Antony square peg in a round hole
Apropos of ‘Indifferent Antony
didn’t heed warning’ (May 2), it needs to be pointed out that the former
Kerala chief minister never gave the impression of having fitted into
his role as the defence minister, his acknowledged credentials for
honesty, integrity et al notwithstanding. So, it is not surprising that
he did not pay heed to the army’s complaints about the substandard Tatra
trucks in 2008 or the Army chief’s recent oral plaint of a high-ranking
army officer offering bribe to him. He should have taken a leaf out of
the Sharad Pawar-Dr VS Arunachalam defence ministry team some years back
with the latter, a physical metallurgist, fulfilling his role as the
scientific advisor to the defence minister to the hilt. One wonders why
the present scientific advisor to AK Antony did not apprise him of the
poor quality of the Tatra trucks.
—V Subramanyan, Mumbai
Shame on Maharashtra
It
is with shame, disgust and a sense of complete despair that one reads
about poor farmers committing suicide. It is a disgrace to the nation,
the state and its people who have the means to buy flats and cars worth
crores of rupees but not a penny to help the poor farmers. All political
parties tom tom about Maharashtra; they want to spend billions to put
up a statue of Shivaji in mid-sea, but they don’t have the finance nor
assist farmers. So much hype of going green but little concern for those
who survive on farming.
—N Thakur, Mumbai
Front page news
This
has reference to ‘A day later, Assam can’t count its dead’ (may 2).
This piece of news should have been on the front page rather than on one
of the inside pages. It’s a disaster that has killed more than 300
people and it can’t be just regional news. Had it been an air crash it
would have surely found place on the front page as the passengers would
be rich people. Why this discrimination if you believe in true
journalism?
—Mahammad Abdul Karim, Mumbai
II
Our hearts
go out to the innocent victims and their families. The tragedy is as
much a reflection of a serious lack of safe and sufficient transport
facilities in the country, more so in the remote parts, as the neglect
and failure of the government in addressing the needs of the people.
People have to depend on local, age-old and unsafe mode of transport
risking their lives. Overcrowding is a common sight as people are forced
to sit on the rooftops and cling to doors and windows of buses, trucks,
vans and trains or fill boats and ferries chock-a-block to go to work
or to buy their day-to-day essentials. Little do they realise that they
have boarded on potential death traps, ill-fated and bound to their
destination in the last journey of their life. Where the government
fails its people in providing them safe and adequate transport facility,
the local agencies step in to make profit unmindful of the dangers to
the life of the desperate commuters. The much hyped economic and
infrastructural development of the country come to naught when we turn
our attention to the pathetic situation in the rural areas. Will the
government wake up at least now and protect the lives of the people
espousing whose cause it exists?
—Zulfikar Akram, Bangalore
Old road names matter
Apropos
of ‘What’s in a road’s name? A lot’ (May 2), I compliment CP Arup
Patnaik for ordering the use of old, familiar road names for public
alerts, instead of the new names. This will make sense to road-users,
and they will benefit from police interaction, as intended. Many old
names of Britishers deserved to be retained in appreciation of their
service to the citizens. Take the example of Bartle Frere, who then
endowed Fort with excessively wide footpaths with the foresight that
roads would later need to be widened. Or Ms Prescott, whose name once
adorned the small road near JB Petit and Cathedral School. She had
single-handedly promoted girls’ education and even raised funds in
England to set up and run schools in South Mumbai for Indians. Our
gratitude to and remembrance of such persons cannot be diminished by
obliterating their names.
—Phiroze B Javeri, Mumbai
Blame it on MMRDA
Apropos
of ‘Three brothers drown in BMC pit’ (May 2), why should only the
contractor be made liable for the incident? Is this not a liability of
the MMRDA? It is because of the inefficiency of this authority that the
wall work has not been completed even after almost 7 years. Is there any
guarantee that no more lives will be lost because of the non-completion
of the project? The decision to erect a wall was taken after the 26/7
deluge, and accordingly, the required funds were also allotted. The
purpose of this wall is to prevent future flooding as well as preventing
people from dumping debris into the river. But with the pace it is
being built, one would not be wrong in saying that we may see another
flooding in the future.
—Jitendra Gupta, via e-mail
II
This is a
clear case of death caused by negligence on the part of MMRDA and civic
contractors. As a result of BMC/its contractors’ negligence and
lethargy scores of innocent lives are lost by drowning in nullahs and
gutters or falling through open manholes of storm-water drains or in
trenches dug by utility agencies like MTNL, Reliance, etc. A pedestrian
cannot walk for 100 metres on a footpath without encountering a few
open manholes or manholes with broken covers. Since incidents of
drowning increase during monsoon when the streets get flooded, BMC
should cover all the open manholes and replace broken covers immediately
to prevent mishaps.
—KP Rajam, Mumbai
ADOPT
EXHIBITION The BD Somani Institute of Art and Fashion Technology is
organising its annual art and fashion exhibition showcasing clothes,
bags, shoes and jewellery designed by its students
