Corrupt sons of soil

In a very convoluted way, Raj Thackeray is asking son of the soils not to be corrupt. By requesting them to not issue fake certificates. Domicile and ration card authorities earn millions of rupees during the medical and engineering admission process in India. People are ready to pay tens of thousands to avoid lakhs of capitation rupees in many cases.

But the paradox is that sons of the soil fight over these low paying jobs just for the corruption money. A municipal school teacher teaching English is there to take her daily rest and relaxation. Asking them to shape up is not going to cut it. If you want honest officials, you have to open these jobs to a merit based admission process and provide good salaries. And stop stuffing these posts with sons and daughters of the soil that happen to know some politically connected person.

The one good(?) thing about these corrupt officials is that they do not care as to who is on the other side of the table; Maharashtrian or outsider. If you do not have the proper documentation to get the certificates, you have to pay up even if your last name happens to be Mumbaikar, Nagarkar, Tendulkar, Agarkar or Wadkar. Paisa nikal, phir baat kar! Soil does not matter to these officials, only cold cash does. That is where the sons of soils all over the country get their percentage. And this is how the leaders of political parties get their riches too. Corruption begins at the top and percolates to the bottom.

Horrible public schools of Maharashtra

Here is an article about the state of public schools in Maharashtra.



As I had indicated in an earlier blog, kids studying in public schools in Maharashtra are condemned to a life of misery. How about shutting down these schools and providing education vouchers for studying in private or semi-private well run schools for these kids?

Ofcourse, that will bring down quality of the private schools(similar thing observed in the US). Or the private schools will start running away to places that are hard to travel to. But atleast the Maharashtrian kid will have a chance.

Yes, we need people with different levels of education in the workforce, but these kids are condemned to low self esteem, dropping out and a life of mediocrity. Believe me, these kids are smart. But they have no chance in life coming out of these miserable schools.