Category: Uncategorized

Quota for medical emergencies in Railways and Airlines


28th December , 2010

Ms.Mamta Banerjee, Union Minister for Railways, Government of India
Mr.Praful Patel, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Government of India

 

Subject : Quota for Critically ill & Medical Emergency patients

Dear Hon’ble Ministers,
I have the honour to write to you on behalf of DMAI (Disease Management Association of India) – The Population Health Improvement Alliance, concerning Quota in trains and airlines for critical ill and medical emergency patients .For airlines, I am aware of the frequent flyers quota ( As a Platinum Member of Jet Airways, I am guaranteed a seat at the full fare 24 hours before departure ). I believe, that the members of Parliament have a quota with NACIL. The different quotas in railways in mentioned below .

General Quota
Ladies Quota
Head quarters/high official Quota
Defence Quota
Parliament house Quota
Foreign Tourist Quota
Duty Pass Quota
Tatkal Quota
Female(above 45 Year)/Senior Citizen/Travelling alone
Physically Handicapped Quota

 
Though, it is a matter of shame that despite 63 years of independence, we still have a waiting list that never gets confirmed, and needy passengers lose a day or sometimes are not able to reach their destination in time for treatment or pay more to touts who gets the reservation under HOR (Higher official Requisition ).
Besides the poor planning from the railways, one thing is clear; that a common man and his genuine needs are clearly ignored. We are aware of the fact that, during medical emergencies , people have to carry the sick patients to the various national institutes like TATA Memorial ( Mumbai ), AIIMS (Delhi ), NIMHANS etc, for referral , surgeries and other treatments , which are in major mega metros, and that too, at short notice many a times ! Similarly, for various other ailments, the patients have to travel to major towns where the facilities are available, and this might happen at an extremely short notice, and such a travel is necessary to save a precious life most of the times

To be short and accurate, people have to travel from ‘Bharat’ to ‘India’ to save the lives of their loved ones. What I am proposing is that, we must have a quota for medically-ill patients with one attendant at least .This quota must be available for all trains and same for airlines .
How to implement this quota ?

Let this be a simple process for an already suffering family with a medical emergency. Idea is , not to waste the most critical resource; ‘Time’ . The station manager or the station master must be empowered to allow the patient with not more than a one page single form with Xerox of medical report and an identity card, referral letter from a qualified government or private practitioner. The station master could call the doctor to verify the letter and approve thetravel instantly, so that the patient could board the train even if s/he has reached just before the train departure time !!

If you want , DMAI could assist you with qualified volunteers to help frame the guide lines for this . Travel should be made free for railways for AC III Tier , as it has been the failure of the government to provide good care facilities uniformly across India , and people have to travel for treatment to mega metros and other major nearest town for treatment . The guaranteed reservation should be for to & fro travel

I am sure that this is a very genuine request and the government will work out the modalities for implementing this from the next budget itself

We remain at your disposal for further information & assistance , should you need in this matter

 
In hope of the needful with an action taken report

 
We wish you a great year ahead . Happy New Year .

 
Yours truly ,

Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Copy to:


Dr.Manmohan Singh , Prime Minister , Government of India
Shri Pranab Mukerjee , Finance Minister , Government of India
Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare
Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, M.P.
Arun Jaitley , Leader of Opposition – Rajya Sabha
Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition – Lok Sabha
Dr.Syeda Hameed, Member , Planning Commission of India .
Dr.K.Srinath Reddy, President , Public Health Foundation of India
Secretary for Health & Family Welfare Government of India

Common Man !!


Dear Rahul,

I read about your definition of the common man at the Congress plenary session . It is rather a matter of shame that, the  Congress has decided to search the definition of a common man after six decades after India became Independent !! Your party has ruled the country for about half a century with absolute power, and your dad used to say in 80’s that,  of every rupee meant for the poor only 15 paisa reaches the poor, and now you say only 10 paisa reaches the poor. So what have you all done for this country ? Your contributions are a serious question mark ?? Now to shadow your failures , you are talking of terrorism !!

We have met twice on your call at 10 ,Janpath  ( Once in March ’10 & second time in Oct’10 , i could not come in July as i was abroad ). Coincidently , Kanishka was present in both the meetings and had told me that i could have fought the elections !! I must tell you that , i have not been impressed by your rhetoric on development or your being a Sipahi for the Tribal’s etc.  Look back , what has congress done to the nation ? In a land of a billion people , if we have to ask the question, to name 10 big business houses ? The person will start answering something like this, Reliance , Tata, Birla , RPG group, Bharti, Vedanta , Sahara …………..and start fumbling for want of more names . Shameful isn’t ? That this should have been the scenario of every state, where we should have created millionaires and billionaires ………….But we just have a handful of tycoons ……..close to the establishment .

