(A detailed version of this chapter in notes #301.037 on http://facebook.com/mehtarahulc )

Download this chapter 37 : http://www.righttorecall.info/301.pdf
Using TCP, I propose to enact following changes in civil laws. Some of them are

1. Enacting Land Record System (Torrance Title)
2. Enacting system to record all loans and restrict high interest rate (usury)
3. Enacting administrative changes settle inheritance related disputes fairly
4. Proposed laws to settle loan default cases
5. Public vote on laws for speedy divorce, alimony and child custody to abused women
6. Public vote on repealing 498A, DVA
7. Public vote on legalize of opium
8. Public vote to legalize commercial sex
And many more changes

37.1 Enacting land\flat ownership record system

I request the reader read about Torrens Title at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrens_title and also google for Torrens Title and read more articles on it.

1. seller must register map, location of his plot, flat (and get serial number)
2. if the flat or plot has split or merged, then the seller must register map, location of changes in his plot, flat (and get new serial numbers)
3. buyer and seller must print agreement of sale inside Govt office before the Govt officer
4. the sale is immediately recorded on the Govt record.
5. in case some fraudulent seller is able to sell his plot, flat twice to different persons, then Govt will compensate at least one of the duped buyer.
6. in case some fraudulent seller is able to sell plot, flat of someone else by impostering, then Govt will compensate the actual owner
7. so buyer does not need to verify the chain of previous owners – he only needs to deal with the owner listed on the Land Registry.

The Torrens Title makes it impossible for seller to sell the land or flat twice. And the frauds are so low, less than 1 in 10000, that with a fee as low as 1% of the sale amount, Govt is able to act as insurer. The Torrens Title first came in Australia in 1860s and since then, Australia hasn’t faced the problem of one person selling away plot to two persons. I propose to enact Torrens Title in all States of India using State level TCP. The details of Torrens Title I have proposed is at http://rahulmehta.com/id04.htm .

37.2 Proposed laws to stop high interest rates (usury)

Usury exists only because loan-sharks have protection of Ministers, judges and Police Chiefs. I have proposed procedures to enact system by which citizens can replace police chiefs, judges, Ministers etc and I have proposed Jury System over junior policemen. These procedures will create a threat in the minds of policemen, Ministers, judges etc and they will reduce nexuses with loan-sharks. Further, I have proposed Jury Trial over all criminal trials. This will reduce ability of loan-sharks to use violence against the borrowers.

To administer the loans, I propose to enact a law-draft where in every lender will have to disclose the loans he has given to every borrower, and disclose the interest he is charging he is charging. The ceiling on interest rates will be 2 times the prime lending rate. (e.g. as of Jun-2008, PLR is 1.25% a month, and so limit on private lending will be 2.5% a month). And I propose to enact Jury Trials using which Jurors can imprison the loan-sharks. If over 75% Jurors are convinced, they can order narco-test on the money-lender and obtain more information about the specific case and number of people he has victimized.

37.3 Public vote on laws for speedy divorce and child custody for battered women

I will propose drafts of the laws using which battered women can ask for a speedy Jury Trials, and Jury can grant divorce, alimony and child custody. The child custody should be married woman’s right upon separation or divorce.

37.4 Public vote on laws abolishing 498A and DVA

Using TCP, we citizens can\should repeal 498A and DVA.

37.5 Public vote on legalizing opium , hashish

I request the reader to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium .

Soft drugs such as hashish, opium etc were in almost all countries of world before 1800 AD. In India, they were legal till 1950 and in even in US, they were legal till 1900. The harmful effects of hashish, opium and such soft drugs are less than any pain killer or psychiatrist medicine. The opium is less harmful than tobacco — they do not cause cancer, TB etc. And opium, hashish are less harmful than liquor — they do not cause lever sclerosis. Opium, hashish are also less socially damaging. Opium, hashish does not make a person violent or prone to committing rapes, where as liquor makes a person violent and prone to committing rape. In fact, opium makes a person less aggressive and opium reduces possibility that he would commit rape. The production cost of opium, hashish is less than tobacco or liquor.

Then why did Govts banned opium, hashish?

In beginning of 1900, medicine made progress in the field of psychiatry. Many psychiatrist medicines were invented and many did wonders in curing patients. But even today, these medicines don’t work in a large fraction of cases – as high as 50%. In such cases, often, opium, hashish are the best known remedies. They pacify the patient, and sometimes, patients own their own fix their thoughts and recover. So opium, hashish and other soft drugs reduce the demand for psychiatric drugs. The opium also reduces demand of pain-killer drugs And so pharmaceutical company owners bribed intellectuals to create a campaign against opium, hashish and then they bribed MPs etc to enact laws to ban opium, hashish. The ban on opium, hashish also increased the bribe money policemen, Ministers and judges etc were getting. The ill effect of ban is that prices of opium, hashish went up by 100 times, and so the opium addict had to resort to crimes like theft and resulting violence to buy opium.

