Fifteen years ago, I took my two year old son to see Rajiv Gandhi. The next morning he woke me up to tell me, “Daddy, Rajiv Gandhi is blown up”. I am yet to recover from that shock!

Today there is a lot of sympathy for the officers who have lost their lives in the Mumbai blasts, not withstanding the fact the Revenue Boards have not reacted. But what is going to happen tomorrow? Mumbai will return to normalcy or normality depending on which paper you read. But what is going to happen to the wife and kids of the inspector who has lost his life? Who is going to help them in this strange city? For a few days helpful colleagues will say nice words to them, but Mumbai being Mumbai, people will get back to their lives and no one will have time to spare for the unfortunate widow and her children. After sometime she will find that there are no more visitors, no kind words, and above all NO MONEY. Her husband would be just another file in the dusty revenue offices. She will be made to run from pillar to post answering all those stupid audit objections and there will be many sharks trying to take advantage of her vulnerable position. She will not get her pension on time; there will be too many objections – after all a file is meant to make objections; She will have to run round the offices any number of times to get her dues and all this while she may perhaps be starving.

Will she get a job on compassionate grounds? Well that file hardly has any compassion; she will have to compete with many others who are already there for that 5% quota. The kind Commissioner will explain to her that there are no vacancies. Till yesterday she had no care in the world, but along with her husband, her world had been blown up by some mindless terrorists. At least her husband was lucky; He is dead, but she has to look after the kids and manage her life in this world of wolves.

Can’t the Board help? CBEC has a huge welfare fund which has over 120 Crores of Rupees. Can’t a little bit of this money be spent now? A large chunk of the welfare fund was spent in furnishing the ICE club in Delhi! Can’t we spend a little of this huge money in taking care of the families of our colleagues who got blown up for no fault of theirs. Apparently the officers who got blown up were not the vulgar rich totally corrupt ones – otherwise they would have had other means of reaching their homes than catching the blasted train. Their families do need our help and timely help. If the welfare fund cannot be used now, when can it be used? If the fund is not for welfare, call it by some other name like entertainment fund and spend it for such purposes.

Incidentally the CBDT has no such fund. The CBEC should use the fund to help the unfortunate victims from the Direct Taxes department too. Let the fund managers take a decision to grant an amount of Rs. 50 lakhs to each of the families of those officers killed in the blast and something like 10 to 25 lakhs for the injured. The fund is not going to be poorer by this small gesture, but the idea that the department stands by its dead officers is a big consolation to the grief ridden family.

The Boards should act immediately. Their transfers and targets can wait. The Boards should immediately appoint a Chief Commissioner as a nodal officer to look after the welfare of the bereaved families. Cut all red tapes and immediately provide a job to the spouse and give them a good financial grant. If that is not possible, give them the salary that the officer would have got till his retirement – there are provisions for such things in the maze of rules. For a change, don’t treat it as just another file; IT IS A LIFE.   

We certainly can’t help all the victims, but ours is an elite department and we sit on a huge welfare fund, which should be put to some welfare use. This is the time. If you have tears, shed them now.

Come Krishna

S. Jai Kumar an erudite writer in our columns has sent in a poem invoking Lord Krishna. You can access it in our Message Board.

We survive accidentally!

9/11 - Why some people are alive and others are not!

++ the head of the company who got in late that day because his son started kindergarten.

++ Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

++ the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning. He took the various means to get to work, but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive.

Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone ... all the little things that annoy me ... I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.  May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things.

AIR – drawback

Government has announced new drawback rates for Hand-bags and shopping bags, of cotton, Other headgear, whether or not lined or trimmed, Leather caps, Combs, hair-slides and the like, hairpins, curling pins, curling grips, hair-curlers, Combs made of polypropylene.

NOTIFICATION NO. 79/2006-CUSTOMS (N.T.), Dated: July 11, 2006

Jarda Scented Tobacco under MRP

Jarda Scented Tobacco falling under 2403 99 30 is brought under MRP with an abatement of 50%. Chewing Tobacco and preparations containing chewing tobacco are already under MRP valuation.

NOTIFICATION NO. 16/2006-Central Excise (N.T.), Dated: July 11, 2006

Who took the PM’s whiskey?

It seems during the PM’s recent visit to Germany, panicked security officials found that one of the aircraft's cabinets had been broken into just before take-off.

A security alert was immediately sounded as secret service agents and intelligence officials scoured the aircraft for a possible bomb.

But what they found was that several bottles of whisky had gone missing. They were eventually discovered in the luggage of the crew.

It appears that the civil aviation ministry has written a letter to the airlines accusing it of cover up.

If bottles can be pilfered from the PM’s aircraft and that too by the crew (who else can do it?), just imagine how easy it is to plant a few bombs in those Mumbai trains! And mind you this is not done by third rate small time smugglers but highly paid airline crew! How dare anyone steal from the PM’s aircraft? Lucky we are, that it was only a few stupid bottles, but it could have been anything. Is it safe to send our Prime Minister with such a crew? Given an opportunity they would have sold him in the air!

ipse dixi (from a Supreme Court judgement we are carrying today)  – He himself said it. Something asserted but not proved – That she was a liar was nothing more than an ipse dixi.

++ A person is being placed under detention without trial and there is neither any scope for overzealous nor acting in a manner without due and proper application of mind - In either of the situation law courts should be able to protect the individual from the administrative ipse dixit – Supreme Court in VC Mohan V UOI

++ A mere ipse dixit of the Revenue is not a sufficient evidence by itself.- CESTAT

++ Excepting mere ipse dixit of the appellant that the statements were brought about under threat and coercion, there is no evidence on record to probabilise this plea.- CESTAT

Let me say again, no one can make Indiakneel. No one can come in the path of our progress. The wheels of our economy will move on. India will continue to walk tall, and with confidence.

Dr. Man Mohan Singh in his address to the Nation

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice Day.

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