But the bigger question is , how & where did these groups become big & make their money ? Answer is simple . They all made their money in natural or government resources (  Steel, Mining , Gas , Spectrum, real estate ). All these resources are owned by the state , and have been either selectively leased or licensed to some tycoons who could bribe the party , politicians and bureaucrats and loot the resources owned by the government . These groups have been created by politicians , and now these groups manage the greedy lot !!

So please do not make tall statements at the public forums . I was having lunch with an industrialist friend from Delhi a week ago, and he thought that i understood the mechanizations at the Delhi’s corridors of power. So quite naively , he asked me ,Rajendra , do you know who is the Mr. Ten Percent in Gandhi Family ? I answered point blank,  ‘No’.

To which he named your brother-in-law !!  Stating that Now a days , Robert Vadra is known to get 10 % , when he is not even worth ten percent . I also heard Tarun Das , Mentor CII, Stating to Niira Radia that , Mr. Kamal Nath takes 15 % cut . He later justified and retracted .But a senior and an elderly Industry spokesperson saying such a thing is a matter of shame for the nation .

You & others have said many things in this plenary , but do you all have a plan ? The malaise is so deep that people will revolt against the powers, should you try to kill the giant whom your family let flourish all these decades ; The Giant call corruption . I understand when Raja made a statement today that ‘ I am not afraid of CBI’ . He knows that, CBI is busy with Jagan Mohan Reddy now a days and Reddy brothers & Yeduyurappa  . It cannot act against its masters !  Else , how will the CBI Chief get his plum post after retirement  ?  We all know that you do not intent to end the corruption my friend !!

Rise up from your slumber and talk sense Prince RG !!

Regards

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.in

Poor people are looted at the airports – Plan backed by the government


Speed post

December 15th, 2010.

Mr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister

Government of India , New Delhi.

Subject:  Email sent on March 01, 2010, regarding Immigration forms & the loot of the poor passengers at the International Airports in India

Dear Prime Minister,

Please go through the attached email, wherein I brought to your notice, the organized loot happening at the international airports across India. As usual, no action has been taken so far .May is, because the poor people do not have a lobbyist like Niira Radia!!

This is how Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is involved:

The MEA knows well that less than 5 % of the Indians know English, still the immigration forms are printed only in English. The poor Indians who cannot read / write in English are forced to shell out between Rs.20-Rs.60 for the touts to fill the forms.

It is more than six months that I have brought this to the notice of policy makers including your selves, but no action has been taken. Is this how you look after the common-man!! Do you not know how many poor workers travel to gulf countries every day!! They are robbed even before they leave the Indian shores to earn for their families, who are struggling back home at their native place to make both ends meet!

Please let me know in writing why no action has been taken on this complaint? Also, for the past so many decades, why has the government not thought of having immigration forms in Hindi and other local languages? Also can we not have counters for illiterate  people at the international airport, where assistance can be provided to fill in the forms ?

The existing Immigration form does not mention, if the form has to be filled in black or blue ink, please mention this in the new forms right at the top.

Lastly, give me a definite date as to when this be done?

This complaint will be subject to RTI act, if no response is received by January 31, 2011.

In hope of the needful

-Signed

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Encl: Email sent on March 1, 2010 & Immigration form

CC:

Mr. S.M.Krishna, Minister for External Affairs

Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi

Leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley (RS), Sushma Swaraj (LS)

Media

Judiciary is as inefficient & as corrupt as its top tier in Supreme Court & the top most politician of this nation


Just ask yourself , why do Chief / Justices of Supreme court, Chief Election Commissioners , Chief of Police , Chiefs of Army etc get plum postings after retirement ? Simple answer – they get return gifts for the favors they do when sitting in the hot seat !!

I was chatting with a senior journalist at the India International Centre , New Delhi a few weeks ago, and he had informed me that, it is believed in political & industry circles that , CJI K.G.Balakrishnan decided Mukesh Ambani’s case just before his retirement and made around Rs.450 Crores !! Well, this may not be just the only judgment to make money !!

Also, we can now understand , why In an embarrassment to former CJI K.G.Balakrishnan, Supreme Court judge H L Gokhale today contradicted his claim that he was not aware that it was former Union telecom minister A. Raja, who had tried to influence a Madras High Court judge in a criminal case

In a statement, Justice Gokhale, who was the chief justice of the Madras High Court at that time, said that in his letter to Justice Balakrishanan, the then CJI, he had clearly referred to the name of Raja.

Justice Gokhale ‘s statement totally contradicts Justice Balakrishnan’s claim that there was no mention of any Union minister in the report sent by Justice Gokhale, then High Court Chief Justice, on Justice S Reghupathi episode.

“I regret to say that the allegations are absolutely incorrect,” Balakrishanan had said last week referring to news reports that he had suppressed a letter purportedly written by Justice Reghupathi to him when he was Chief Justice of India.

