The Unproductive PUBLIC Sector

I am writing this deeply inspired by the initiative of a 71 Year old Gandhian, Anna Hazare. He has the speckles personality to bring India together for a common cause. All of us are frustrated to all the corruption and lobbying that’s happening around us. Our leaders spend more time in mud smearing on each other than thinking about our growth. Till date I didn’t know how to come up against all this atrocities. Now I know the importance of living a clean life. Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare (Anna Hazare) proved himself as a true Gandhian by choosing the path of non violence and “Sathyagraha” to achieve something that was nearly impossible. I was moved to see that even small kids were a part of the sitting. Glad to see that we Indians are united not just for cricket

This is a warning bell for all who feel that they can do what ever they want if they are elected by the people. They should remember that if they are elected by the people the should be of the people and for the people. Any exceptions to this will not be tolerated to any extend. What the media has seen in Jantar Mantar is just a tiny fraction of people. If needed a mass standoff will be initiated if the government fail to stand by its promise.

The delta between elected representative and the true leader is clearly distinguishable here in this historic event. The malign politicians made the system so tampered that the Public Election can never be called as the actual representation of the people’s will. Now getting into politics has only two reasons 1. To Get Power and Make Money. 2. To Safe guard the disproportionate wealth they hold.

India is receptive to any good ideas. We even accepted a lady of foreign origin to be a part of India leadership. But with her influence she is making Indian politics a poppet in her hand.If you observe closely virtually she is the Prime Minister of India. A slogan that “India is not under Italy” itself is enough to bring Havoc to the UPA.She even thwarted the thought of giving a second term to the Great President of all time Dr. Abdul Kalam. If you do an opinion poll for the President of India,I am sure even now, if not the whole, a good majority would choose Dr.Abdul Kalam.Looking at the political history after Independence here peoples representatives are becoming more powerful than people and these type of leadership will definitely have a fall.

Let every politicians take this as a formal warning to set everything right; if not tahrir square will be repeated here in India. The politicians should have Nightmares from today just to figure out the scale, if it happens in India with 1.2 Billion people.

Inqlab Zindabad!!!

Its almost a month after the Thekkady boat accident. A news that gave the evening of October 1, 2009 a pitch black color with blood red stains, at the wild life sanctuary in Thekkady. Once again the passive attitude of the government servants resulted in the death of 45 innocent people. Though the news does not have the flashy accompaniment of a Terror strike, but it did took 45 lives. People came there to see the beauty of mother nature and appreciate her serene and soothing care. Alas! every thing went the other way around for them- Straight to Heaven from “Gods own country”. Even I had been to this place long back. It was during the final years of my engineering studies. I loved the greenery there; a place surrounded by forest and an extensive water body.

I was always scared of waters, be it a small pond or a swimming pool in a water theme park. I was always apprehensive to get into waters. Boat riding was always a night mare to me. The reason for this fear being the fact that I don't know how to swim. I tried several times but could manage only a little bit- to keep myself floating on still waters. The boat ride through the waters of Thekkady was really a memorable one,  its more memorable as I kept my fingers crossed not just because of excitement but also because of fear. The surprising fact was that all of us are into a boat with out any life saving accessories, in case of emergency. We completed the tour with lots of fun and fear and we reached our respective homes. I guess we were lucky enough to reach home safe.

This incident was next in the list of water accidents that happened in Kerala. Kerala is known for its high literacy rate and highly enlightened people. But when it come to issues like this. The turn around time for the law enforcement body is really deplorable. After the incident it took almost four hours for the Navy officers to reach the spot to start the search operations.  And since they came late they left the place with initiating the search operation. Hilarious!!! I don't know if they have helicopters' that fly. If they could have reached the spot within ten minutes and they could have saved more lives.

When we try to analyze, what could be the reason for this negligence??? Its funny to say this but one of the main reason for this, is the urge to reduce cost and make more profit- the profit earned on dead bodies. Here they don't care to keep a balance between production(Profit) and production capability(Boat). They concentrate on the production alone and there by affecting the production capability. They don't even care to upgrade or maintain the production capability till they land up to a major incident like the Thekkadi  tragedy. I salute the good memory of all the law enforcement bodies and common man, that they will forget everything and repeat the same later. All this incidents are just a news for the media. Media is also doing a nice play here they find it more spicy to report tragic incidents like this instead of proactively reporting the negligence and force the concerned authorities to take the necessary preventive measures. No wonder why even in the recession, India still have business with the MNC’s – cost cutting!!! we are the masters…

Suggestion:

1. I understand that when fun and curiosity combines we forget every thing about life and its safety. But still next time you go for any fun activities like this and if there is even a minor threat to your safety, DO NOT go for it and look for alternate options. Please don't take chances. What fun without life!!!

