EDITORIAL
Consensus
on economy
The Prime
Minister's call for a national consensus on
economy has come not a day too soon. Economy for
one thing is too vital to be left to the vagaries
of the politicking, nothing, for that matter,
should be open for politicking. Thus there is no
need for anybody to bake political cakes for
his/her self on the caste, communal or regional
planks. The essence of India is that it is one,
all the people here are one mass who can move and
live , serve and seek well-being in any part, any
state of their choosing. The practice however is
that people welcome resources, manpower and
expertise till they need it and then it is the
slogans of ‘sons and soil’,
‘domicile’ and ‘deservings’.
Jharkhand ‘ may have been the latest example
here, Krishna waters may be the most vexed
problem, but there is hardly any part of the
nation that today that is untouched by fractures.
And, all courtesy the high politicking of
everything that can be politicized.
Most of the times
it is the poverty and lack means that lends this
politicking a helping hand. And there economy is
most vital. You preserve poverty, prevent
measures of prosperity under one garb or the
other and you have a full crop for politicking to
reap!. Thus we see political parties, motivated
by political calculations, taking diametric
stands on issues which can be addressed by a
single approach. For the last ten years the
nation has seen every shade of political opinion
pursuing the regime of Reforms while in office
and opposing it when out of power. But this
can’t be. Man Mohan Singh, for example
cannot fault Liberalization, simply because it is
Vajpayee and Yashwant Sinha implementing it. Yet
that is what he has been doing for the past
several years. Similarly, the BJP can’t call
for a halt to economic reforms in Jammu and
Kashmir or Delhi but follow them ruthlessly at
center. All other parties are doing the same.
And, all are running the economy of the nation
for their narrow political ends.
But it cannot go
on. Had the Congress been in power and preparing
the 10th plan document, it would have definitely
fixed as high targets for the economy as the NDA
Government has done. Yet all the Congress Chief
Ministers at the National Development Council
criticized the Central Government for the 8%
growth target. Of course, there are genuine
doubts about the achievability of this high
target, given the previous performance as well as
the fact that one year has already gone by and,
as the Karnataka CM pointed out, it will
practically mean a 9% target for the remaining
four years. And, that definitely is too high. But
it is the stance, the language and reason that
motivated the criticisms that shows that they are
little more than politicking. Thus, none of them
took economy as a national challenge; all
considered it a political gauntlet thrown by
their rival NDA to be picked and thrown back.
Probably, there is an element of politicking in
fixing the high targets too. With elections nigh
the Government has planned to dangle hard
progress aims before the public. And, that
confirms the point. The politicking over economy
is from both the sides and hacks the national
economy from all sides. That is something the
nation can ill afford. It needs economic
management not economic play-around. That needs a
wide consensus the nation over.
Regulate
the Janjghars
One of the most
conspicuous developments in the city over the
past several years has been the coming up of
Marriage Halls or Janjghars as we know them here.
Where the city could boast of a couple may be
half a dozen decent marriage hails just short
years ago, today each basti has a couple
of them. Most of the time they end up choking the
areas they are situated in. For while the halls
fulfill an important need of the society-that is
why there is so great a spurt in their growth!
they also strain the civic amenities, facilities,
the space including the atmosphere. Thus most of
them draw heavily on the water and electric
supplies of the area. Given the fact that these
commodities are already scarce in the city, the
indirect effects on the supply of these essential
items to the people in the areas cannot be
denied. Yet there does not appear to be any
constraint on the growth of these halls. And,
little consideration for these ripple effects on
the colonies and people living there. With the
halls coming up in almost all the colonies in
twos and threes,’ the overall impact is
considerable.
The halls are
commercial enterprises that earn the owners good
money. While nobody may grudge them that earning,
their liability towards the costs to the
community and the city cannot be ignored. Yet
there are few indications that there are any
strict regulations for these enterprises, any
accounting of the social and environmental costs,
or even a reckoning of the hazards they may
subject their clients and general public to. Most
of the halls are built on tiny plots with the
whole area built up and covered. Few of the halls
have independent parking facilities. Fewer still
make provision for that. The vehicles usually
spill over the roads and lanes onto the highways,
too. One is not advocating for regulating laws,
which would become avenues for a kamaee for
the officials, but there is definitely a need for
laying down norms like location, specifying the
space requirements, availability of civic
utilities and facilities, their ability or lack
of it to support them. And, ensuring that they do
not impinge on the localities or the environment
nor degrade it without recompense.