CJI K.G.Balakrishnan protected Raja and became a Raja himself after bring appointed to the coveted post of Chairman, National Human Rights commission . Had he not protected Raja and done other favours to Congress , do you think he could have got a Cabinet Minister rank post his retirement ?

Think again , why did M.S. Gill become the Union Sports and Youth affairs minister after retiring as the Chief Election Commissioner ? Gill is in his late 70’s. and his youth passed away decades away !! Does he represent the youth of this country ??

Also reason out , Why did T.N.Sheshan not get any cabinet rank post his retirement ? Why did Kalam not get second term as President ? Why did Kiran Bedi resign before retirement ? Also , the current Judges of Supreme court who have questioned the CWG & 2G scam and taken a tough stand to unearth corruption will certainly not get a cabinet rank position post retirement !!

It is being talked in Congress circles , that the former Chief Minister of A.P., K. Rosaiah had resigned on grounds of poor health , and now he is to be rehabilitated as a Governor of some state. So is Raj Bhawan ( Governor’s residence ) meant to house the sick people ? After all , it is our money ( taxes) that support all such sinecure offices . It’s time to question such appointments .

Why is BJP supporting a sick George Fernandez ( he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease ) as a Rajya Sabha member,  when he cannot even recognise who is Arun Jaitley ? Time to question every such decision which takes our hard-earned money that we pay as taxes to run this government !!

Corruption is a trickle down process and starts right at the top !!

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

office@rajendragupta.in

Mr. Prime Minister , you must go now !


28th November 2010,  via Email

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

New Delhi.

Dear Dr.Singh ,

Over the last few weeks, we have seen that that our hard earned money ( about 40 % of our hard earned money goes to government as direct and indirect taxes ) was been looted more blatantly by our own politicians under your leadership than  by Moguls or Britishers  !!

We are ashamed of your leadership, more so, because you are a highly educated Prime Minister . It was hoped that a highly educated person has become the PM , the politics & governance would be without compromise and would improve , but seeing the massive loot of the our money in IPL, Rotting of food grains ,  naxalite problem , unchecked inflation , CWG , 2G & 3G , MCI expose , Adarsh’ & now LIC , it seems that the game of looting the nation will continue unabated . I still recall that you were the first one to back A .Raja last year , when the issue of 2G allocation was raised , you have stood beside him . Now that post the Supreme court intervention , Raja is gone , what are your thoughts ?

This is the first government in the country where the supreme court had to intervene many times and express shock ( remember the supreme court questioning CBI in Mulayam & Mayawati case , telling the government  to give grains free rather than letting them rot !! & now the silence or patronage of the 2G minister !! ).

Dr.Singh, do not forget that the media reaches till the last man in this nation , and when they hear that the Prime minister lead government has looted lakhs of Crores , the reply in 2014 is going to be worse than Bihar.  Over 400 million poor people do not even get one full meal a day & more than 5 million kids die every year of malnutrition !!

Dr.Singh , in history , you will go down as the most ineffective Prime Minister  . You are the only Prime Minster, who was blatantly used & his position repeatedly abused by the Gandhi family . No wonder, Sonia came to your rescue saying that you are 100 % above board, and that your honesty should never be questioned . Dr.Singh , can you raise your hand and say that you are honest and you lead ministers like Sharad Pawar,  A. Raja , Shashi Tharoor etc………..Your integrity and Honesty is just a matter of your ‘ being an educated & learned person’ and nothing beyond. In the last 7 years that you have lead this country , you have denigrated the government institutions & investigative bodies to mere puppets, and systemically allowed the loot to happen just to retain your chair .  Dr.Singh . It is high time that you resigned and moved on and start writing your memoirs ‘honestly’.

I think it  was  a clever ploy to make you the Prime Minister , so that you could share all the blame for the planned loot  , and when it comes to taking credit for NREGA , food security bill or women reservation bill , it would be the NAC headed by Sonia . ……………You should keep this email for your record . Post your stepping down( whenever it happens ) , you will be the first one in the line of fire from the Gandhi family for your inept handling of security , inflation and corruption . They will be the first one to say that could not understand managing a coalition and became morally flexible and allowed the loot of the nation !!

I also urge the opposition ( BJP ) to work on a program to educate the common man, that we must ensure that the congress is out of power for the next 10 years to get this nation back on track ………from 2014 till 2025 we do not need congress at all .

I am sure that all marked in this email will understand the anger of the common man and act as per our wishes !!

A common man

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Ecorape in Navi Mumbai


( Via email )

Dear Jairam,

I suggest you to send your team to Nerul, Navi Mumbai ( opposite Dr.D.Y.Patil stadium ). You can see that the beauty of Navi Mumbai ; the hillocks are being razed down under the patronage of the NCP leader , Ganesh Naik.

