There is a lot of confusion about who can be an Associate Member in a Co-operative Housing Society, based on the new regulations. This month’s issue of MSWA’s Housing Societies Journal lists out several FAQs which are enlightening.
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The home department on Friday promulgated the Maharashtra Right to Public Services Ordinance 2015, making it mandatory for time-bound delivery of permissions and information.The ordinance covers 17 services. Soon, another is expected to include many more.For example, copies of FIRs must be given immediately after a complaint is lodged, attestation of documents must be done within seven working days, an NOC for passport verification must be issued within 21 working days, which is also the limit for NOCs for petrol pumps, gas agencies, hotels and bars, and police clearance certificate for foreign nationals should not take more than 30 days to be issued. “As per the ordinance, a specific time limit has been prescribed for 17 services. If the designated officer fails to grant permission or provide information within the time limit, the competent authority has powers to impose a penalty, ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000 on the erring officer,“ said a bureaucrat.
Devendra Fadnavis, a month after taking charge as CM, said he was keen to bring in legislation to provide public services on time. A draft of the ordinance was circulated in February for public opinion, following which the Maharashtra Guarantee of Public Services Bill was introduced in both houses of the state legislature in April. Since it could not be passed, the ordinance was promulgated.
“Fadnavis had proposed to cover 160 services. The home department promulgated the ordinance to cover 17 services.Other departments will cover more,“ the bureaucrat said.
Jul 11 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Prafulla Marpakwar
Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.
In summary, the banks wrecked the Greek government, and then deliberately pushed it into unsustainable debt … while revenue-generating public assets were sold off to oligarchs and international corporations. The rest of the article is about how and why.
If you are a fan of mafia movies, you know how the mafia would take over a popular restaurant. First, they would do something to disrupt the business – stage a murder at the restaurant or start a fire. When the business starts to suffer, the Godfather would generously offer some money as a token of friendship. In return, Greasy Thumb takes over the restaurant’s accounting, Big Joey is put in charge of procurement, and so on. Needless to say, it’s a journey down a spiral of misery for the owner who will soon be broke and, if lucky, alive.
Now, let’s map the mafia story to international finance in four stages.
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Confessions of an economic hitman – watch the truth behind the scenes – BE SCARED – VERY SCARED !
that the customer is central to their mega plans. Some funded e-tailers seem to believe that throwing money at consumers to compensate for bad experiences is an adequate customer retention strategy. As the business grows, companies are finding it difficult to offer cash compensation and to dish out freebies; some brazenly renege on promises published on their promotional material.The RBI has once again extended the date for exchange of old notes to 31 December 2015. Exchange your old notes now !
Courtesy : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/infographics/How-to-exchange-pre-2005-notes/infoshow/47910091.cms
PIOs ask applicants to come and inspect records even for simple information. When an applicant,- after some effort,- manages to get a time from the PIO to inspect a bunch of files is offered and the applicant is told to find the information.
The Municipal Commissioner has now issued a circular to ensure that PIOs deal with applicants in a proper manner. Firstly it instructs PIOs not to ask applicants to come for inspection when information requests are simple and not voluminous. Even when an applicant is asked to come for inspection it requires a PIO to ensure indexing and numbering all the pages. It also requires a PIO to inform the file numbers to the applicant and offering three alternate dates with timings. This circular will reduce a lot of pain for RTI applicants and they should show it to PIOs if asked to inspect files. All government departments, including DOPT should issue similar directions to PIOs.
This is a very good initiative and must be appreciated and replicated.
Attaching the English translation of the circular
https://www.scribd.com/doc/270057961/RTI-Inspect?fb_ref=Default
Courtesy : Shailesh Gandhi
Indian citizens living in India and abroad are advised to apply for urgent re-issuance of their passports in the following cases:-
(i). HANDWRITTEN PASSPORTS The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has set a deadline of the 24th November, 2015 for globally phasing out of all non-Machine Readable Passports (MRPs). From the 25th November, 2015 onwards, foreign Governments may deny Visa or entry to any person travelling on a nonMachine Readable Passport. The Government of India has been issuing Machine Readable Passports since 2001. The Passports, however, issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during mid 1990s with a validity of 20 years will fall in the category of non-MRPs. All handwritten passports with pasted photographs are also considered non-MRPs. By the end of November 2014, it is estimated that there are approximately 2.86 lakh handwritten passports in circulation. Approximately 6 crore Indian hold valid passports. Indian citizens residing in India and abroad and holding such passports with validity beyond the 24th November, 2015 are advised to apply for re-issue of their passports well before the deadline in order to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining valid visa or international travel.
