When most of the hill stations like Darjeeling or Gangtok have been crowded by tourists and business houses, Pelling can be your abode of peace with its unending scenic beauty.

Bengal Tour Club, the leading travel agent, with its exuberance had discovered the beautiful city under the lap of Himalayas and have been continuously conducting Pelling tours for long.

It is not only the majestic mountain, Naresh Jain, the chief of Bengal Tour Club also recommends the tourists to visit the exciting Alpine forests.

Spending a couple of days at Pelling means to remain very close with the nature. When you are at this zone of Sikkim, your days boast with bountiful of waterfalls and swirling cloud, which never happens in your city life. The Khecipuri Lake and the Singhshore bridge also feature in the Pelling travel of Bengal Tour Club

Bengal Tour Club always wants you to fully enjoy your leisure. They organize even picnic in a nice point, where you can optimize your relaxation. None of the travel plan of Bengal Tour Club becomes hectic as you get enough time to cherish the beauty of nature.

The pelling travel of Bengal Tour Club is the right mix of driving, traveling, rafting with a flair of relaxation.

Why not to discover your inner potential under the lap of majestic mountains at Pelling with Bengal Tour Club?

An Endless Travel

Dewakar, the ever young mind feels that it is the emotion and psychological state of mind that makes us old. A proper planning can keep us always young. Such an intense thoughts have received accolades even from the experts.

Prof. Dewakar Goel is indeed a multifaceted personality. True to the definition, Dewakar has been proved to be an excellent teacher, an able administrator and off course a candid adviser.

His outstanding academics comprise of Ph.D., MBA, PG Diploma in Personnel Management and Labor laws and many more.

Professionally he is assuming the chair of General Manager (Personnel and Administration) of Airport Authority of India. He has got international exposures in various fronts and his enriched experience has made his books and articles more lively.

Besides the wonderful creation an endless travel, Dewakar Goesl has authored many other books like Departmental Inquiries, Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management – A Modern Approach, which have received acclaims from various levels of the society including management graduates and students.

His famous, Living a Stressful life with Joy, has emerged as the superpower. Any professional of today’s world can be immensely benefited by his own devised mechanism.

Coming back to his Endless Travel, he has emphasized on self realization. It is the spirit of dynamism and a careful planning that saves you from a lot of hazards. In his own language, “It is essential to realize and recognize the need for emotional and psychological stability”.

Alas! everybody could think alike.

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Anglo Swiss is a legendary brand in time attendance products and solutions. They have been dominating the segment since the inception of Time recording concept in India. Why not to take the accurate time attendance solutions from the indisputable leader? Anglo Swiss will foster your business growth.

2009 started with a panic of economic meltdown and its tentacles. The impact has certainly come down, but not annihilated as yet.

We must admire several bold steps from various countries and administrative bodies to fight with the disasters, but the residual impact still continues.

On the contrary, the addiction for online casinos and gambling does not show any significant differences.

Online Casinos have also announced special offers and new online casinos have emerged this year. Perhaps that proves the true economic condition of a segment of people, who could really remain untouched by the economic meltdown.

Online education has faced an overwhelming growth. Many reputed universities have started offering online degrees and franchisee this year.

It is good that people have finally accepted online education as an integral part of their career development.

The management education and management qualification have again reached the hilt. Companies or Corporates having battered by economic turbulence have shown their trusts on good managers.

The advertising and marketing segment have got a literal boost, whereby Internet Marketing and other marketing media have really fueled up.

The premier slots are sold in millions of dollars. Magazines, Journals – both in online and offline forms have got plenty of advertisements. It is noticeable that the second half of the year has found hardly empty billboards.

In spite of quit drug, quit smoking campaigns, drugs and alcohol have been also continuing at its own rhythm.

Though the world didn’t notice massacres like 9/11, but there is no signal of reduction of crime rates.

Like every year, the new year 2010 is also coming with great expectations. People have splurged into the extravaganza of new year celebration. People have surely started taking new oaths.

We must acknowledge the sentiments of billions of people, but perhaps the time has come, when we will take oath only after a careful self analysis and the past performance!

The recent trends in the students election in several colleges has certainly stained such glorious democracy, for which the political awareness of West Bengal is reckoned.

