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.

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

When a commoner gets into a rickshaw he can only foresee of reaching the destination, but the inquisitive eyes of introspective Dewakar always penetrates the shell of the rickshaw puller to find out about his realizations and delve into his problems even during the ensuing journey.

We can hardly deny that high level of aspirations and indomitable desire of human beings to achieve even unachievable due to the rat race of today’s globalisation causes stress, strain and stretch, which become difficult for many to fathom. Here comes the role of a real friend, philosopher and guide like Dewakar, who has done his Ph.D. in management and is continuously invited from many countries to talk on stress management due to his overwhelming capabilities of analyzing stress, strain and stress caused by today’s competitive world and its wide spread impact on people of various segment.

If anybody wants a solution, he can have a look in Dewakar’s philosophy at Living a stressful life with joy.

Even people often gets fatigued with the extraneous life style of modern world can also be immensely benefited from the book.

Dewakar, the management scholar with a simultaneous experience in teaching and officiating in top positions for more than two decades was invited by Asian airports summit 2008 at Singapore as chairperson and speaker as only Indian to talk on INFLUENCE OF STRESS ON PERFORMANCE OF AVIATION SECTOR ACROSS THE WORLD (The summit was from 19 TO 21 FEB 2008).

When the philanthropy characteristics of human beings shies behind the self propelling characteristics, Dewakar is very keen to re synthesizing the morale even in such a competitive world.

Dewakar believes life is a journey on endless road with certain mile stones having flowers and thorns too. So, why to loose the normal rhythm in small twists? Success and failures, both are parts of life only. People can surely bear with stretch as rewarding professionalism demands stretched endeavors from people at times.

The problem comes up when you become jealous on others and become desperate to bit him without comparing your strengths and weaknesses, you take the unnecessary and unreasonable stress due to that jealousy, which causes an additional strain in your mind set and gets reflected through your entire appearance and behaviour.

The human nature is so fragile that a little glory at times earns so much pride to you that you tend to forget the reality. At times even a slightest deviation in your dreams or plans lead you to take drastic decision. The definition of the term success for the orator Dewakar is not the destination but a journey on an unknown road. We must understand that the life is much larger term in true sense than mere success or failure, and we must not forget to step down to earth.

The philosopher Dewakar gives an excellent example, life is like a circle moving across the axis … where movement is life. We all have a spot to measure years of life by counting the rounds that moving circle makes across the axis, whenever it touches that spot a good or bad happening occurs, you do get associates who help improving the motion of circle, the life becomes happy if there is no break no friction … the smooth movement is happiness.

How Dewakar can achieve such admirable success in human behaviour? Perhaps his specialization in Labour laws from Indian Law Institute and his vibrant presence in Delhi High Court as an advocate has allowed him to intrude to the various types of crimes of human beings. His specialization is Personnel Management and Industrial Relations has paved the way to come much closer to the personnel problems and prompted him to innovate solutions, which he had been able to test on various people in his professional endeavors. “Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management” , published by Prentice Hall of India is an excellent text book on personnel management and gives a different outlook of modern management to the students community. Dewakar believes learning is a continuous process and to prove what he believes, he has specialized in the field of Instructional Technology from IATA, Geneva, Switzerland to acquire the rare distinction of being the only IATA qualified Indian instructor to train Airlines Personnel across the world in Human Resource discipline.

Inspite of all these it is the passion for mankind, which drives the philosopher Dewakar to the success path.

Dewakar’s eyes sparkles, when he is asked to reveal the secret of success. It is the high rise, which is purely based on some ethics of life, like honesty, integrity, dedication, determination and passion. His fights against corruption has become a myth among many youngsters. The author Dewakar had created a ripple among the malpractitioners by the unique creation, Departmental Enquiries, which had been published in the World Book fair, Delhi, 2000. The most important part is he hardly gets fatigued even after running so many simultaneous activities through out the day. He is also a poet, a singer, an author, a professor and a strong administrator. Dr. Dewakar feels that every professional has got the opportunity of keeping marks, whether in private sector or public sector, if and only if he is serious and sincere to his profession. Perhaps his small introspect Girti Deewaron Ke Beech, which had been published by Javed Akhtar in Calcutta Book fare, 2001, has brought him into the limelight as a poet.

Dewakar always sets friendship on a special pedestal and today his friend circle has increased by leaps and bounds, still he maintains contacts with each and really become responsive and impulsive for any of their needs as he feels friendship is real property which can never face any depreciation.

At some corner of his very private world, Dewakar feels the existence of the all mighty and his controlling nature, life is the creation of supernatural power what we say God and what you meet in life is fixed, it has to happen, what may come but how you feel it is not fixed it is in your hand you are free to weep or laugh .. on happenings.

We believe this is vary natural phenomenon for a philosopher like Dewakar, who is a life member of ISKON. Even if you don’t agree you can always ask yourself, Can you really control the results in all aspects of your life? Perhaps our answer will sound a bit dicey, We can only try.