What all cell phone user must know: TRAI regulation about collection agents

Originally published in Financial Express

After RBI, it’s now Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that has cracked the whip on outsourced agencies that harass consumers for outstanding dues. Issuing guidelines on Friday prescribing a code of conduct for outsourced agencies, the regulator said telecom operators must have a transparent policy on recovering dues, without affecting the rights of consumers. Trai asked each operator to post its policy and formal code of conduct on its website for the information of consumers. A Trai statement made it clear to operators that engaging an outsourced agency “does not absolve them of their responsibility to fulfil their obligation to consumers”. The guidelines come in the wake of complaints received by Trai from consumers about methods adopted by service providers for the collection of outstanding dues.

Trai said service providers were obliged to ensure an effective complaint handling mechanism for billing and that before a case was given to an outsourced agency, advance intimation be given to a customer regarding outstanding dues.

Service providers will now also have to publish the names and telephone numbers of their outsourced agencies and their authorised staff on their website. Agents of the outsourced agency are permitted to call consumers only from the telephone numbers published on these websites between 8 am and 9 pm.

Besides, the agency should have a clean record and meet selection and eligibility criteria. Agents are also expected to wear photo identity cards.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Happy Republic Day and Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara: Quick thoughts

Right now, Happy Republic Day is trending at no.8 on Twitter. So is #HolyCrapBatman at no.6 and at no.1 is #thoughtsonthetoilet. You get the drift?

Certain enthusiastic patriot jumped up in joy and tweeted "Indians are dominating Twitter too, Happy Republic Day is trending."

"Of course it will trend, because Americans are sleeping otherwise something like ‘Yomama’ or ‘BitchDon’tLie’ would be trending." Pat came the answer.

Point is Republic Day Parade is quite a joke in today’s times. Over the last few years we have consistently deteriorated as a republic, human rights violation has been only on the rise, regional divide has got a face lift like never before, thanks to the rampant human rights violation in Maharashtra, the idea of one India is rapidly becoming a farce. Never before has there been so many naxal attacks in a year, so many caste and gender based violence, injustice is served faster and smoother than justice by the same people who are the guardians of justice.

Stories of Aruna,

As I watched the various tableau I couldn’t help being cynical. The Ministry of Agriculture tableau didn’t have any reference to the thousands and thousands of farmers committing suicide every year.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs tableau didn’t refer to the increasing Dalit atrocities. Dalit communities like ‘valmikis‘ are still fighting for the basic human right to be free from the forced labour of manual scavenging (which in layman’s language means picking up shit of upper caste people by hands) even as the tableau happily marched through Raj Path. One girl belonging to Valmiki community in Jammu and Kashmir speaking to CNN IBN said even if she has the required qualification she cannot apply for a state medical college as the state don’t recognize them as citizens and they are also not allowed to apply for SC certificate. The only work they are allowed to do is that of a safai karmchari (a sweeper)

I mean can you imagine? Something as heinous as manual scavenging still exist. I mean I feel like we should be painting our faces black in shame.

I wonder why the Woman and Child Ministry never have a tableau, at least I never saw one. They should use an event like Republic Day parade to spread some awareness, raise some concern. The list of gender based violence keeps increasing and we keep inventing new laws to tackle them but no body knows about the laws, those who know bend it to their benefit.

The Maharashtra tableau depicted the dabba wallahs of Mumbai and had a hindi song playing in the background. And I was surprised Raj Thackeray has still not raised an objection to it. I mean Maharashtra and Hindi song. A city where the cab drivers must speaking Marathi to be able to drive a cab. A city where people are beaten up because they can’t speak the local language. Even though the city thrives on film and fashion industry that purely operates in Hindi.

Anyway, enough of the rant. Here are some of my tweets.

29. Happy republic day fellow Indians..

28. Often around this time they come up with research showing young Indians don’t know difference between Independence day n Rep day.

27. I find that hard to believe, we all read it in history n civics book, it ws one of the most basic knowledge..how can they not know

26. Independence day 15 Aug 47is when th British left th county we became a free nation, 26th Jan 50 is wen we enacted the Indian Constitution.

