Caring for Parents & Elderly

Did you know that you are legally bound to take care of your elderly?

 

1. The procedure is governed by the Maintenance of welfare of Parents and Senior Citizen Act 2007.

2. It is a legal obligation for children/legal heirs to provide for the maintenance of senior citizens.

3. Children/legal heirs are obligated to take care of the elderly parents in such a way that they can lead a normal life.

4. Any person who is in possession or stands to inherit senior citizen’s property and has sufficient mean is liable to look after and additionally senior citizens provide for senior citizen.

5. Maintenance includes provision for food, clothing, residence, medical attendance and treatment. Parents mean father or mother, whether biological, adoptive, or stepfather or stepmother as the case may be whether or not father or mother is a senior citizen.

6. If a senior citizen is not able to look after himself/herself he/she can apply to the state tribunal requesting for a monthly allowance from their children/heirs.

7. Grandparents both parental as well as maternal grandparents are also included.

8. The application for maintenance must be filed before the maintenance tribunal in any district where:-

(a) Parents, grandparents or senior citizen resides.

(b) Parents, Grandparents or senior citizen last resided.

(c) The person against whom maintenance is claimed resides.

9. In addition senior citizen can file an application before maintenance tribunal to declare the transfer of property void with certain conditions.

10. No legal practitioner is permitted to represent but district social welfare officer can represent the parents if they so desire. Civil courts will have no jurisdiction in respect of any matter to which this act applies.

11. Punishment for not paying the monthly allowance could be a fine of Rs.5000/= or imprisonment up to three months pr both.

 

NOISE POLLUTION-A HEALTH HAZARD

 

NOISE POLLUTION-A HEALTH HAZARD

 

Allahabad High Court in a recent Judgement in 2019 has come very strongly on the district administration and noise pollution generators for violation of rules 2000 framed under the Air pollution Act by the central as well as state Govt.

The directions issued by the court which are to treated as rules are:-

1. Permission of the use of loud speaker even in religious places is to obtained from the DM.

2.Competent authority in each district to be set up and a tribunal also to deal with the complaints. Name and telephone number of authority to be made public.

3.A toll free number to be provided to citizens to make complaints . Complaints can also be made on 100 to police .Police to investigate it immediately and take action.

4. Facility to be made to send complaint by SMS, E mail. or Whatsapp, orally or in writing.

5. All places of worship of all religion shall come under these rules 2000.Any violation will be treated as violation of fundamental rights.

6.Name and identity of the complainant shall be kept secret and not disclosed to violator or to any other person. Even anonymous complaints are to be entertained.

7. Permission of DM is required for the use of loud speakers in any function.

8. No permission for use of DJ to be granted in any function for the reason that the noise generated by DJ is of unpleasant and obnoxious level..

9.Non compliance will include a jail term up to five years in jail and a fine up to Rs.one lac.

For the information of all residents of UP.

Animal Rights

 I never thought in my wildest imagination that i may have to write a post about rights of Animals. My concern is only that the residents should not break laws and face punishment. They should be aware of their legal rights and how to enforce them in a legal manner only. I am enumerating some rights of animal’s with relevant act and rules for information to all. India has some of the finest provisions to safeguard animals.
1. It is the fundamental duty of all citizens to have compassion for all living creatures. Article 51(A) .
2. To main, injure or kill an animal including stray animal is a punishable offence under IPC section 428 & 429.
3. It is illegal to capture or relocate stray animals that have been operated for birth control. ABC rules 2001.
4. It is illegal to relocate any dog that has been sprayed. No dog can be sterilized unless he is at least four months old. ABC (Animal Birth Control) rules 2001.
4. The local authority can capture dog and sterilize them but will have to release them from where they were captured. ABC rules 2001.
5. Capturing, trapping, poisoning or baiting of any animal is punishable by law. Section 9 of wildlife protection act 1972.
6. Neglecting any animal by denying him sufficient food, water, shelter and exercise or by keeping him chained/confined for long duration is punishable under section 11 of PCA Act 1960.
7. Conveying or carrying of animals in or upon any vehicle in any manner or position which causes discomfort , pain or suffering is punishable under section 11 of PCA act 1960 and motor vehicle act..
8. Abandoning any animal for any reason is punishable under section 11 of PCA Act.
9. Feeding of dogs is permitted in a secluded and marked place away from residential areas by dog feeders that have valid I card from the Animal Welfare Board. Rules and guidelines of Animal Welfare Board & high court judgement.
10. Animal Welfare Board has issued rules and guidelines to the police to enforce these rules.
11. Dogs do not like smell of vinegar therefore to keep them away from your area one can spray vinegar on grass and ground.

