Corruption on Indian Roads

All of us at some point of time have come across sights on our highways of a truck driver paying a bribe to a traffic cop. We just ignore and move on. As per Police departments own estimate Rs 27000 per month is paid by each truck in Haryana alone. In 12 months that becomes 3.25 lac INR and if we multiply this by more than 6 million plus trucks on the road that becomes around 2000 billion INR of bribe money every year. God knows who gets them and shares them. Truckers pay bribes at every stage of their operations, which starts with getting registration and fitness certificates, and for issuance and renewal of inter- state and national permits. The reason for paying bribe, while on road, include plying overloaded trucks, traffic violations, parking at no-parking places or entering no- entry zone, and in the payment of toll and other taxes like octroi, sales tax etc. Lack of proper documents or alcohol abuse by truck drivers are the other reasons for paying bribe. More than 1.5 Crore Indians are directly involved in this business. A 9 ton truck carries upto 22T of material and 15T one upto 35. The longest trailer allowed in India is 18 meters but commonly used and registerd ones in India are 22 meters. All the car companies use these illegal trailers to transport there vehichles. To break all possible rules we pay bribe. 45% inefficiency during transportation of goods is because of forced stoppages to pay these bribes. These numbers are much bigger than the 2G , commonwealth etc etc and no one is bothered. More than 1.5 lac people die on Indian roads because of these overloaded trucks. We only start shouting when one of ours is in the 1.5 lacs. We feel proud to allow our underage children to drive around. I found one of my relatives so funny as he took out his seat belt the moment crossed the city limit into the highway and his reaction was that the rule is within city limits. We want a great India but dont want to take responsibility. Lets maintain all traffic rules ourselves. Not jum the redlight, no drunk driving, no underage unlicensed driving. Lets send our children to driving school to get their driving lesson and licenses. Its road safety week. Share this with your friends. At least we will be able to shake a few guys inner consciousness. Drive safe. Someones waiting for you.

The politics of Kerosene

I find it so pathetic the game our politicians play on Kerosene. Kerosene in India is subsidized so that the people below poverty line can buy it within their means to run their homes. Average price for per liter of Kerosene throughout the country is around 2-3 INR a liter but it was a shock to me to find out that most of the deserving poor people buy it in black market at 5-6 times more price. Hardly 10% of Kerosene is sold at the price the Government intends to sell. So where does all this Kerosene go. Well, most of it goes to mix up with Diesel which is almost 15 times price of Kerosene. This makes the vehicles emitting more pollution. I am sure this whole scenario is very well known to each political party but nobody ever does anything about it as everyone is making money out of it except those who are supposed to benefit out of it or those who pay higher price for petrol to compensate some of the loss which arises out of sale of Kerosene in loss.

Is there any candidate who can raise voice against this?

An Update

Its been quiet some time I have written anything.  This write up is just an update to what has happened over the last few weeks before I get back to regular writing.

Health has been not good. I am under regular physiotherapy. There is a general weekness and pain in the left leg and knee. The body is stiff overall. Its difficult to run and bend while playing Tennis but I am regular though I am loosing most of the time. I am proud of my partner Manish who though we loose keeps motivating me and is never upset. By the way we won last Sunday a triangular tournament, so not bad.  I am also doing a weight loss program and hope to loose the extra five kgs that I have. 

Sameep has moved on in his life. He is now at Pune for his higher studies. He got admission in Symboisis college.  Living away from the comforts and security of home should make him more responsible. He is intelligent enough to undersatnd whats good and bad in life and I am sure would make good use of the exposure he is going to get over over the next 5-7 years in higher studies.  At this time he is home for Diwali break.

Priya, my secretary has left job as she is getting married and moving to a different city. She was a great help in managing my job. I still recollect when I had to go to the Licensing Authority to sign for my arms license renewal - the clerk there told her that "Madam,  Look,I have done your job without any hassle, she replied back," Its good for you, you did it otherwise you would have invited trouble for yourself". I wish her all the best in her married life.

I had an opportunity to go and visit the Taj mahal couple of weeks back when a good friend of mine was here from Finland. The last I visited Taj was in 1994 and it really a beauty. Check out some of the pics at my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandeep40/ . But the most unfortunate thing there is the Touts and all the small time sellers who just bother you so much specially when they see a foreigner , you feel embarassed and bad. Taj is the biggest tourist attraction in this country and if we can not have good management there, its a shame. 

The world is going through one of its worst financial phase. The whole system is on a weak platform. God knows, who is accountable for this but its gonna bring lot of suffering to the masses.  If I look at this as a layman I have seen in my life time a socialist country like USSR collapse and complete failure of capitalistic free market economy like USA. I think India on the middle path is strong fundamentally - we neither grow vertically nor crash. If only we had no corruption.......I recollect our late Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi once acknowledging that only 10% reaches the benificiary from what the Government spends rest is eaten away by sharks. I hate this - at least we the so called civilised educated people of this country should do what ever to stop something like this taking place if we come to know.

I think I would be regular now back to my own self. Diwali is round the corner. Its a great celebration time and on all such occassions I miss Babuji.