But if opium if legalized, then opium will be cheaper than coffee or tea, and no one will need to resort to violence to pay for opium. Banning opium resulted into higher use of more harmful drugs such as smack etc a they give more “kick” per cubic centimeter of volume. And why should volume in cubic-cm become a factor? Because when something is banned, peddlers’ overheads depends more on volume in cubic-cm and not on transport costs. The drugs like smack etc tale less volume in cubic-centimeters and so are cheaper than opium for peddles. This further worsened the health of addicts, and increased the sale of pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, ban on opium has increased sale of tobacco and cancers. This further increased the sale of pharmaceutical companies. So all in all, opium benefits only pharmaceutical companies and corrupt policemen, judges, Ministers, and ruins the addicts and also increases crime rate in the society.

Will legalizing hashish reduce crimes or increases crimes? As a real example, Netherlands legalized opium and number of serious convicts reduced from over 14000 in Jan-2002 to 12000 in Jan-2009 !! Netherlands is one of the few countries in world where high security prisons are being shut down !!

So shall we legalize opium? I propose public vote on this issue using TCP. My vote is YES, but I don’t want to take this decision my myself even if I were the PM. Because if those who will benefit will not support a PM who takes such decision and enemies (pharmaceutical companies, corrupt policemen/judges/Ministers) etc will run a high profile smear campaign against him. Such decisions are best taken by public vote. When opium legalization is put for public vote, majority of citizens will realize that banning opium worsens the health of addict and increases the risk on life and property of non-addicts. So most addicts will vote YES, so will their family members and so will most non-addicts. And thus without any smear campaign, opium will get legalized. So my proposal is to legalize opium, hashish using TCP. How? I propose and plan to enact a law-draft using TCP that Jury and only Jury can punish a drug addict or a peddler or acquit him. So will a Jury ever punish an addict or a peddler? Unlikely. AFAIT, a Jury will never punish an addict who hasn’t done any violent crime otherwise. Thus by enacting a law-draft that only Jury can punish drug dealer or addict, I propose to “legalize” soft drugs. And whatever is the verdict of public vote or Juries, I shall accept it.

Later, I will put details of this law-draft at http://rahulmehta.com/opium.htm

37.6 Public vote on legalizing commercial sex

The curse of being a good politician is that I have to give views on ALL important issues that effect our society and look bad if that issue happens to be ugly. And a benefit of bad politician and a dishonest intellectual is that he can always ignore real issues and talk on goody goody things only. As if problems will disappear by goody goody talks. I prefer to confront all real issues, because real issues don’t go away by submerging in goody goody talks.

The sex ratio in India is 930 females to 1000 males. MRCM law-draft and other laws which poverty, social security system and other laws which provide old age cares will reduce improve the sex ratio. But it will take at least 20 years before sex ratio improves. Hence for next 10-20 years, sex ratio will be close to 930 females to 1000 males. And so IMO, if commercial sex is not legalized, violent crimes, theft and even sex crimes will only increase. Further, criminalizing commercial sex only benefits violent pimps, corrupt policemen, corrupt judges and corrupt Ministers and benefits no one else. It increases the costs on clients and so many clients might resort to committing violent/financial crimes. Plus, when commercial sex is banned, honest and non-violent will deter from becoming pimps and so only violent criminals will become pimps. And so sex-workers will face more physical abuses. Banning commercial sex does not benefit average citizen in any way. Does commercial sex increase spread of venereal diseases? If so, then how come countries like Singapore and many countries which have legalized commercial sex have lesser incidence of venereal diseases? That’s because the disease spread is because of lack of information only. It has nothing to do with commercialization of sex.

So what laws do I propose for or against legalizing commercial sex?

Using TCP, I propose to enact a law-draft where in punishment on anyone accused of being a sex-worker or visiting sex-worker or acting as broker will be decided by Juries only. India will never find 12 randomly chosen citizens who will punish non-violent individuals. And this “only Jury against commercial sex related crimes” will result into de-facto legalization of commercial sex. Furthermore, when citizens have procedures to expel District Police Chief, the District Police Chief will get the hint that citizens do or do not want him to chase sex workers. If citizens want him to chase the sex-workers then he will, otherwise he wont. This will settle the issue of legalization of commercial sex.

Later, I will put details of this law-draft at http://rahulmehta.com/commercial_sex.htm

37.7 Laws to reduce adulteration

Right to Recall District Health Officer is necessary and sufficient to reduce adulteration.

37.8 What can you do to repeal 498A and fix other civil issues?

Please read chap-13 of this book http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . It has several steps where-in you can spend 6 hours a week and help to bring TCP draft in Gazette in India. The steps involve distributing pamphlets, informing citizens on motives of leaders such Congress MPs, BJP MPs, The Anna etc who oppose TCP draft, by giving newspaper ads, contesting elections. Once TCP gets printed in Gazette, using TCP, it will become easy for activists to get citizens’ opinion law-drafts mentioned in this chapter. That will probably result into repealing of 498A as well as fix many other civil laws and bring other better changes.