It was in Ernakulum Railway station. I was on my way back home from my college. I was supposedly to catch the 18:30 passenger train. I was late but still managed to reach the railway station 10 minutes before the train’s departure. I had no hope to get the ticket, looking at the long queue, and almost all of them, I guess were for the same passenger train. I could hardly see what’s happening in the ticket counter. In between I can see a few angry people murmuring something and walking out from the counter. I patiently waited and some how managed to reach the counter. Some what happy, rather exited with the fact that I am going home. This is the last train around this time. After this, trains are available only in the morning. I took my wallet. I had exactly fifty rupees with me; In fact I borrowed it from my room mate. I gave it to the counter. To my surprise he was shouting at me to go and get Change for this fifty rupees and then come for the ticket. Initially I was not sure why he was shouting. It was really difficult to move out of the queue without the ticket, more over it was getting late. Thanks to one of the auto driver there, he gave me the change.

There are many ways to look at this incident. It was not just the fact that I did not get ticket that made me feel uneasy. If so I shout not have been upset after getting the ticket. What is it that made me feel bad ?  The way the officer reacted to my fifty rupees and the embarrassment that I had in front of everyone; that was still haunting me. Though these idiots do not have anything to do with my life; has hurt my self respect so much. Who will teach them how to deal with, we the poor customers. Where are customer rights forums. If they don’t learn that day is not far when some one will forcefully teach them what to do and how to do. May be that is the next freedom struggle in India( struggle for Self-respect ). You may call it ego; but I say, if you call self respect as ego then I have no comments.

The main reason for all these miseries is the educational background of all these employees. The sad fact is that even the educated ones joins this uncivilized ones to offend the poor people. All these are; may be the give away of our age old feudal social structure. People who were subjected to the feudal rules have their frustration towards the so called feudal lords and the lords always wanted the same paraphernalia's even now in the 21 century. All these adds to the woes of the common man, who give their money so that these Neo Lords and slaves could languish their life and then have sufficient energy to shout at them as a feedback. That's why we call it “Kaliyoug”.

A passenger is greeted with a welcome and thank you before boarding a flight. And the same passenger if in a queue to board the train, has to take the wrath from this Railway employees; if he does not have sufficient change or if he has too many questions. What is the difference in both these cases. We remain the same common passenger itself. Is that the money which make them say thank you and welcome?.  Are they doing a favor by sitting in the counter and offer Tickets?. We pay them every second they occupy that seat. We are not asking for a hi-tech railway station; it is just their service that we are asking. Service delivery rule books has to be re-written; its high time now. Let walk towards the change.

I don’t want to make this a lamentation portal, on this petty grievances. Lets together think what can be done to improve this scenario. I would request all the readers to come up with suggestions. I am sure we can put it to action very soon. Lets not loose hope.

My Suggestions:

1. They( railway employees,especially those into customer relationship management ) should have a smile on their face atleast, when we are at the ticket counter.
2. Just like ATM counter in all railway stations, they should have cash exchange counters and Kiosks( Converting money to lower Denominations' )
3. They should be given an option to print and give the balance amount in the ticket  that can be en-cashed in any banks or Railway stations.

Next Post: Place: Ticket counter, Indian railways (September 29,2009 at 11 am )

Once I was shifting my house in Bangalore. Obviously I had to shift my phone connection as well. I gave a written request for the same in one of the BSNL Customer Care Center. It took almost 25 days for them to address my request. They  gave me call, asking where do I want the connection to be transferred. I provided them the address and they came to my place and did the same. So here  we can see that BSNL lives at least 20 days that behind normal people.

And during the transfer I had to lock the out going calls from my phone. Once again I had to make a call to the Customer care. I guess and old lady, probably in the last years of her service took the call. I asked her “Please help me to lock the out going calls from my land line. She quickly answered me and provided me the instructions how to lock the outbound calls. It was a surprise for me when I got to realize that I was thanking the dead phone; she disconnected the call immediately after answering me. Then i called them once again. The reason for the call was to know how to unlock the out going calls. On my first call back some one disconnected the call without even saying any thing.Then I called them one more time. This time I was a bit irate. I spoke to some one again. I got to know she is the same lady I spoke to before. I asked her is it the way you do customer service. Instead of asking the customer if they have any other issues to be addressed or at least giving some time for the customer to ask.She replied saying that she have to answer several calls not just mine. Again she did the same disconnected the call.

Here she is getting all repeated callers. A person like me who had just one issue, to get it answered had to call her three times. If she had the time and courtesy to answer all my questions  in the first call itself. She could have avoided three other calls from me. Same applies to all other calls.

Q1.  Are we customers do we have some respect ?

Q2.  Are we living on them or do they living on our money ?

I would request all the readers to contribute to this blog, by sharing your experience with any of the public sector offices. Please leave your e-mail address with the comment so that I can add you as a co editor to this blog…

Thank you