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Know
your banking rights
By S C
Khanna
Consumer
exploitation through unfair business
methods and deceptive trade practices is
not a new phenomenon. In developed
countries like America and United
Kingdom, a consumer is a sovereign and
enjoys his full rights in the matter of
purchase of goods of all sorts and
obtaining the best kind of hired services
of all kinds including Postal, Railways,
Transport, Telecommunication, Electric
Supplies, Cooking Gas, Education -
Technical and Banking Services.
In India,
the consumers are unfortunate lot and are
worst sufferers at the hands of
unscrupulous traders and the service
providers. In order to protect consumers
from unscrupulous and unethical
practices, laws have been enacted and
measures adopted to educate consumers to
organize themselves for collective
action. An Indian consumer is least aware
of his or her rights and obligations as a
consumer. Even if one is aware about
one's right do not bother to use it. This
lack of awareness and will encourage the
service providers to dodge the
customer/consumer, particularly the Govt.
Depts. and Public Sector institutions.
In this
era of privatization and competition, the
Public Sector is not keeping pace with
the private sector in providing quality
service. Here I would like to have a
special mention of Public Banking Sector
that is not catering customers to their
satisfaction. Before we discuss the
rights of a customer and the duties of
the bankers, we must know about the
obligations and the tips for safe
banking. The same are enumerated as
under:-
Obligations
of a Customer
* Always
stand in queue and wait for your turn.
* Avoid
using influence and personal status to
get favor in getting your work done out
of turn. The customers particularly women
should not seek preferential treatment
when they are always advocating equal
rights. This irritates the other
customers.
* Ensure
safe custody of cheque and pass book.
* Issue
crossed/account payee cheques as far as
possible.
* Ensure
that no cheques issued by you are
dishonored lest your credibility;
integrity should be stake and entailing
liability for criminal prosecution.
* Carry
Pass Book with you when you visit your
bank.
*
Loss of instruments, cheque books, key of
lockers etc. should be intimated to the
bankers immediately.
* Use
the facility of standing instruction.
* Pay
your loan installments, interest and
other dues on the due dates without being
reminded.
* Avail
nomination facilities.
* Not
to introduce any person who is not
personally known to you for the purpose
of opening an account.
* Bring
the lapses in services to the notice of
the manager.
Almost all
the Public Sector Banks have time norms
within which the services at counter
shall be generally provided but that is
not adhered to. For example, all the
banks claim to issue a Demand Draft or
Pay Order within 15 to 20 minutes but
generally the customers are asked to
collect them after the business hours of
the said bank. Sometimes it is totally
refused to prepare the DD on a particular
day with the excuse that the blank drafts
are out of stock or the staff is
insufficient to cope with the work load
on that day as most of them are on leave.
It is strange enough to note that the
management of the particular branch do
not bother to make alternate
arrangements.
Rights of
the customers
*
Every customer has right to be informed
about all kinds of services and products
offered by the Bank.
* Rights
of confidentiality of banking affairs of
customer should be strictly protected by
the bankers unless and until they are
compelled to do so legally; the
disclosure is made at customers' request
and where National Security or interest
of the bank demands so. But it is pity
that some branches of the banks throw
open the ledgers to known
persons/customers who go through the
ledgers at their own.
*
No distinction shall be made between the
customers of the bank on the basis of
difference in race, nationality, colour,
sex, language, religion, political
opinion or any such things.
* Senior
citizens above the age of 65 years get
preference in services over other
customers at the counters/desks.
* No
customer shall be subjected to arbitrary
decision by any person of the bank on any
matters concerning banking.
* Every
customer has right to claim rather
entitled to an interest @2% over saving
bank rate for collection of
instruments/cheques beyond time norms,
provided the interest works out to be Rs.
5/- over the delayed period.
* You
can get immediate credit of the proceeds
of an outstation cheque upto Rs. 5000/-
only on written request, on fulfilling
certain laid down norms.
* Every
customer who enters the banking hall
before the close of business hours, has
the right to be attended.
* Every
customer has right to get the information
about provisions of the grievances
redressal.