Right of woman

 

On woman's Day Dedicated to the most important woman in my life who not only changed me but also changed my outlook to life.

 

Rights of a Woman

 

1. Streedhan. This includes all movable or immovable assets or gift before, during or after the marriage. She has absolute right over it.

2. Maintenance. By husband if she is not able to support her financially.

3. Child Maintenance. Is to be provided by husband for support of kids and even marriage of daughter.

4. Residence. To stay in the matrimonial house. It can be a one acquired by husband, belongs to parents, an ancestral house, joint family or rented provided by employer.

5. Committed Relationship. If the husband is living with another woman without divorce or has committed adultery then an FIR under section 497 IPC.

6. Dignity and Respect. Entitled to same standard of lifestyle and comfort as her husband. No physical or mental torture.

7. Parent’s Property. Right to a share in the property of her parents.

8. Domestic Violence. Right to file FIR against domestic violence.

9. Dowry Harassment. Right to file FIR against dowry harassment.

10. Divorce. A woman has four more ground to file for divorce than her spouse.

Chidren Born abroad and Citzeship Act

Pl read this long post as some of the residents may have children and grandchildren abroad and the story may be similar. My apologies for the long post

"I would like to share a painful story of the son and daughter in law and two small children of my friend with you who asked me for advice and help in their personnel matter. It was sad and painful for me to tell them I cannot help at present at all as entry of foreign citizens is banned in India due to corona virus. My friend’s son, Daughter in law and two children are in USA. Both children aged 6 years and 2 year were born in America and both Indian parents were working there. Now due to changes in the rules made by USA government they have to leave the country within 60 days and notice already served to them. They went to airport to board a Vande Bharat fight to India. They got tickets and were told that they could board the flight but not their children as they were not Indian citizen but American citizen. They had to go to a hotel to stay. They have only 40 or more days in America.

I asked them only one questions only as the children were born after 3 Dec 2004 that did they register their children after their birth within a year at the Indian Embassy or not? Sadly their reply was no and added that they did not know. Here lies the problem. Section 4(2) of the Citizenship act 1955 states that:-

“A person born outside India on or after 3rd December, 2004 shall not be a citizen of India, unless the parents declare that the minor does not hold passport of another country and his birth is registered at an Indian consulate within one year of the date of birth or with the permission of the Central Government, after the expiry of the said period.”

This means the all children who are born to Indian parents in America or any other country are not Indian Citizens unless the registration procedure was followed. Probably the parents were scared that if they register then their children will lose American citizenship which is automatic since they were born in America and they did not want that to happen. They were unaware of the fact that the child born in other countries gets the citizenship of that country because of his birth there provided the country act permits it like USA and the registration of birth with the Indian Consulate does not bar this citizenship but on attaining the age of 18 years (After becoming adult) the child needs to intimate the consulate his desire as to which citizenship he wishes to retain as Indian Act does not permit dual citizenship. The painful outcome may be, in the worst case scenario, that if the parents deported after 60 days as illegal residents then the children will be transferred to child care home or foster parents. They also said that there are many more people like then stranded. The Embassy has also regretted that they cannot help due to instructions from Indian government banning the entry of foreign national in India.

