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Anna mixing issues with personalities
Team Anna appears to be struggling to keep its force intact. Its latest attempt to remain relevant is to align with Baba Ramdev. The team is guided by individuals who seem to be furthering personal convictions and slowly sidelining Anna Hazare. Arvind Kejriwal is bent upon his philosophy of ‘naming and shaming’ of the politicians who he feels are corrupt. He is antagonising the parliamentarians who unfortunately have been elected by us. By belittling the Parliament or its elected members, we are undermining our own democracy. Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan are targeting the PM and the Congress party. What is their aim —To get a strong Lokpal Bill or to remove the PM and the Congress party from power? It is here that Team Anna is making a mistake – mixing up issues with personalities. Even if the UPA is made to pack its bags, will the Lokpal Bill be passed and corruption eradicated. How is the BJP different from Congress in terms of corruption or black money? Somehow, Anna and Baba Ramdev make strange bed fellows and do not gel well. Team Anna should take a cue from Aamir Khan’s dedicated, small yet sincere attempt to rid the society of its social evils through the medium of televison. And most importantly the campaign to remove corruption from the country will only succeed when the urge to get rid of it comes from within each one of us. If we do not stop taking or giving bribes, no amount of pro-Anna sloganeering or any Lokpal Bill can remove corruption. The Anna effect is yet to percolate in our daily lives. The day we really become Anna, the battle would have been won. Col R D SINGH
(retd), Ambala Cantt
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Undue harassment The Passport Seva Project (PSP) was started by the Ministry of External Affairs in Public-Private Partnership with Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) to deliver passport related services in a timely, transparent, accessible and reliable manner. The government’s good intentions are not fructifying to serve the right purpose. The current PSK (Passport Seva Kendra) service is worse than the earlier one because it is not an easy task to take an appointment from the PSK website. The old passport website which was not managed by any private company was better than the current passport seva project (PSP). In the old website, you could apply for a passport and manage your appointment according to the available slot. The current PSK website gives an appointment slot only after 6 pm which is available only for a few seconds. When you log in on the website to take appointment at the specified time, there is a message displayed on the website: Currently no appointment slots are available for the selected Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). Please try scheduling an appointment from next date, 6 pm onwards. This message continues for days and days. The government or MEA should look into the mater to avoid grave inconvenience to the general public. RAM MISHRA, Amritsar Lessons from Israel Though Israel is almost half the size of Punjab and Haryana, the innovations done by Israel in agriculture are highly commendable (Article “Lessons from Israel’s innovation”, June 5). Punjab and the other states should also come ahead like Haryana has and improve their agri practices. We can also improve waste management and cold storage facilities to prevent the wastage of stored grain stock. The need of the hour is a second Green and White revolution, and with help of Israel we can achieve the goal comprehensively. SHIVANSH MONGA, Chandigarh Wrong interpretation The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s view that no prior sanction is required under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act for proceeding against an employee who can be removed by authorities other than the government, is not legally sustainable as it is not a correct legal understanding of the said provision (editorial “Going after the corrupt”, May 30). Section 19 mandates that previous sanction is necessary for launching prosecution against an accused public servant of the competent authorities mentioned in the Section itself and that no court shall take cognisance of an offence punishable under Section 7, 10, 11, 13 and 15 without previous sanction. Section 19(c) mentions ‘in case of any other person’ referring to the officials of the non-gazetted category. It is really surprising how a Special Judge would be legally justified to take cognisance against say a Patwari without a valid sanction of the competent authority. Your conclusion that a Patwari stands stripped of the benefit of prior sanction is wrong and illogical. The condition of previous sanction is not required if a public servant retires or his act does not fall within any offence under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. SOM DUTT VASUDEVA, Shimla
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