* Every
customer has right to be heard by
competent authority of the bank in case
of violation of the rights of the
customer.
In case a
customer feels that a bank branch is not
serving to his satisfaction and violating
his rights, he must know that where and
how he can get his grievance redressed.
Normally 15th day of every month has been
fixed for hearing customers' grievances
without any prior appointment by the
highest functionary at each branch of the
bank. If the complaint not heard or
grievance redressed in such monthly
meeting, an aggrieved person must:-
*
Lodge the complaint addressed to Branch
Manager by way of inserting the letter in
the complaint cum suggestion box required
to be provided in every branch of the
bank or personally handing over the same
to the Branch Manager.
*A
customer not satisfied with the disposal
of complaint/grievance by the branch may
approach Regional/Zonal Managers as the
case may be. The addresses of the above
authorities are required to be displayed
at every branch of the bank.
*
If the complaint is not redressed within
a period of two months or complainant is
not satisfied with the disposal of the
same, the aggrieved person can refer the
claim to the Banking Ombudsman (LOKPAL)
as per the provisions of the Banking
Ombudsman Scheme, 1995.
*
An aggrieved person can also file a
complaint with the District or Divisional
Consumer Forum under the Consumer
Protection Act 1986/1987 (J&K
Consumer Protection Act) provided the
complainant had made at least one
representation to the bank previously and
has not received proper redressal.
Though
there is vast & vital mechanism for
the redressal of the grievances, it is
unfortunate that the aggrieved rarely
come forward for redressal of their
complaints. Generally the people are of
the view that 'Sab Chalta Hai'.
This mind
set has to change.Services hired or
purchased can effectively be availed if
consumers are aware of and take their
rights seriously provided in the Consumer
Protection Act 1986/1987 (J&K Govt)
and follow up their cases with concerned
authorities.
The codes
narrated above in this article when
followed by the bank as well as the
customer can establish good relationship
and help the bankers for providing smooth
services to the customers.
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Liquour
Industry: Spirit of history continues
By Amlan
Home Chowdhury
Can you
sip the fact that a handful of people,
facing grave risks to their lives from
the enemy who had surrounded their
make-shift fort, auctioned beer, brandy,
sherry, whisky and rum while bullets
ricochetted all round?
That
really happened under the bright Indian
sky in Lucknow on August 27, 1857, 145
years ago in the name of Lord Bacchus,
the Grecian wine God. On that day, the
crazy officers of the East Indian Company
(EIC), under a siege by the
"native" Indian soldiers in the
British Residency, auctioned the liquor
of dead commander Sir Henry Lawrence.
Auctioning
wine -bottles amidst anarchy? Really, the
world of beer, whisky, gin and rum lays
facts that can turn people in tipsy.
Before we rewind the history of wine-love
of the Indians, let us focus on poet
laureate Mirza Ghalib who breathed the
heat and dust of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857
in Delhi.
See
Ghalib's greatness, he made no cocktail
of words to confess that after his death
the people can find only two things from
his home: few wine bottles and an
assortment of honeyed love letters from
the girl friends. Really, the world of
wine is full of romance.
But Ghalib
can indeed be excused as he did not act
like those 223 European and 500
"native" soldiers who had
violently mutineed on July 23, 1757 in
Patna for the failure of Captain Coote,
the EIC - commander, to supply the
"arrack" (sort of wine) to
them. They went berserk and even attacked
the people of Patna. Camping at Patna's
Daryapur, Capt. Coote had to enforce the
law by flogging 30 wine lovers.
The Assam
Governor, Lt. Gen S K Sinha (Retd)
vividly wrote this incident in his book
"Pataliputra: Past to Present".
Vive La, Lord Bacchus. This is wine, No
wonder, the high spirit of beer, brandy,
sherry and rum continues to brew in India
true to the spirit of the bygone era of
the EIC. It is here where we find an
answer to the ever-rising demand curve of
the wine bottles.
If the
brewers are now in upbeat mood in India,
blame it on history. The wine-tier of the
industry in this country has become so
lucrative that even the foreign companies
are flocking in India to open their
breweries or enter in collaboration with
the locals to make people tipsy.
The annual
increase in the liquor-demand in this
developing country of 100 crore has been
fluctuating between five to nine per cent
during 1997-98 and 2001-02.
