The Cess Mess

Cess is another word for tax or rather it is a sort of surcharge (tax on tax).

Generally cess is levied when the authorities have to extract funds and channelize the same to the desired areas so that the benefit accrues to the intended extent.

The BEST (the state approved transport provider for Mumbai region) during the 1971 war with Pakistan at the behest of the Govt. authorities enforced a cess of 5 Paisa on the existing ticket rate to finance the war operations and support the Indian Army. The People didn’t object to the levy as it was in the Country’s interest. The 1971 war ended in a mere 17 days. Forty one years has passed and the cess is still in force and ironically it has been hiked arbitrarily to 15 paisa and no questions have been asked so far about this as the amount seems miniscule. Multiply this by the lakhs of daily passengers and the no. of years and you would be gazing at an astronomical figure. 

The service tax was introduced in the year 1994 in India and service providers were bought within its ambit to mop up additional and substantial revenue. The Service providers shifted this tax on the buyers of the service and the rate was fixed initially@10%. This rate has shifted up and down by a couple of percentage points as per the whims and fancies of the successive finance ministers.

A surcharge on Service ax followed as the additional cess was collected in the name of ‘’funding’’ education across the country.    

No one is aware, where and how the cess collected in the name of education is allocated? The interesting part here to note is while the allocation part of the budget is on the downside yet the earnings for the Govt. through such wily taxation policies is steadily increasing.

The Schools in the urban areas boasts some of the most modern facilities though the same is ostensibly limited to the elite few who can afford the luxury of being able to squeeze in, courtesy of they being born with a Silver Spoon. These Urban Schools indulges in providing ’’ VIRTUAL   EDUCATION’’ to its students while the rural folks have to bear with the VIRTUAL ‘’disappearance’’ of the teachers (though they manage to get full salaries), ill-lit roofless classrooms, filthy and stinking toilets and dilapidated benches.  

The Mid- day meal schemes for school children launched amid great fanfare has failed to live up to its expectations with Children being fed with inferior quality grains and on some occasions superior grade grains have been siphoned off to lucrative counters.

Despite the collection in cess in various sectors no one has witnessed any marked improvement which provides testimony to the misappropriation and rampant embezzlement that has been taking place on account of the levy because of the unaccountability factor associated with it.

Some of the Cess collected in our Country from various sources sounds bizarre :

1)Cess on Coffee /Coffee act 1942

This cess is charged towards development of Coffee boards.

2)Cess on dried copra/Copra cess Act 1979

This Cess is charged towards development of Coconut industry.

3)Cess on Jute /Jute mfg Cess Act 1983

This cess goes towards developing the Jute industry.

4)Cess on Sugar /Sugar Cess Act 1982

This too goes towards developing the Sugar Industry. I am surprised that the SUGAR industry is yet getting developed. The Sugar lobby in the western Maharashtra region which controls the sugar pricing for the Indian Union is too affluent, modernized.

5)Cess on Coal/Coal mining Act 1974  

 The cess would be solely utilized to improve the safety of mines and conservation of the depleting Coal

reserves.

To sum up, the levying of cess has outlived its meaning and the documentation part which is required to show the records of the sum collected and apportioned eats into the funds because of surging overheads associated with the upkeep.

The intention of publishing this is to make people aware of the nefarious ways in which huge sums are collected from the nonchalant tax payers with the sole intention of harassing them and fulfilling their own sly desires. 

I would like to express my token thanks to my friend and Colleague Nihal for providing me with inputs, relating to the wrong application of cess and particularly the mess in the education policies in our Country.

Reacting Nuclearly on Kudankulam

The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, erstwhile Russia in 1986 and the recent Fukushima Daiichi disaster at Japan in 2011 has raised alarms and concerns about the safety standards of nuclear reactors especially when these sensitive and radioactive structures are threatened or triggered by natural disasters. The state of the art automated systems designed to curb the nuclear fission whenever things go awry have a limited capacity to stem the rot as no one can win against the vagaries of nature.

