An unresolved issue Farmer suicide Hidden charges
The Union Cabinet has approved the revised salaries, gratuity, allowances and pension for the judges of the Supreme Court and high courts. In-service and retired judges will get arrears of revised pay and pension from January 1, 2016, the day from which the central government employees got the revision in their pay and pension based on the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations. The Cabinet also gave a green light to all 326 public sector undertakings to enter into wage negotiations with the recognised staff unions. Some of these undertakings have the practice of wage revision once in 10 years like the Government of India and some others once in five years, the like banking and insurance industries.
The government had advised the managements of financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, LIC and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in June-July, 2016, to finalise the wage revisions due in 2017 without delay. Accordingly, the negotiations with some staff unions have already begun. This time around, it is hoped that the negotiating teams from staff will not settle and sign on the dotted lines until the managements agree to update of pension along with every wage revision and retrospectively from 1997, as has been the position with the working and retired employees of the central and many state governments. It is unfair that the pensioners and families of institutions such as the RBI and LIC, which are nationalised and in the public sector by some Acts of the Parliament, are being discriminated against by the successive governments. It is the right time that the leaders of the negotiating teams try their best find resolution to more than a two-decadeold problem.
Ramanath Nakhate Mumbai Kudos for your excellent editorial, “Mere tweaks will not help” (November 23). It is indeed sad that 70 years after independence, we still don’t have a grip over our agriculture policies and the welfare of farmers, who account for a very sizable percentage of our population. All governments have waxed eloquent about this crucial issue for our country but little seems to have been achieved as far as: (i) The lives and welfare of the farmers are concerned; and (ii) our tragic over dependence on imported cooking oils.
For a country that takes pride in its green and white revolutions — and infinitely much more on the technology front— it is a matter of shame that we still import 70 per cent of our cooking oils and have almost accepted the gory fact of regular farmer suicides.
Everyone knows that farm loan waivers is not a solution — the mess in Maharashtra is testimony if one is needed — and yet we keep taking recourse to it in state after state. Similarly knee-jerk reactions like increasing import duty on edible oils or fixing minimum export price of onions etc do not solve anything. It is unfortunate that short-term vote-bank policies have dictated such measures.
The present government at the Centre — and in many states — is ideally suited to find long-term sustainable solutions for the perennial problem. Let there be a comprehensive review of our agriculture policies including, if thought fit, laws regarding land holding, mechanised farming, corporate land banks etc.
All this needs to be done without thinking about electoral gains or losses.
Krishan Kalra Gurugram While a debate rages over the increase in food prices in restaurants consequent to the reduction in the goods and services tax (GST), there are other areas where the public is being fleeced as some people make a neat penny. Take the price of a gas cylinder in Mumbai. It is ~713.50. You may not have change for ~3.50 so you give ~715 and of course the delivery boy will never have chhutta (change). Even if you have change for ~3 it is unlikely you will have 50 paise, the lowest coin. So you forgo that by paying ~714. Now, at the individual level it is a very small amount, but gross it up daily and see the monthly total. That is the hidden charge you pay. And it is tax-free for them. Definitely this is a small arrangement between the gas companies and the dealers. This is a variation of the one-cent fraud, where a computer programmer for a bank fixed the computer to deduct one cent from the end of day balances of every account and credit his account.
T R Ramaswami Mumbai