During
this period, all liquor companies
augmented their production. The Indian
wine mart became so much frothy after
1993-94 that even the overseas wine major
goggled at this particular sector of
industry in which the profit margin was
high --- even a conservative estimate of
post-tax profit margin perhaps was not
less than 36 per cent.
The sales
of all types of liquor increased by
almost eight per cent during 1999-2002.
The highest growth rate was in the beer
segment. This particular tier of alcohol
industry attracted the largest number of
foreign firms since 1995-96. In Kerala,
the sales of beer registered a growth of
25 per cent with even the women gulping
it quite freely: again a new development
as it shows the women, by and large, no
more consider it as a taboo.
The Kerala
State Beverage Corporation announced that
during the first nine months April, 2002,
over 19 lakh beer cases and 59 lakh cases
of wine of all sorts were sold in that
State. In 2001-02, nearly 29 lakh cases
of beer were sold in Kerala.
The
Scottish and Newcastle, a beer major of
England owning several international
brands including the famous Kronenberg,
considers India an el dorado as far as
wine sales are concerned. It has recently
entered India in association with UB
Group and Millennium Alcov Limited. The
new entrant wants to set up a brewery
with annual capacity of 150,000 lakh
hectolitres of beer envisaging an
investment for Rs. 25 crore. It also has
an expansion plan upto 500,000
hectolitres annually with fresh capital
input of another Rs. 25 crore. The South
African Breweries also have started
marketing its own brand of beer in India.
In a new
development, the beer manufacturers now
are marketing 330ml smaller size beer
bottles in the country --- the Kingfisher
Strong 330 ml has already been introduced
in Pondicherry. In Karnataka West Bengal
and Andhra Pradesh also, the smaller size
beer bottles are doing very well.
In Andhra
Pradesh, the beer made from toddy
(fermented palm tree juice) is also going
to hit the market very shortly. The
toddy-beer would be produced by a new
technology developed in Australia. Andhra
Pradesh consumes the largest quantum of
beer with a 17 per cent share of the
national market.
Tamil Nadu
is the second highest beer drinking State
with a market share of 15.74 per cent,
Maharashtra, third with a market share of
12 per cent.
With 75
million cases, each case containing 12
bottles of 650 ml, sold in India
annually, the country now has emerged as
one of the major beer consumers of the
world. India, with annual production of
Rs. 300 crore, is 39th largest beer
producer in the world. The beer market
right now is in favour of strong pilsner
sharing 43 per cent of the total sales.
The average annual growth in the
production of beer is around 19 per cent.
In a new
development, the followers of "Cult
Wines" (CW) also began to increase
after economic liberalisation in 1992-93.
CW denotes to those upmarket consumers
who are obsessed to high cost and vintage
wines, usually the red ones: in the
world, the highest number of the Cw's are
found in California, US.
The cash
rich Indians now are paying high prices
for very expensive imported red wines.
The
world's first CW was Haut Brion winery
producing Cabbrriets of the brand name of
First Grand Cru of Bordeaux, dating back
to 1509 A.D. The minimum price of a CW in
India is around Rs. 1500. The world's
costliest bottle of wine is Petrus for
which one has to dish out a princely sum
of Rs. 96,000. Needless to say, it does
not come to India. Vive la the cult of
wines. Till recently quite novices to
champagne, the upmarket Indians now are
attuning themselves with this too. In
1999, over 1000 cases (each containing 12
bottles) of champagne Dom Perignon was
sold immediately after its introduction
in the country. Though new to wine, India
consumed 500,000 cases of it in 2000-01
whereas the figure was a modest 155,000
in 1996-97.
Surprisingly,
India has also become a major wine
importer now. Europe, where wines have
been produced since the last 1200 years,
exports nearly 72,000 cases of red wine
and other vineyard-based varieties to
India. The Medici Fortress of Siena in
Italy alone was producing red wine since
the 15th century A.D. India now was
exporting about 72,000 cases of wine to
foreign markets. The demand for all other
varieties of alcohol --- whiskey, gin,
rum and vodka --- is rising very fast.
Now
wonder, the wine tier of Indian industry
now has started alluring the foreign
investors. PTI Feature
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Our
MPs and theirs !