Japan is the only country which has experienced the terrible after effects of the nuclear holocaust in 1945.One of the most gruesome and telling tragedy willingly inflicted on the human race till date, and which has been effectively projected on celluloid is very gripping and takes a lot of heart to muster courage and view the ghastly aftermath.

The portrayal is so strong that one feels the pain, heat and the numbness that affected the unsuspecting victims 67 years back.

Japan is sitting on a Virtual time bomb and is ever on the tenterhooks because of the alarming regularity of seismic disturbances often accompanied by ‘complimentary’ tsunamis. The tenacity of the unassuming Japanese to bounce back though adulatory is often cut back by the forces of nature who tries to emphatically assert ‘’who is the boss’’.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant had been built adhering to stringent preventive measures to withstand any accidents but the gigantic tsunami which ultimately ravaged it was not at all contemplated. The Pictures of the devastation was widely seen all over the world thanks to the Satellite television that has invaded the privacy of our living rooms.

 Kudankulam in the state of Tamil Nadu has been in the news after a mass protest against the Construction of the Nuclear power reactor turned ugly and violent after 2 persons were killed in Police action. This reactor has been built incorporating the dicey and unreliable Soviet technology.

 The Chernobyl disaster happened because of lack of alertness and proper safety regulations in place, questionable and accident prone technology and indifference of the stone faced communist bureaucrats whose sole agenda was to ‘’outmanoeuvre the NATO’’ to gain a strategic advantage as a Super power.

 The disaster management Cell in India is worse than the malady itself. We all know about the dismal and pathetic behavior of the authorities during the Bhopal Gas Leak, in 1984. Many of the victims died because of the improper and erratic health care doled out to them.

 God forbid and should any uncontrolled nuclear fission occur in any of our reactors the gushing kinetic energy along with the gamma rays would obliterate everything in its path for generations considering the eternal radioactive chain reaction.

The rising discontent against the Proposed reactor has prompted the authorities to come out with ridiculous and startling allegations like ‘’foreign NGO’s’’ are actively foraging and willfully sabotaging this nuclear power project.

Instead of playing with the innocent lives of the people, wouldn’t it be fair if a greener and cleaner option of renewable energy is given preference than to a precarious piece of radioactive junk forever hovering over our conscience and willing to burst at the seams any moment??.

Unfortunately all this comes up for discussion when the whole project is nearing completion and after colossal investment in such Capital intensive projects.

     

Autonomy for States??

India is a country replete with diverse and myriad cultures and multilingual languages, dialects & interests inter lapping the terra firma amongst the varied topography of the vast sub continent.

The division of the country on the basis of languages was conceptualized in 1956 when  the state of Andhra Pradesh was formally born after the death of P.Sreeramalu who succumbed after fasting and the then PM, Nehru reluctantly agreed to the formation of the new state. This played on the minds of others who too began demanding separate states on the basis of linguistic grounds and this marked the beginning of the end or let us say-disintegration for this land mass called ‘’India’’.

We see ample differences on a/c of regionalism- instigating and inciting the natives or locals over trivial issues against – Supposed OUTSIDERS (people from other states). The craze of Cricket and Cinema signals a brief hiatus to this unending frenzy of hatred and mistrust which raises its head every now and then causing unending hardships besides causing insurmountable damage to life and property.

 Nearly 565 princely states existed even after the formal partition of India and Pakistan took place in 1947. The iron man of India Vallabhai Patel was instrumental in integrating and uniting the scattered and fragmented heart and souls plus curbing the shattered egos of the erstwhile princes.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been facing acute pressure since its accession to the Indian union in 1947 where it is experiencing insurgency and militancy with tacit logistical support provided by the Pakistan Army.

 We take umbrage whenever the state of Jammu and Kashmir is shown as disputed territory but our own govt. formulates differential laws for our FORCIBLY unified country. The state has been accorded a special status which confers the Central Govt. to act only on matters relating to defence, external affairs and communication that too within a limited scope. Almost every other law which applies to the Indian Union is NOT APPLICABLE to the state of J&K. Article 370 which was invoked during the pre- accession days should have been scrapped long back but appeasement of the minorities has prevented the successive govts. from taking this retrograde and logical step.