25. Watching the Rep day parade, so much of fog, will they be able to see the parade at all

24. who is the chief guest this year? – Prime Minister of North Korea

23. Am not sure if Madam President can at all see the salutations, thanks to the fog

22. I thought boat race is something only done in Kerala, Manipur jhaanki had a boat race depicted

21. Kashi Visheshwara Temple, Karnataka Jhaanki

20. Sustainable use of natural resources in Meghalaya jhaanki

19. Tripura playing famous Bollywood music director SD Burman, he was born in the royal family of Tripura

18. Madam Mamata is clapping to the tunes of SD

17. There is a collage of all the films to which he gave music.. SD Burman

16. chattisgarh, natural erosion of limestone rock. Nice really nice

15. Kerala, whatever that song and dance was, had resemblence to oriental and naga culture. strange

14. Uttrakhand depicting Kumbh Ka Mela.. samudra manthan isn’t something that people wud get i think.

13. Cultural ministry.. nice, all kinds of musical instruments at display..

12. does anybody know who does all these preparations? choreography etc?

11. CPWD – depicting global warming, followed by Ministry of Power depicting the energy from hydro power

10. surprised the agriculture ministry didn’t have the bodies of the thousands of farmers who commit suicide every year

09. And Tribal Ministry dont refer to ethnic cleansing and caste based oppression

08 bravery award recipients are not riding elephant this year..

07. South Zone Cultural Center, Thanjavore performing Dolukolitha art

06. its an all girl group, dressed in green each carrying and beating drums #dolukolitha performance

05. this present performance is quite clichéd.. they do these kind of song n dance every year, think something diff ppl

04. ok that clichéd performance is depicting 2010 commonwealth games?

03. Its still foggy.. school children performing Aerobics for Peace, what on earth does that mean?

02. ok one kid just held up an ugly duckling named peace on her head

01. Folk dance from Sikkim Tamang Selo something

And then I lost interest.

Also, I hate the new Mile Sure Mera Tumhara song and video. It is so full of people from the glamour industry like no body else deserve to be there, every star is busy showing off themselves, there is no soul to it. In the earlier version they all came together in the end but this time they didn’t. which is obvious given that their sur so don’t match in real life. I mean for SRK and Salman Khan to be at the same set same time is a task. I don’t know how to explain, I simply hate it. In fact its a disaster, a catastrophic disaster.

Filed under: Uncategorized

May the real idiots please stand up and STOP TWEETING on #3Idiots

Its just crazy how many people are talking about the 3 Idiots v. Five Point Someone controversy on Twitter. Everytime I see every Tom Dick and Harry on Twitter discussing any of these matters as if they are some kind of subject matter expert it makes me laugh so hard that I almost end up peeing in my pants.

What a bunch of morons are them including me. Because I too spent some time reading up the zillion expert comments, even tried arguing against a few of them.

At these times twitter seems to me to be this really big mental asylum where all the retards are just going about blabbering something and no one is listening. In just half an hour I saw 20 morons tweeting the link to the original contract between Vidhu Vinodh Chopra and Chetan Bhagat 20 times. I mean guys, when one of you have already tweeted it why do you have this itch to again repeat the action? Do you know who repeats action? Retards!

Filed under: Random Agitation , #3idiots, 3 idiots controversy, bollywood, chetan bhagat, five point someone, twitter, twitter morons, vidhu vinodh chopra

26/11 – One India is an over statement at least in Mumbai

Last year’s post, first reaction to the terror strike

I am sorry to say but on this anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack I can’t help but being at my cynical best. Cynicsm, despair, anger, frustration and helplessness has hit an all time high. All this talk of unity and solidarity seems to be such overstatement and the idea of one India is such a farce.

One India: Same India: Assam -

Sunday, 22nd Nov 09 – Twin blasts within a gap of 40 min, 8 Killed 50+ injured. How many candles did the Mumbaikars light?[link]

On 30th Oct 09 Assam silently remembered the victim of the serial blasts, 9 in total, that left 90 dead and 800 injured in 2008.[link]

April 09 – Also saw serial blasts, killing 8 people.[link]

And I would not even dare to tread the path towards the even lesser known and ignored states of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya. On any random day do a basic google news search with these states name as key word and you would only see blood all around.