I could offer them sympathy only and the only advice I could give was that to ask the Indian groups in America to pressure the embassy to take up such cases to the Indian government for relaxation on urgent basis or send a mail to foreign minister in India for help in this matter. More than that the option of court is not suitable as they will have to come to India or the last option was that to somehow manage to stay in America till this restriction is lifted and then come to India and do necessary. paperwork here. "

The birth and death registration act also gives some reprieve to the parents in terms of sixty days period for the registration of birth of their children born in other countries provided they are returning permanently back to India under Registration of Birth and Death Act 1969 under section 20 of the act.. 

 

Serendipity & Pareto's Principle

 

Yesterday while out for a morning walk I suddenly remembered that  the last five months I have passed with just three pairs of clothing. Of course this had to do with the corona pandemic and my being a senior citizen above 70 years of age. When I started looking back I realized that during the last two years I have only used about 20 to 25% of the clothes available in my wardrobe and the rest were just lying unused. Out of three suits which I own I have not used two of them for the last five years and the one used was once about 2 years back only. After coming back I decided to go through my other things and found the same to be true for my mobile phone, remote for TV, other electronic goods and even my shoes. My better half also quipped in by saying that a vast majority of things available in the kitchen have hardly been used and she does not remember when she used them last.

After pondering over all this it suddenly dawned on me that subconsciously I have reaffirmed two concepts widely known as concept of serendipity and the Pareto’s 80/20 principle. One may ask as to what is the relation between these two concepts. The relationship between the two lies in the fact as to how the Pareto’s principle was discovered using the concept of serendipity.

The concept of serendipity was created by British nobleman in 1700 from an ancient Persian fairy tale. It refers to the fact of finding interesting things by chance or when you are not thinking about it. It can be called an unplanned fortunate discovery. It is common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. Some typical examples are Velcro the magic fastener, corn flakes, radium, laws of gravitation and so on, the examples are numerous and endless.

The Pareto’s 80/20 principle was visualized in 1848 by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto when he noticed that in his kitchen garden that   20% of pea plants generated 80% of healthy pea pods. Further investigation revealed that in Italy 80% of the land was owned by just 20% of the population. He investigated different industries and realized that 80% of the production comes from just 20% of the companies. The generalization thus became what is known as Pareto’s 80/20 principle.-

“80% of the results will come from just 20%of the action.”.

This came to be known later as Pareto’s famous 80/20 principle which is now very widely applied to a wide variety of situations whether it is business, production, sales, and government department and for that matter any given situation. It is just a concept and not a mathematical certainty hence 80/20 are not exact values but just approximations to express a concept that suggests that 20% of your actions will account for 80% of your results. It also suggests that 2 out of 10 persons in any organizations will turn out to be more productive than the rest 8 persons put together.

Virtues of Being Lazy

A small true life episode which goes to show that a professor can not stop questioning and testing.

" Both of us were invite for a lunch to a relatives house a couple of years back who was a professor and HOD in a central University. Both his sons in law (SIL) were present along with their spouses and grand children. All the SIL are very intelligent and very successful in their respective field and also the grandchildren. I was the only one who neither shared their lofty achievements and nor belonged to their subject so one can imagine my plight in such an environment where all the talk was just Greek and Latin to me. Maybe I was invited because of my wife. On top of it the elderly gentleman maybe in order to include me in the discussion or whatever turned to me and asked a question. One knows very well when a professor asks a question then it can not be to get some knowledge but only to test the knowledge of the guinea pig that was unfortunately me. The question to me was:-

" RK, What is the difference between laziness and letharginess according to you."

I just looked into his eyes and said-

" Laziness is a virtue whereas letharginess is a disease"

He looked at me for about 30 second, smiled and then there were no further questions to my relief and I was left alone to enjoy my lunch. Thankfully. The only positive point was that after that he gave me the respect which I deserved and listened to me when I talked. A very big achievement.