Why should the rest of the Country (tax payers hard earned money) pay for the development of a region which is supposedly not ‘’theirs’’???

A Citizen of India cannot purchase any immoveable property in J&K but the vice-versa doesn’t hold water. Billions of dollars have gone down the drain, countless lives has been lost in trying to hold on to this SLIPPERY state. It is better to let the people of J&K decide on their fate through plebiscite.

The White Paper released by the Govt. in 1948 on J&K has yet to see the light of the day. The ‘’White’’ Paper must have tuned ‘’YELLOW’’ after all these years in isolation and solitude rather than the presence of lignin in them.

It may seem ridiculous and this blog may even attract charges of sedition as per the existing norms and our archaic laws but perhaps the time has come for granting a similar autonomy to all the states within the Indian union. The Central govt. should retain the right to enforce defence, core banking and monetary issues and at most perform an arbitrary role to resolve disputes.

The states can deal with smaller regions and resolve issues within the ambit of a revised constitution and compete with one another for a healthy overall growth.  The state should have first lien on the natural resources within the territory of the state enabling it either to use it first hand or sell the surplus outside. The Centre has made enough mess of mining both by indiscriminately ruining hectares of flora and fauna and allocating lucrative blocks to vested interests courtesy, nepotism.

The innumerable people who dedicated their entire life to achieve freedom might be turning in their graves even contemplating whether the titanic struggle was worth the effort. Those at the helm of affairs have belied, betrayed and throttled the faith, expectation and aspirations of millions by sustained

policies and procedures which are manipulative, coercive and obsolete. 

War and Peace

The Global arms industry is doing a roaring business despite the economic slowdown which has dented and obliterated the economies of countries across the board. The melting economic scenario is in perfect synch with the polar ice cap meltdown at the poles. The European countries perhaps with the bare exception of Germany, are struggling to stay afloat in the swirling malaise of unemployment, uncertainty coupled with ever depreciating currencies and north bound inflation.

As per the records maintained by SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) India is the largest importer of arms accounting for about 10% of world sales- as per volume.(Obviously there could be another reason that the percentage of Kick backs involved in arms deal has prompted these figures to snowball considerably).Arch rival Pakistan is not far behind. The amount of money spent by these two on developmental projects in their respective countries would have yielded a far better result than the bitter enmity that has prevailed since 1947.Economic conditions have remained stagnant for a majority of the population but the Govt. of both countries want to slug it out by procuring the latest and most potent technology. Vested interests and sly business marketing by the sellers (USA,UK, Israel and France) however have seen to it that the acrimonious and rancid behavior between the neighbors stay intact. The irony is after providing fuel to the fire these  zealots come armed with hose pipes (in the name of various aids and consortiums) to douse the flames they themselves have ignited.

Middle east countries like Saudi Arabia has been duped and deceived into purchasing high top end military equipment citing growing Israeli dominance within its proximity. The annual budgeted expenditure is well over 50 billion dollars. It is hilarious to note that the Saudis had to get Pakistani pilots at short notice to man their aircrafts for a while till their own Countrymen got the necessary expertise.

There is a single track motive for the countries who sell arms to developing countries(prevent it from getting ‘’DEVELOPED’’) to wedge animosity and create hostile conditions between warring neighbors, create a war like atmosphere by providing huge cache of arms in lieu of securing permanent air-bases in the region, sabotaging any bid to ease tensions in areas of high economic and intrinsic value (Oil rich Middle East) or planting themselves in places of strategic importance concerning or affecting global trade (Suez & Panama Canal, the Persian Gulf etc).     

The World could have been a much better place to live in had the countries indulging in mass production of these destructive state of the art weaponry chosen to halt this sabotage and channelized the same resources (both men and materials) into evolving technology to breed new machines which could give more yield in agriculture, could reduce carbon emission, create alternative means of clean and green fuel, provide new clan of polymers which would be bio degradable etc. The amount of money invested in R&D to manufacture these unwarranted means of killing machine alone could help correct the imbalance in severely impoverished countries like Somalia, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Ethiopia where Civil unrest is the order of the day with rival factions often backed by western countries for their own self centered motive. The economic disparities and severe food scarcity has aggravated the situation often leading to a free for all which is manipulated by the protagonists of arms to suit their evil design of spreading violence and hatred.     