By M V
Hyderabadi
The
manhandling of a Bahujan Samaj Party in
the Lok Sabha by some members of the
Samajwadi Party speaks volumes not just
for ignorance of parliamentary decorum.
It is also sure to force Indian masses
who elected their Members of Parliament
to compare their representatives with
their counterparts in other countries,
particularly in Britain whose House of
Commons served as the model for our own
Parliament.
It needs,
however, to be admitted straightaway that
there was grave provocation for the MPs
going into action, for the BSP member had
alleged, gratuitously it would seem, that
the Samajwadi Party had more criminals in
its ranks than any other party. Earlier,
the Samajwadi Party members had alleged
that the Mayawati government in Uttar
Pradesh had been reduced to a minority
and that the Governor was saving it by
refusing to summon a session of the
Assembly.
There need
be no doubt that the nation, as a whole,
looks convinced about the validity of the
allegations of the Samajwadi Party
members. That is why it will regret their
physical action that violated the norms
of parliamentary behaviour. Comparisons
may be odious, but sometimes they are
unavoidable, as, for instance, that
between the levels of debate in the Lok
Sabha and the House of Commons. The
'fights' in the latter mean, though not
always, thrust and party, challenge and
jeer and, sometimes, even scorn and
invective, but always without violating
decorum. 'Fights' in the Lok Sabha, on
the other hand, mean mainly a rise in the
blood pressure and an almost regular
to-do.
For
instance, years ago Syed Shahabuddin had
allegedly used some word against the
widely respected film actor Sunil Dutt
another member of the Lok Sabha. Nobody,
however, knew what the word was because
no newspaper printed it. There were
pedestrian exchanges between the two
individuals and the Treasury and
Opposition benches. That was all. Little
wonder, very few newspaper readers care
to plod through long reports of our
parliamentary proceedings. It is one of
the boons of Indian democracy that its
defenders need lung power and not
intellectual vigor.
Now
consider some recent and not-sorecent
exchanges in the House of Commons. When
Neil Kinnock described Dr David Owens as
'fat on arrogance and drunk with
ambition', a few people probably pursed
their lips censoriously and even
tuttutted. But Dr Owen paid Kinnock back
in his own coin by talking of a
'whingeing Welsh windbag'.
How many
exchanges of that kind can be found in
the annals of the Lok Sabha? But, then,
have we not rightly decided against any
educational qualifications being
prescribed for aspirants to membership of
the Lok Sabha?
After all,
literacy militates against democracy in
our country! Recently, again, Denis
Healey said that being attacked by Sir
Geoffrey Howe was like being ''savaged by
a dead sheep''. The world knows that Sir
Winston Churchill spared no one who dared
to cross swords with him, but it is not
widely known that he once squirmed in his
seat on being described by Aneurin Bevan
as 'a man suffering from petrified
adolescence'.
Lloyd
George was no slouch at hitting out at
his adversaries either, without being
accused of using one unparliamentary
word. For instance, of Sir John Simon, a
minister in Neville Chamberlain's
government, he said: ''The Right Hon'ble
gentleman has sat so long on the fence
that the iron has entered his soul''-- a
nice line in double entendre that must
have made the victim uneasy, but without
undermining parliamentary decorum.
It was
perhaps the distinction of Sir Winston
Churchill that he was unsparing even of
his party colleagues. Referring to Sir
Anthony Eden's speeches, he once
commented ''they consist entirely of
cliches....from 'God's love' to 'please
adjust your dress before leaving'.
''Summering up Field Marshal Montgomery,
he said: ''In defeat, indomitable; in
advance, invincible; in victory
insufferable.'' The majestic resonance of
the words could hardly conceal the barb.
When Sir
Harold Wilson was the Leader of the
Opposition, he observed the struggle for
the Tory leadership between Harold
Macmillan and 'Rab' Butler, the outcome
of which was that the former became Prime
Minister and subsequently went to Moscow
to meet Nikita Khrushchev. Rab, as Leader
of the House, was at the airport to greet
him on his return.
As
Macmillan came down the gangway (said
Wilson) Butler moved forward and
''gripped him warmly by the throat''.
Such civilized badinage somehow looks
beyond the intellectual resources of an
overwhelming majority of elected
representatives in India. Small wonder,
therefore, that intellectuals in our
country give a wide berth to politics and
Parliament.
(Syndicate
Features)
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