Letters to THE EDITOR: New Chief Justice

New Chief Justice

On the last occasion itself when the post of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court fell vacant, we the people of Assam strongly harboured a hope that the post would likely be given to Justice Ranjan Gogoi. But the post was given to Justice Dipak Mishra. We, however, took the posting with good grace. But now that Dipak Mishra's retirement is in the offing, we wholeheartedly want that a fully deserving candidate, who also fulfills all the criteria, may become the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

We find that Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the person endowed with all the qualities to adorn the post. But Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad very diplomatically stated that the matter of appointment of the Chief Justice would be finalized after consultation with the present incumbent.

It is observed that certain posts in the exalted position are always filled up by someone associated with the Sangh Parivar or by someone who is loyal to the BJP and who can dance to the tune of the dictation of the party in power. But lo! You cannot dilute a system that all the people the world over do repose faith in - the judiciary. Never before had such preposterous tendency of diluting the judiciary been observed in the annals of independent India. Even the Congress made the CBI a caged parrot when Dr Manmohan Singh's few observations were deleted in a scam-related issue.

Through your esteemed daily, we keep our ardent appeal to our Prime Minister to intervene in the matter of appointment of Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of the apex court. We understand our Prime Minister, who maintains a soft corner for this part of the country, would review the matter. By the way, the body language of the Law Minister manifests something negative.

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh.

Countering Flood

Every year, Assam is hit by floods and yet the government, be it at the Centre or in the State, seems to be helpless because it does not have any ideas to tackle the annual problem. This is a serious problem along with erosion. Our embankments are incapable of withstanding the force of the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries. This is mainly due to their poor quality, thanks to the many unscrupulous contractors who are great at minting taxpayers' money while their political patrons look the other way. Stories galore of contractors who could get away with all their crimes of looting public money only because they had good political connections. This must be stopped. But the big question is 'how?'.

In my opinion, the Assam government should up an institution devoted specially to the task of scientific flood and erosion management by roping in engineers, environmental scientists and other experts from the related field of environment etc of repute and give them a free hand to come up with a comprehensive counter-flood and counter-erosion policy. Then the government should take notice and go ahead with the implementation part. This might be fruitful in the long run. Why not try it out?

Moon Saikia,

Jorhat.

Blood Donation

The whole world observed June 14 as Blood Donation Day in the memory of the birthday of Nobel prize winning scientist in the health sector, Dr Karl Lendstainer. This year's theme was "Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life." Blood donors are providing yeoman's service to society. Blood has neither religion nor caste, and so a person who needs blood never inquires whose blood he/she has taken. I would, therefore, like to request the government, NGOs and other organizations to spread awareness programmes for blood donations amidst people, particularly in villages. Every person without disease between 18 to 65 years of age may donate blood every three month in government blood bank.

Putul Sarma,

Biswanath Chariali.