The not-so-humble students have been found to walk into the colleges with fire arms have engaged themselves even in bombing and other criminal activities. Intriguingly, in many occasions, the intrusion of political parties and ‘dadas’ in the college premises have been noticed.

The result is that many students have met with formidable devastation just at the blossoming stage of their lives and that too for reinstating democracy.

It is always expressed as a matter of pride, when the people speaks of the growth of political leaders from the student politics. West Bengal always boasts with bountiful of such names like the present Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Biman Basu, Late Subhash Chakraborty, Shyamal Chakraborty, Mamata Banerjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Priyo Ranjan Dasmunsi and many more. The people of West Bengal always remain proud about their political consciousness.

The glorious past slogan, What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow, is enchanted with utter pride.

Unfortunately when most of the today’s political leaders have been completely alienated from the people, they have tried to misguide the young generation just to increase their political base.

The obvious result has come up in the form of most unwanted death and disasters of many students at a stage, when they had just attempted to step into the world of democracy.

It is really ridiculous that the political leaders often spat fire in the press conferences and everybody demands a clean students election, which is should be supposedly free from all external interventions. Everybody talks of bringing semblance of law and order and they hardly restrain themselves from intervening even in students forum.

It is indeed true that the students can remain political motivated, but they should not forget that they become students’ representatives to vouch for the demands of the students to create a better education ambiance.

No student vote them to create nuisance inside the college premises. The political Dadas and Didis should remember that the they can brainstorm the students in their so called ideologies, but that should not disturb the holistic education premises.

The oppositions attempt to allege the ruling party and the vice-verse. In such a dirty battle, the only loser is the budding youth and most unconsciously. The time has come, when the political parties should reinstall the minimum social ethics in their cadres!

Brushing asides controversies about the definition of family and its obligation, lets state clearly that the day has come, when even the old aged citizens can find out some distinct advantages.

If you have a house, you can mortgage it and can earn a monthly revenue from such reverse mortgaging till your death.

Who doesn’t know that financial strength is the most powerful strength of today’s world.

It had already started in Europe and America and still a new concept in the 3rd world countries. You will find many websites have been launched just to facilitate the reverse mortgaging in several countries. People have started opting for reverse mortgaging.

If one can forgo his sentimental part, even a small house can work as a true asset at the old age. There are many financial institutes including some leading banks, who have been offering this reverse mortgaging facilities.

You can get a one time payment or in Equal Monthly Installment (EMI), whereby the financial institutes commits to pay you till you survive or a specific period. As it is your house, you can mortgage it at your discretion, at you favorable terms.

The offer includes registration of your favorite domain (as per availability) for one year and one page website. You can get an email id at your brand name. It’s certain that amit@xyz.com sounds much more professional than amit@rediffmail.com.

If you go for website at Rs.2699 package, you become entitled to free hosting for complete one year for the said website.

Its true that the economic meltdown with its far reaching tentacles have challenged the survival of many business houses. Why not to join the band wagon, when website has become the prime marketing media today?

Its really unfortunate that there are many establishments in the developing countries, who don’t have their websites. A simple survey on the internet can justify the statement.

When the number of internet users have been growing phenomenally, what is the use of shying off?

Building a Website is not a Herculean task. It’s simply a cake walk. Skill Hut, the forward thinking web solutions company has launched this magnum offer of website at $60 for the people, who have been always hesitant about launching their websites because of illusive exorbitant cost.

Why shouldn’t you go for your web face when you get such an offer of website at Rs. 2699 from a premier web solutions company like Skill Hut?

As a matter of fact, right to information not only forces public authorities to reveal what was considered knowledge as an intellectual property but also ensure a lot many changes in governance.

Now most of the public authorities are encouraged to adopt the single window system for public services. They are going for computerization as a step towards e-governance. When we talk about the government officials, there is a sea change in the working pattern while writing notings on the file because they have the fear of getting embarrassed if the contents of their notings are revealed by way of right to information. Some of the bureaucrats are afraid of receiving applications.

Recently, some malpractices have come to notice where the officials refused to accept the applications, demand hefty amount for providing information or ask for proof of identification so as to demoralize the applicants – though there are penalty clauses for denying information.

If we go on record by the year ending 2008, the Chief Information Commissioner so far imposed penalty in less than hundred out of nearly 9000 cases of denial. Besides, in some cases penalties were withdrawn even when the information was denied.

There are some worst cases which can be highlighted where the public authorities allegedly tormented frequent information seekers by putting them behind bars or beating them up.

One such case published in newspapers when Majibur Rehman who exposed irregularity in Prime Minister Relief Fund was sent to jail in Chhattisgarh. Another applicant, Ravi Sharma in Uttar Pradesh was thrashed by police officials because he wanted to know the status of cases registered in the police station.

There are always positive and negative aspects of any legislation and the same is the case of Right to Information Act. Still the number of applicantions are increasing year by year. In the year 2005-06 over 24,000 applications were filed and the number has increased to over 1,00,000 in the year 2006-07. It is a reality that public authorities are shaken up by right to information because there is a lot of pressure. The Non Government Organizations are happy because they have got a new issue to raise protests. Some NGOs have been formed exclusively for right to information and their network is increasing day by day. It will be interesting to know about the status in all its correctness as reported in various newspapers.

There were over one lakh applications filed under RTI Act to the Central Ministries out of which 16% were rejected and 68% applications were satisfied.

It has been revealed that 30 days dead line for providing information is not being adhered to in all the cases. Whereas 86% of the government departments in ten States did not make any self-disclosures as provided under RTI Act.

Restrictions in Violations:

It has been observed that some of the States have formulated restrictions while implementing the provisions of RTI Act though still it is a question as to whether these restrictions are in accordance with the law or not. For example in Karnataka, the application with more than 150 words is not entertained for the information sought on one subject. In Punjab, the applications are rejected on the ground of unsatisfactory identity and information already available on the website. New Okhla Industrial Development Authority of Uttar Pradesh and public authorities in Orissa are insisting for submission of proof of identity of applicant along with applications. We will discuss some real examples in different States.

Landmark Orders Made the Difference:

Newspapers in different languages and TV channels are highlighting the cases which have given the benefit to the public at large. The information sought under RTI Act has helped the media in strengthening their view points.

For the first time, the contributions received by political parties were revealed after the orders passed by Chief Information Commissioner.

The government officials can now seek the details of proceedings of departmental promotion committees and also the reasons for denial for their promotions. Even the Annual Confidential Reports are no more secret when it comes to the question of denying promotions on the basis of poor ratings. It is not only for the government officials, but the Act is to be used by all concerned even the students appearing in the examinations can have the hope that the authorities will be bound to disclose the marks obtained by him. Well some safeguards are there in the interest of the public authorities also.

Now the students are allowed to seek information with regard to the criteria for admission on the basis of public examinations like Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Combined Aptitude Test (CAT) prescribed for Indian Institutes of Management (IIM).

A student appearing in these examinations can know the marks secured by him after clearing the examinations but cannot seek the copy of answer sheet. Recently one applicant under RTI Act forced Guru Tej Bahadur Hospital in Delhi to provide free treatment to 73 year old poor women who could not afford her hip replacement surgery.

Implementation at State Level:

It will be interesting to know as to how the right to information has made the difference on its implementation in different States of India. We rely on the information provided by print media and we have every reason to believe that the same is true. Let us talk about the happenings in some of the States by way of real stories.

Chhattisgarh:

Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission had been conducting various examinations for employment to the State Services. So far no one has dared to highlight the irregularities in the conduct of the examinations and evaluations. Recently some aspirants filed the application under Right to Information and Public Service Commission was forced to reveal the facts, which ultimately resulted in change in the examination pattern and the Commission admitted its mistakes before the Hon’ble High Court. The Commission was compelled to accept the blunders that were committed in allotting marks. The entire selection procedure went into dispute. In the year 2006, the High Court issued notices to all 147 candidates who were selected by the Commission. The Chairman of the Commission was suspended and Examination Controller and Secretary were removed, whereas one Member of the Commission preferred to resign. In accordance with the Court Orders, the Commission offered to conduct another examination after nullifying the results of 2006. The matter is still before the Court waiting final orders.

