Thanks Zentara for taking time to go through my thread. I understand the security aspect. For this particular case, I have enabled root ssh on my system. I want to leave aside the security and make this script work. My ultimate aim is to change the password for root (or any other user for that sake) on a remote server using this script.

This is my test environment running inside my virtualbox on my laptop, so things are cool...

If I make this script this work, I will have a bigger implementation in my PROD environment, where of course, I can't log in as root via ssh