When was the last time anybody lit a candle for any of them. People perhaps don’t even know about the blood and gore going on in so many parts of the country. From media to the youth on twitter, the so called one India consist of Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and few more.

Filed under: North East Round up, Terrorism, point of view

On Jade goody, death, womanhood and some more misplaced lament on Desicritics

[Click here for all my other debates]

A couple of months back when Jade Goody died I wrote this obituary, ‘Jade Goody: The winner took it all‘ on my personal blog and on Desicritics. Interestingly the post on Desicrtics got as many as 81 comments, most of them directed at me in anger, by women of all sorts. Now who would have thought a simple obituary would be subject of so much debate. But then again I don’t write anything simple do I.

As the flame war was unleashed I decided to stay away from it, so I remained silent for a long time but they didn’t like it. They insisted I reply to the comments and join the war. When I still remained silent they started speculating on why am I silent, “maybe she is testing the waters? Or maybe this was her way of being provocative or maybe she hasn’t had the time to respond. We won’t know till she responds I guess,” said one of them.

Finally after 50 such comments were posted I decided to reply to all their accusations (which by the way made me feel like Socrates on his trial). Some of the main accusations were, (1) I was insensitive towards people who suffer from suicidal tendency (2) I glorified and romanticized death (3) I wanted to be a poet but became a journalist (or something of that sort)

Below is my long reply to all such accusations: 

Filed under: Debates , blog, blog comments, death, desicritics, flame wars, glorification of death, jade goody

On homosexuality

I often wonder what is the relation between religion and sexuality. I have not yet read enough on it to make a post but I do know that Islam and Christianity condemns homosexuality. Hinduism is perhaps silent on the topic. Anyway I found these following reading interesting.

Bishop Robert Bennett of the Diocese of Huron has asked a committee to begin to develop prayers for same-gender couples, but the service will not provide a nuptial blessing…Bennett asked the diocesan doctrine and worship committee to “synthesize and make available the most recent and relevant material to aid in this discernment” and then to “develop appropriate protocols, guidelines and evaluative tools to enable us to move forward with appropriate liturgies to celebrate the love, mutual fidelity and support that gay and lesbian Anglicans model every day for the church and wider community.” (Full story) 

That sounds like a good thing although I don’t know the exact implications. Also read this story, Judaism Offers a Wide Range of Views on Same-Sex Marriage. It talks about how judaism does not allow homosexuality but a certain reform movement by progressive Rabbis who are supportive of same sex marraiges is in the rise.

Filed under: Recommended readings, Sexuality , gay, homosexuality, lesbian, proposition 8, same sex marraige, san fransisco, Sexuality

Women in Bangladesh’s politics

An account on the participation of women in Bangladesh’s Political scene. There are quite a few strong women who are part of the latest Cabinet in Bangladesh but still the condition of women is not very good. Laws need amendments.

Despite having women politicians and women in leadership positions, domestic violence and sexual harassment continue to be part of daily life. There are still many discriminatory laws in Bangladesh that need urgent amendment. The reservation on some clauses on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women) is a case in point. Successive governments have failed to address the discrimination in the laws of inheritance, citizenship and family laws. Religious groups have always successfully objected to any discourse on changing these laws. Male politicians have never made any serious effort to bring about gender equity.

Full story here.

Filed under: Feminism, Recommended readings , bangladesh, Feminism, gender, politics, rights, women, women in politics

Links for the day – Pakistan, Kasab and Sri Lanka

There is so much to read on the internet but I just don’t have the time. So I am just gonna make a note of them here and will read them later at peace.

An interesting discussion thread on the Trial of Mumbai Terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab on the Pakistan Defense site.

