Feb 04, 2008 11:14 AM
2352 Views
January is the time when I
look at saving my hard earned money from our wonderful income tax department
legally. Like any other salaried employee, every paisa of mine is tracked
courtesy my PAN number/bank account.
Well, browsing through all
instruments that can help me save that precious 1000 more, I saw "Indira
Vikas Patra". Not bad for a long term secured saving, but what was "Indira"
doing in a vikas patra?. Do I need to purchase a patra for Indira's vikas
(may her soul rest in peace)?. I am looking at my(per capita income and hence
India's
;)) "vikas" not Indira's at the moment.
I wondered why not have schemes
in my name. I realized I have serious competition from members of only one
political family. One name that immediately came to my mind is a "Health
university" [I agree it is not a scheme, something I studied during
mugging all those five year plans was a Rojgar yojna]. I found out we have
numerous “schemes" with only one family.
A quick search on google
using names of members of the distinguished family as part of keywords throws
up numerous schemes/universities/colleges.A few links point to
government schemes being renamed to the family members' names(excerpts from
legislative proceedings).
What I don’t understand is that why government
schemes are being named after family members of one political family? I can
understand freedom fighters but why political members?
If we need names of
people to give the schemes a humane touch, why not have a lottery of all
PAN/TIN numbers and name a scheme on the name of the winning PAN/TIN? We are
hard working people who are made to pay tax compulsorily anyway. A rough calculation
yields that what you save one month earnings go as income tax, so why not my
name?;). Using only first name will also identify with people sharing common
name [hpefully mine will be one of them;)]
Better still, why should the
legislature/judiciary allow naming of government schemes(be it state or center) based on
member of one political family.
Why cant government schemes
begin with "Bharath Vikas Patra" or "Bharath Rojgar Yogna",
"Bharath Rural Drinking Water Scheme" so on and so forth.
I feel this
is a blatant misuse of people's hard earned money. We pay taxes(agreed, out of
compulsion but nevertheless.) to India not to a family. An intense
search shows that till date only one state has opposed naming after family
members [https://indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990303/ipo03011.html].
I am not against/siding with
any political party. Being another typical arm-chair patriot I cannot side/go against
any party. But I am definitely against naming government schemes/agencies or
the like with names from anything other than freedom fighters. One scheme is
enough for one name(freedom fighter) else I am sure we will be deluged with one name and I am
sure you know which one it is. Is there anything that we can do? can we stop this advertisements?
I am sure every party should have a fair advantage when it comes to contesting an election. Considering India is only 64% literate, last thing we need is a huge pool of illiterates assuming only one family listens and implements schemes/opens institutions for them. well, considering other parties, what are they doing? why are they not opposing this? are they waiting to get into power to rename everything at one go to thier advantage?
For your information, do a quick search on these
key words “scheme+xxxyyy” where xxxyyy is the name of any membr of the distinguished
family. I searched only two names and got irritated to search for more. Hope I
wont be at the receiving end of a witch hunt.