Curiosity about Aliens

Man is a curious animal and is inquisitive since birth. This eagerness has helped us find answers to the most intrigue and complex set of questions arising in the mind through series of research, experiments and detailed hypothesis.

The disturbing thought of ‘’we are alone in this Universe’’ for ages, perhaps spurred mankind to search for extra terrestrial life. The advent of modern technology  has joined this quest by launching numerous space missions, deploying the hubble telescope and installing array of giant radio telescopes for scanning and monitoring any visible signs of alien life.

The story about UFO’s (Unidentified Flying Objects) generated a mass hysteria during the early 40’s and 50’s which eventually led to establishing a study known as ‘’Project Bluebook’’. This involved a deep study comprising about reports compiled about numerous sightings across the US by United States Air Force and other residents. Many of the sightings were brushed off as weather balloons, aircrafts and deceptive natural phenomenon. However there were some sightings which could not be classified either as a hoax nor attributed to any phenomenon. These were classified as ’’un-explained’’.  The ‘’Project blue book’’ was closed down in 1970 citing it was unviable and could not scientifically prove anything concrete even after almost a decade.

The Roswell episode in which debris of a spacecraft were found in Roswell, New Mexico in June 1947 has gained notoriety for the US air force for keeping secret a possible alien air crash which is widely debated across the scientist fraternity. Major Jesse Marcel an air force personnel who was involved in collecting the debris and transporting them to higher authorities spilled the beans about the stuff nearly three decades later about the covert military cover-up. He hinted that the debris did not contain any thing closely related to the weather balloon and some articles found were definitely not ‘’terrestrial’’.

The SETI (Search for extra terrestrial Intelligence) established in 1961, to detect the faintest radio waves from across our vast strata of Universe for a possible contact with the alien world hasn’t met with any success so far. Various antenna’s (dish shaped) have been arranged over a large area, some as colossal as 100metres in diameter in the hope of receiving some positive clue from a source –somewhere in the Solar system. 

The renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has advocated that aliens do exist and some of them may have already been on our tails and tracking us with their advanced state of the art technology. Hawking deviated from sticking to the orthodox concept of finding water and oxygen (the two crucial elements for survival on Planet- Earth) and thinks it would be more prudent if that conventional yard-stick is not applied henceforth. His contention that aliens might have manifested, adjusted and blossomed in conditions and circumstances totally ‘’alien’’ and hostile to us does ‘’HOLD WATER’’.

The latest ‘land rover’ sent to Mars- Curiosity to collect samples of Martian soil has reportedly taken pictures of moving lights which is distinctly seen in the video release by Nasa. Nasa officials have been quick to nip any adverse reactions /publicity in the bud by portraying that the pictures are because of a flawed technique/dead pixel inherent in the camera .Seasoned experts have confirmed that this hypothesis is both rational and conclusive.

The perennial research which has poured millions of dollars into seeking questions about the existence of extra terrestrial life should continue, but in an undisputed and impartial manner. The clandestine manner where documents are hidden, sightings brushed off as retinal error or defective vision doesn’t augur well for future research. There have been reports of sightings all over the world with most of them hoaxes and some of it could have been because of wrong identity, absence of clarity of vision or even hallucination.

The ‘un-explained ‘cases however merit a second chance and, perhaps a more rational and scientific approach could provide us with startling answers. This information should be shared amongst astronomers and amateur star gazers unabashedly. 

Space is so huge that it cannot be classified or visualized in a finite form. The innumerable galaxies and countless milky way encompass and dot every available spectrum of Celestial network and are joined by millions of stars, planets and their satellites, comets, and asteroids.

It is simply preposterous to believe that life exists only on one of the miniscule Planets and the rest are LIFELESS pieces of zodiac signs traversing the Constellation.