest Chembur incident the talk is that the Gulmohar tree is a 'foreign' species to India and falls without warning! This comment is rather surprising since the Gulmohar tree that is seen across the Indian sub-continent and calledkrishnachura in Eastern India figures regularly in age old poetry and literature. Such excuses are made to justify the neglect and lack of maintenance of tree cover within urban areas by our municipal bodies. Similar justification is given at the time of cutting old trees wherein it is said by 'experts' that trees more than 60 year old have served their useful life! When it is pointed out that with cementing of pavements very close to the trunk of trees, they are deprived of water, it is said that for big trees the roots go 'deep into the soil' and there is no need to let some bare soil around the tree trunk. Now if you do not allow bare soil around the tree how will water seep down into the earth for the tree to draw upon since obviously the roots cannot reach deep enough to reach the depleting water table? If you look at statistics it is these trees that have been hemmed in with cement which are falling. Thus it is time that across India specifically in urban areas a standard is established that bare soil of at least one meter in radius should be left around the tree for it draw its sustenance from. For bigger trees with larger trunks, more space than 1 meter may be provided. With this you will find that tree falls will reduce dramatically in our cities. For this space of bare soil to be provided around the tree any of our environmentalists or NGO's can move the NGT so that this becomes a law which will make it difficult for municipal bodies to ignore it. We need to realise that this measure will not only save trees but also protect humanity and public property. The other thing that needs to be done when it comes to tree cover in urban areas is that the municipal authorities or a cell specially created in the State Forest Dept. for this purpose be made responsible for regularly inspection of trees and trimming them for both purposes of stability as well as traffic safety as well as look after the general maintenance of the tree cover. It is time we did this since taking care of trees saves lives also. 

                                                          ****************************

Hi,

I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.

There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs. 

Thanking you for your patience in reading through this.

HAPPY READING VOX POPULI.

Yours truly

S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apts., Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Goa 403202.

Ph:(0832) 2458220 Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPad