He was synonymous to a rare gem, which is priceless in the era he was born and lived. His true worth was could merely be glimpsed at from his radiant visage emitting from his bottomless pit of acquired knowledge. His deep and intriguing eyes flashed with a sparkle that latched on to all who came in touch.

Wisdom shone through delving right to the core of the mingling throng. However his essence lay in his inherent dynamism and flawless love for work. Despite his innumerable health hazards he rose to every challenge that life thrust at him jesting them on the way. He practiced and preached challenges were meant to overcome and his lifetime is a true portrayal of it in all spheres.

Setting Swami Vivekananda’s sights for America to address the legendary seminar at Chicago on propagating the flexibility and vibe about Hinduism was perhaps the epitome of valor and true grit.

Swamiji never analyzed his limited resources while combating to turn on its head, a null and void situation to a lighted conduit that lead to glory and adulation. What distinguished Swami Vivekananda from the majority was his infallible strife to complete his assigned work.

It was his unparallel adoration compounded with love for Sri Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi that sets forth exemplary behavior to be inculcated in all young minds. Unwavering faith is the most powerful tool is amply displayed through the much publicized incidents that dotted Swami Vivekananda life.

By introducing and spreading the illumination of knowledge through education he led the Indian society from the darkness and gloom of illiteracy. In his unfortunately short lifespan he accomplished tasks that were unthinkable for his fellow men.

The initiatives he undertook in all realms under the guidance of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa to advocate and implement piloted Indian society to a much better future.

Alas! Even if some of us could only imbibe and put into practice even a fraction of Swamiji’s morals, work ethics and courage this nation would emerge as a leader amongst globally advanced nations today.

Hence let us all join hands to pledge at the eve of Swami Vivekananda’s sesquicentennial celebrations to take a leaf out of his life.

I am sure this would lead us to be among the hallowed precincts of homo sapiens who are few and far fetched in this world today.

Any city boasts of a multitude of facilities like hospitals, automated teller machines, shopping malls, monuments, manicured gardens, bazaars and many other modern amenities that make the life luxurious and gorgeous.

The presence of top administrative houses, legal and political headquarters always bring the city into limelight.

The journalists and media throng on the cities to make their news items more attractive and up-to-date to enthrall the readers or spectators.

A bountiful of schools, colleges, universities, management and engineering colleges and many other educational institutes offer unimaginable advantages in the field of education and studies. The presence of top libraries facilitate the research work. Any career aspirant can avail innumerable options to exercise upon.

One can splurge into the world of entertainment and recreation in any modern city as per his taste and affordability.

Big factories, offices, godowns and renowned establishments inculcate utmost professionalism.

Alas! the high level of aspirations and time bound goals are perils that have made the city life highly complicated where by originality and humanity are often tossed in the way.

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.

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!

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

As a part of continuous endeavor to widen the opportunities of learning, Santali is a significant step in education of hooghly district.

After completion of their fabulous diamond jubillee celebrations, the college has added Education also in their buffet of Honours courses.

Netaji Mahavidyalaya Arambagh with its goal of Preparing students with an eye to future examinations to avail job opportunities has already started offering several vocational courses.

Office Management & Secretarial Practice and Communicative English are offered to students of B.A. & B.Com General courses. The college is aware of the local students and has started offering Post Graduate Course in Bengali to the inspiring students of the vicinity.

Netaji Mahavidyalaya has taken an exceptional measure by providing the all round facilities like Fax, email, internet, postal services within the college premises. When the college magazines like Utsarga and Focus enables the students and teachers to express their views, the regular excursion programs make the teaching learning process much more realistic and pleasant.

The formation of the counseling cell as a part of the placement assistance groom the students to face the challenges of the modern world.

The principal of Netaji Mahavidyalaya dreams of building the institution as an ideal seat of learning and culture in the state as well as in the country in future.

Among various prevailing practices, perhaps discussion plays a pivotal role as fruitful and objective driven discussions always elevate knowledge of the participants.

The overwhelming popularity of Internet has made plenty of journals and magazines online and the number of readers are continuously growing. The problem still retains when the people comes up with specific questions.

The internet, boasted with bountiful magazines and journals still fails to satiate the appetite at times. The reason is very simple that a person needs a thorough research to get their right answer. The concept of forum addresses the issue in a much better way, where one can get different versions of opinions and their counters from different segments of the society.

Club is a cherished tradition of mankind and has found its resurgence under the mammoth growth of Internet. A knowledge club aims to elevate knowledge in various forms by inviting opinions from different classes of people. The very concept of club helps the member to relax and its a stupid notion of the ignorant people that people have to remain serious to earn knowledge. When a mother teaches simple arithmetic by building blocks to her kid, the kid’s eyes become euphoric in joy, but he also starts learning. So, why not the knowledge club for fun and learn?

Turning a deaf ear to the record advices rotten the ear sense at daily basis is one of the very conversant and convenient resolute for these hopeless good for nothing brats.

It will be hurdle some to raise fingers at them at once. If indulging a heart to heart open chat with these fellows one has to be surprised to be the mute spectator of the woe they are strolling each hour (rather each second).

The society and the family as a protagonists need to deal with the unemployed member with a bit of compassion and tenderness. Restless insane violence will only amplify the threat to irreparable extend. It will be really harrowing to repent after missing the bus! Isn’t it?