Delhi is burning despite the showers it had in the last two days. The temperature has come down a little but the humidity has gone up like anything. The result is that the people are suffering. This is an annual punishment for the people in the North. But it is hoped that the moonsoon may reach Delhi by the last week of June since it has arrived 3-4 days earlier in Kerala.
We wait for the early moonsoon.

If you go through the ‘Times of India’,’Hindustan Times’ or any other newspaper published from Delhi, you can see a lot of local news regarding chain snatching, goondaism, rape, muder, cheating, vandalism and so on. It is here that Jessica, a bar attender, was shot and murdered in front of dozens or even hundreds of people, but there was nobody to give evidence, and even the few prepared to give evidences changed their versions due to fear or otherwise.
I had a personal experience today, 15th June. It was about 07.30 hours in the morning and I was having my morning walk on the foot path on the side of the road from Gole Market to Connaught place. Just before Connaught place, in front of the Medical College, three youngsters, seemingly goondas, were harassing a women about 20-25 years and threatening her. She, all of a sudden crossed the road to the other side and started walking quickly. One of the goonda ran after her, pulled her and started beating. The other two also reached by the time. She was pleading something but the goonda continued to hit her on her shoulder and abodmen. Security persons engaged at the Medical College gate, on the gates of the Sivaji Stadium and other people on the way were looking but nobody intervened. An auto riksha came by that time and she was bundled and the the goondas also got in and sped away. Since I was not having the mobile phone, I could not even contact the police.
Whatever it was, a young woman was harassed and beaten on a busy road, but nobody came to her rescue. The goondas could have been stopped or got arrested, if at least some five-ten people joined together. But nothing happened. It is not only the fear of goondas, I think. The people take it casually and they are never bothered what is happening to a poor woman.
I just thought about what will be the position in Kerala if a such a thing happened on the busy road. I am sure that the goondas might have been tackled by the people and the woman saved. In many other places also.
The people of Delhi has to rise up against injustice and crimes.

Four more sick PSUs are going to be sold shortly. The Government is finalising its programme for sale of Hindustan Cables Limited, Hindustan Machine Tools Limited, Thungabhadra Steel Limited and Richardson & Cruddas. Hindustan Cables Limited is closely connected with telecom and has been supplying Cables for the DoT earlier and to BSNL and MTNL later.
Already the Government has sold Power Finance Corporation Limited for a meagre amount of Rs. Rs. 1,162 crore. Scooters India Limited is also under sale.
The UPA II government is on an agressive selling mode. Before the completion of its five year term it wants to hand over maximum number of PSUs to the private sector as part of the LPG policy.

The people of Odisha continues their fight against the taken over of their land by the Korean Steel MNC. The entire people of the area which has been cleared by the Orissa and also Central Governemnt for takeover by POSCO are in arms. While the Environment Minister Jayram Ramesh did not agree to approve the project which is completely anti-environmental and also will displace thousands of families, succumbed to the pressure of the UPA and Orissa governments as also the MNC.
About 3700 acres lying in the Jagatsinghpur are cleared for acquisition. Even the children are involved in the struggle against acquisition. Hundreds of children blocked the police from entering the villages.
The Central and state governments should cancel the clearance and save the environmental and human concerns. Otherwise, the struggle will increase as in the case of Nalco,where the people won by stopping the privatisation by strong popular struggle.
I wholeheartedly support the struggle of the against the acquisition of land of the people in Orissa.

The Indian Rich want to show their huge wealth and also to enjoy the same.
Look in to the report in the Economic Times ( 8th June) on the front page. Sandeep Jajodia, owner of the Monnet Ispat and Energy has purchased a bungalow in South Delhi for Rs. 170.18 crore! It comes to Rs.80,000 per square foot. The stamp duty comes to Rs. 20.21 crore!
The number of super rich in India is increasing every day. But on the other side, there are crores of people who barely earn Rs. 20/ per day. This inequality is increasing by leaps and bounds.
The neo-liberal policy adopted by the Central Government has given every chance for the rich to become super-rich. But no benefits to the down trodden and toiling masses!
There is no other way but to fight against this inhuman discrimination and injustice.

The interest on the Savings Bank Accounts in the Post Offices may be increased to 4% from the present 3.5% if the report of the government committee headed by the RBI Deputy Governor Smt. Shyamal Gopinath is accepted. The committee has recommended to increase the rate to 4%. In fact, the interest in PO SB, which are mostly used by the employees and the common people has been very low comapared to the loan rate which has been going high and higher.The recommendations will give some relief to the SB Account holders.
Another recommendation is that the annual investment limit in the Public Provident Fund (PPF) has been increased from Rs. 70,000 to Rs. one lakh.

The India Post has decided to float tenders for connectivity to its 1.6 lakh Post offices through out the country.They want 30,000 MPLS links in urban and semi-urban areas and 1,30,000 links in rural and deep rural areas.The project may be of about Rs.2000 crore or so.
This is a good opportunity for the BSNL to get these tenders, since BSNL is the only company which has got the capacity to provide the connectivity to all these urban and rural areas at present. Further, both are under the Ministry of Communications.
However, mutual negotiated agreement will be the best solution as has been done by BSNL with Income Tax, SBI etc.
BSNL management has to take immediate action to ensure that either through negotiated settlement or through tenders the project should be got for BSNL. It will help the ailing BSNL.Any delay or complacency on the part of BSNL management will see a repeat of how BSNL lost the Railway tender for one lakh connections.

It is reported that 50 flights, about 10% of its fleet, have been grounded by Air India due to its inability to purchase petrol. The Air India owes huge amounts to the oil companies, since it could not pay the dues to heavy loss of the company. An agreement was reached that the Air India now will have to purchase oil on cash basis. Since the day collection is less Air India has not been able to pay full cash. As such oil companies refused supply of petrol.Hence the cancellation of flights.
If the government can subsidise the private business to the extent of lakhs of crores of rupees, why can’t the government subsidise the PSU, Air India. It was only due to the wrong policy of the Government and pro=private decisions of the former minister that the Air India has gone into loss. It is the duty of the government to save Air India.