Pakistan government have finally woken up and taken action against Taliban. But experts believe this is not enough and the situation is far from being under control. Window on Pak Press is a series on India Today. The latest of this series ’Military fails to tame Taliban‘:

Despite military operation and international pressure, Taliban militants not only continued armed patrolling in Swat Valley but also suspended talks with the government unless the newly-launched military operation in Dir Lower was stopped, media reported. 

Meanwhile The News quoting military sources militants’ death toll in the last two days of operation rose to 46. However, the report said, due to disruption of the communication system in the area, the claim could not be confirmed from independent sources. As residents started leaving their homes for safer places, security forces on Monday claimed to have killed 20 more militants in different areas of Maidan in the Lower Dir district during operation “Toar Tandar” launched against the militants to “capture or flush them out”.

And the militants are far from being scared of the Pak army they are instead giving out threats to Laywers and media.

 Speaking on FM radio channel, deputy chief of the militants, Shah Dauran, threatened lawyers of action for speaking against Taliban. He said lawyers Sher Zaman, Muamber, Ali Haidar, Zahoor Iqbal, Muhammad Ismail, Noor Muhammad, Hazrat Bilal and others “are making fun of Shariat-e-Muhammadi and Taliban” and his fighters would soon take action against them. “Whoever will speak against Taliban, we will take action against them,” he threatened.

Coming to Sri Lanka Issue here’s an interview expert by CNN IBN of President Rajapaksa – “We want to catch Prabhakaran alive’ says President – “People must know who these terrorists are”

Filed under: current affairs , 26/11, ajmal kasab, india, mumbai terror attack, pakistan, taliban, Terrorism

The fate of children born in prison out of parents who are jail inmates

Rules allow those below six years of age to live in their parents’ cells, prison officials accept that often some stay on until they are much older because they have nowhere else to go.

At the moment Bihar’s jails have 1,340 women inmates, either awaiting trial—which may take years—or convicted of crimes, including murder. Twenty per cent of these women have children living in jail. The inmates, say jail officials, are wracked by guilt.

Not surprisingly then, some like Meena Devi, Kalawati and Sunita Devi of Beur jail have refused to name their children as they see it as a bad omen. Two of them call their daughters Bachchi while a third has temporarily named her’s Susti (laziness). They say the girls will have proper names once they are out of prison.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, as many as 141 children share jail cells with 703 women. There are also cases of men, after allegedly killing their wives, have landed in jails with their children. According to a state prison official, it is men of this kind who face the most difficulty in raising their children.

The governments in both states have now ordered prison authorities to help the children in prison grow up in as normal circumstances as is possible.

Full Story on India Today

Filed under: Law

As we go for elections the world is watching us

Found this on a New Zealand based website.

“Murderers and thieves are likely to be elected when Indians vote tomorrow, and that’s putting the world’s largest democracy at risk, writes Ruth Hill.”

The article is about the criminals that are contesting the forthcoming general elections. I must say its a well researched piece. Some excerpts:

Of the 543 MPs elected in 2004 to Lok Sabha – India’s House of Commons – 128 faced charges for serious crimes, including murder, extortion, threats, kidnapping, theft and rape.

The 2004 election was the first time candidates were forced to disclose assets and criminal convictions – not that it appeared to put off voters. Unsurprisingly, the idea did not originate with a political party. It was a group of disgruntled law professors, calling themselves the Association for Democratic Reforms, who won a suit in the Delhi High Court in 1999.

The reforms were opposed by politicians from across the spectrum, who managed to defer their implementation for five years till forced to do so by the Supreme Court.

Parties seem prepared to do almost whatever it takes to win power – even cosying up to criminals.

When they’re not being intimidated and forced to hand over their voting registration cards, voters in poor rural areas and urban slums have become accustomed to being wooed with free saris, nose pins, the promise of free weddings for their children and even gifts of guns for those in restless border states.

We are very fond of looking down upon Afghanistan, Pakistan and snobbishly use the term Talibanisation. At this rate the day isn’t too far when they will say we wouldn’t allow Indianisation of our Politics because the world is watching us even more today.

[Source]

Also read this on the assets declaration by the various election candidates.

Filed under: Criminal Law, current affairs , criminalisation, elections, india, india general elections, politics