This is nothing short of an ‘Ecorape’  . Please save the beautiful hills and the natural creations . Today , these are being razed to make way for sky scrapers . Our next generations will pay a heavy price for such neglect and callous attitude of builder lobby in Navi Mumbai

Expect an immediate stop to such activities

Best regards

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Don’t try to copy and Chase China


One of the most important ( and expensive ) learning’s out of common wealth games experience has been that we should stop following China !!
We hoped  to repeat the Beijing Olympic games at Common Wealth Games , and are very close to mess up with the much smaller games event than Olympic Games ( CWG )
It is time for our politicians to wake up and stop dreaming of making Mumbai like Shanghai or aping China in terms of double digit growth. India can never do a “China story”.
We tried to copy SEZ’s model from China , and today we know how many SEZ bidders have walked away from their signed deals for setting up SEZ’s
We have to come up with our indigenous model of growth rather than making references of China, and trying to bench mark our growth numbers with China’s milestones !
Rajendra

Women / Senior Citizens – Immediate & Important steps that needs to be taken


To: Dr.Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi , Sushma Swaraj, Meira Kumar , Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi via email.

Dear Dr.Singh,

Please pardon me for raising this issue ( this is the only issue for which i have not down much ground work !! ), but i am solely moved to raise this issue , seeing the plight of women passengers squeezed between males across towns in public transport .

I was in Bangalore last week, and when my cab passed by a public transport bus , i could see how we respect our women !! Reservation for women is a good step . But first let’s address the basics

  • Ask all the state governments to start special busses for Women passengers / senior citizens in all towns . You can probably have common buses for Women / Senior citizens
  • The local licenses for toddy ( local fermented drink ) should be banned

I am sure that women being in key positions in India ( President , Chairperson UPA , Leader of Opposition , Speaker of Lok Sabha ) could make this happen sooner than later

Best wishes

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.in

3G & the high speed downfall of the Telco’s


3 G spectrum has been over-sold . Keeping in mind the fact that,  the average yearly penetration of 3 G users has been highest at 5 % in developed countries like Japan. It took them 7 years to increase the penetration of 3G services to 35 %. India is a country with 150- 220 million middle income people , and not everyone requires 3G !!

In India , do we need high speed internet in our daily lives ? We are pretty okay with Blackberry,  emails and voice calls- Just 70 million internet users !!

Industry has perhaps gone overboard to pay “Obnoxious” sums for 3G spectrum.

To ensure profitability , 3G players will have to invade few sectors to make it viable ( trust me , it is a big challenge for immediate future  ). The sectors that need to be invaded are HEART ( Healthcare , Education & Entertainment , Agriculture ,  Rural India & Travel & Tourism , Telemedicine )

People have wrongly understood the first wave of telecom revolution . The first wave came because of the following

  1. Before the cell phones were launched , getting a land line from the government “monopoly” ( BSNL /MTNL ) was difficult – wait times was uncertain & services pathetic even after bribing the lineman the things would not work !
  2. ‘Rich’ people could afford the luxury of a ‘Cordless’ phone, that would have a coverage of 10 or 20 Feet . Suddenly , with a cell phone , people could roam with a phone across India or the world !! I think people in the telecom sector have believed that the craze for 3G would be the same as the first wave for cell phones !! But believe me , it will never happen . I have used cell phone since 1996 , when it was launched and paid an “Airtime’ of Rs.16.40 per minute + normal call rates !!
  3. The actual number of cell phone users are still as per what i call  the 1/3rd Rule ( we just have approximately 200 million cell phone users and not 654 Million, what the Telco’s & the government talk about  )
  4. Handsets to use the features of the 3G are not evolved as yet

Overall, paying and bidding for 3G was a lot easier than to manage the profits out of the networks using 3G. This will leave only two players doing something worthwhile ( Vodafone & “may be” , Mukesh Ambani ). Rest will have to work hard to avoid “Consolidation” of the industry

May be , some players will use 3G airwaves to enhance the voice quality

MNP ( Mobile number portability ) : MNP was delayed for obvious reasons !! But once the system is operational, it will crash due to the overload of the people applying for the same . There is a lot of anger amongst users for poor service quality . People will change the provider not for better service but to vent out anger at the existing service provider.  Some Telco’s will lose millions of users in months ( who gains in the long run is going to be a billion dollar question )  Time to wake up and take corrective action,  and innovate the services !!

Two big challenges 3G & MNP – Head ache of CEO’s of all Telco’s

3G might become the high speed to downfall – Thanks to the myopic government policies and over excitement of the bidders. May be , that’s the reason why MNC’s stayed out of the bidding. Perhaps, they will wait for some companies to bleed, and then, buy them out

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.in