(ii) PASSPORTS VALID FOR LESS THAN SIX MONTHS Many international travellers may not realise that having an unexpired passport is sometimes not enough to obtain Visas or to enter certain foreign countries. Indian citizens travelling on Passports which may expire in less than six months should renew their passports before any upcoming international travel. It is especially important to check the passports needs of any minor who may be accompanying their parents as passports for minors have a shorter validity period (5 years) than passports for adults (10 years). The universal practice in vogue now is; “Once your passport crosses the nine-year mark, it is time to get new passport”.
(iii) EXHAUSTION OF VISA PAGES Some countries do not accept passports which may have fewer than two pages remaining. Please check your passport to ensure that you have enough visa pages. There is no provision of additional booklets/pages and you will be required to apply reissuance of passport following standard procedures. Frequent travellers may opt for Jumbo Passport containing 64 pages.
2. All Passport Issuing Authorities have instituted a simple and fast-track procedure for renewal of passports.
For more details related to passport services, website – www.passportindia.gov.in – or the National Call Centre (1800-258-1800 – Toll Free) may be accessed. Indian citizens living abroad should visit the website of respective Indian Mission/Post.
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We are extremely thankful to CA Shri. Ramesh Prabhu, Chairman, MSWA for forwarding us MSWA News Channel on “You Tube” for Public benefit:
This video includes answers of following questions:
1. What is deemed conveyance ?
2. What are the advantages of deemed conveyance ?
3. What are the disadvantages of deemed conveyance ?
4. Which are the ways to get conveyance ?
5. Which are the documents are required for conveyance ?
6. What is the meaning of Promoter ?
7. What is the procedure for hearing ?
8. Which acts and rules are applicable ?
9. Which departments have to be visited ?
Here is the Video
Courtesy : Jeby Patel
Don’t hesitate to help the road accident victims. The government has now notified guidelines for the protection of the Good Samaritans.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has finally notified guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who come forward to help road accident victims, from legal and procedural hassles. The guidelines were officially notified on 13th May, 2015. The notification said that the Government considers it necessary to protect the Good Samaritans from harassment on the actions being taken by them to save the life of the road accident victims .
Let’s hope that these guidelines will encourage more and more people to help accident victims and take them to the hospital.
The Gazette of India No. 25035/101/2014-RS
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2015/164095.pdf
Courtesy : Bhimashankar Sanga
The Rs 19,000 crore mystery: How the CAG figure for “undue benefit” to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio shrank
In a report that was tabled in Parliament on 8 May 2015, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India indicted the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for providing an “undue benefit” to Reliance Jio—a telecom company owned by Mukesh Ambani as part of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)—by allowing Jio to offer voice services under the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum. According to the report, the cost of this “undue benefit” was Rs 3,367 crore. However in a draft report that had been released by the CAG in August 2014, the figure for the undue benefit was Rs 22,842 crore.
In its draft report, the CAG was highly critical of the government for allowing Reliance Jio to use Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited (IBSPL) as a front company to acquire broadband spectrum. IBSPL was, at that time, a tiny internet service provider promoted by Anant Nahata—the son of Mahendra Nahata, who is the promotor of Himachal Futuristic Comunications Limited (HFCL), a manufacturer of telecom products and a provider of telecommunication services. Interestingly, HFCL came into the limelight in 2011, when it was alleged that Datacom, a company owned jointly by Videocon and HFCL, had been one of the prime beneficiaries in the allotment of 2G spectrum during the reign of A Raja as the telecom minister. Earlier, in 1995, Mahendra Nahata had bid for nine 2G licences and had to be “bailed out” by the then Communications Minister Sukh Ram. The CAG draft report had further claimed that Reliance Jio had acquired the spectrum exploiting loopholes left by the DoT while framing rules for the auction of 4G broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. The company then allegedly wangled permission to provide mobile telephone services on this spectrum.
The final report of the CAG that was presented on 8 May, however, has diluted this criticism considerably. It has deleted important references in the draft report to the alleged “rigging” of the auction by two “colluding” parties: Reliance and Infotel.
Consumer Resources 