Maharashtra:

The Crawford Market in the old city of Mumbai made in 1869 is a historical landmark which is quite congested and in bad shape. The welfare bodies made relentless efforts to force the Civic Bodies for its development. But they were not getting the required information with regard to the plans of public authorities for private participation in augmenting the developmental activities of the area. One businessman who later became the Central Information Commissioner used Right to Information to access documents. He analysed the figures and came to the conclusion that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s proposal to hand over the market complex and protected heritage site to a builder for redevelopment will result in a Rs.1,000 crore loss for the civic body because in exchange of giving such contract, the Corporation will be getting free construction worth of Rs.40 crore only. It was the result of information gathered by the applicant when the proposal came to the civic house, the Counsellors faced the protests from public forums. In any case the proposal was approved by the house but the same is pending with Heritage Conservation Committee since it has asked some relevant questions which are based on the information revealed under right to information. This is one of the examples from Maharashtra. There may be number of other non-reported cases where the public authorities must be forced to reveal the information facilitating welfare bodies for ensuring corrective measures.

Uttar Pradesh:

The Public Distribution System is one of the organ in the country which ensures supply of food and other items to the people everywhere at a reasonable price fixed by the Government. Number of measures are taken to ensure that supplies reach to the right persons. There is provision of ration cards based on income proof. The Government’s intention is to supply essential commodities at most reasonable rates for the people living below the poverty line. Even an average middle class person is entitled for enjoying the Public Distribution System. Let us talk about the story of a small village Almapur of Uttar Pradesh which was getting its share of ration every year but only on paper and the villagers were deprived of having the ration. In the year 2006, there was a change in situation when the application under right to information was filed. The information under RTI Act revealed about the supplies made by the Government to the village every year at subsidized rates. The details were shocking and the public joined hands for agitating over the issue by way of demonstrations. The public authorities got alerted and the guilty officials were brought to books. It was only on revelation of information with public outrage that the poor villagers started getting ration. It is surprising to note that it was for the first time since Independence when they got the ration at subsidized rates. Public authorities cancelled the licenses of 30 ration shops. The people realized the importance of power in their hands which came by virtue of RTI Act.

Gujarat:
The misuse of power by the officials having position in public authorities is not a new phenomenon. The people harassed at times just for the sake of whims and fancies of government officials. Kashiram, a landless labourer of a small village, Keshavpura of Ahmedabad district of Gujarat was surprised when he received a notice from Social Welfare Department asking him to refund Rs.10,000 for the housing loan assistance granted to him. As the story goes Kashiram as a Dalit of the village, was granted Rs.40,000 under Ambedkar Awas Yojana to construct the house in the year 1997-98 but the amount never reached him. Six years later in May, 2004 he received a notice asking him to refund Rs.10,000 as he had not built the house. Helpless Kashiram approached the local bodies like Gram Panchayat for knowing correct position of the matter and was happy to know that as per their records there were no pending dues against him. It was quite shocking when in February, 2007 he received another notice asking him to refund additional amount of Rs.6,350. Some of the social workers advised him to approach the public authorities under RTI Act but it was not easy for Kashiram to file the application under RTI Act because the officials of the district Social Welfare Department threatened him and asked him to withdraw his application in exchange of giving a partial reply but Kashiram after filing the application under RTI Act and on receiving the partial reply was brave enough to file a second appeal and he was granted Rs.40,000 of which he was paid Rs.20,000 as first installment. Now we can see the fruits of RTI Act being enjoyed by the poor persons in small villages of the country.

The above examples are only from four States of the country which have been reported but we are sure that there must be large number of similar cases in different parts of the country and it will go on in times to come.

The Author

The author Prof. Dewakar Goel is General Manager – Human Resource, Airports Authority of India for all Airports of Southern states with base at Chennai Airport. He is IATA qualified instructor from Geneva Switzerland on the expert panel of International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal Canada

Prof. Goel is a visiting professor for many prestigious business schools, including IIT’s and NMIMS university, Mumbai. He has authored more than 10 books which includes the books on management. Recently he was the chairperson and speaker for Asian Airports Summit 2008 at Singapore as the only Indian among representatives from 16 countries. He is delivering lectures on the topic of “influence of stress on performance” based on his research for PhD

Prof Dewakar Goel can be contacted at dewakargoel14@gmail.com and mobile -09445067070 with address Bungalow D-3 Airports Authority of India (IAD) Colony Chennai Airport, Chennai -600027 India