Should Governments Collect Donations in Addition to Taxes?
Soliciting funds from the public in an emergency betrays a government’s lack of planning and prevision for such events. It also reveals the fact that the taxes already collected have not been spent correctly. During the COVID-19 emergency, the political and departmental authorities are making appeals and collecting donations to face the crisis. If by ‘donation’ we mean an individual voluntarily giving away a part of his wealth to a needy person, in a disinterested manner, then, there is an issue with the manner in which governments are colle…
Greener Interiors for the Urban Resident: Campaign-2020
Thanks to the suffering we are facing on account of pollution, concern for safeguarding the environment is at its peak. Air pollution, including indoor air pollution, is perhaps as damaging as most other forms of pollution, especially to children and senior citizens apart from women who spend more time than men in the house. As we all know, the atmosphere sustains life in nature by providing oxygen for humans to breathe and carbon dioxide for plants to make food. Air clean and not so clean We the humans consume oxygen in the ai…
RWA Management During the Lockdown
By Rao VBJ Chelikani Society leaders at the 4th Tier of Governance should avoid the temptation to don the mantle of dictatorial control and rather choose expressions of ‘soft power’ by persuading and convincing people Are the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) becoming unpopular? Before we reflect upon it, we have to register certain facts and events that confirm the phenomenon of RWAs as the undisputed representatives of urban micro-communities. No authority can ignore them anymore. No order of the government or the co…
Lessons to be learnt from the Corona-Shock-1
By Rao VBJ Chelikani Only in times of crisis is that we can understand and assess our strengths and weaknesses in the progress of humankind. Let us identify them, so that we can strive to strengthen those forces in future. 1. We have to understand without any further demonstration after the onslaught of the last Sunami and the current COVID-19 that all countries in the world are inter-dependent and inter-connected. We have to be global in our outlook and egalitarian in our outlook. 2. We are one with each other, starti…
Why Every State should have a Legislative Council ?
By Dr. Rao V.B.J. Chelikani In a system of democracy where Parliament is the most important decision-maker, it has always been considered necessary to sub-divide it into two houses with two kinds of representatives with different interests, so as not to allow concentration of power or majoritarian decisions to be imposed on the residents in a country. Of course, in any case, the judiciary is given the right to review the decisions to see whether they conform to the spirit and the letter of the constitution which is supreme in t…
A Single Capital City is Inadequate for a State
In the ancient and medieval ages, as well as till the Nineteenth century, the kings and the wars they waged needed a single, central, fortified and self-contained capital city, wherein, again the royal palace in it was the single most important building to be protected. Since then, every new country that re-organised itself, set up the capital city, considering it as essential as a head to a human body. The word ‘capita’ means head. But things have changed now. We have new knowledge and new technological and electronic practices tha…
A Letter to All Political Parties in Telangana in View of Forthcoming Municipal Elections
15th July, 2019 Sir, There are going to be elections in the state of Telangana for the municipalities and corporations very soon and they will be followed by elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation also under a new Act. Naturally, all parties would be nominating their candidates to be councillors and corporators. We wish you success in your party’s efforts, notwithstanding the fact that we are not sure that political parties should be involved in local self-governing communities. Now, on behalf of a number of civil society or…
Voting By All as One Nation and in One Poll
Lessons from the just concluded general elections point to the need for urgent electoral reforms if we are to make our political democracy more efficient. By Dr.Rao VBJ Chelikani After the 2019 general elections, we have rightly learnt many lessons. In order to make our political democracy more efficient, we need urgent reforms, for which there appears to be an unusual consensus. Therefore, we appeal to the Mr. Prime Minister to get into action so as to constitute a corporation to maintain nationwide Electoral Rolls and the option to vote ele…
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