Information dissemination: Letters to The EDITOR

Information dissemination

The Information Technology Act, 2000, known as the IT Act, is an Act of the Indian Parliament. It is the primary law in India dealing with cybercrimes and electronic commerce. At an age of information boom being less informative in various fields, which one has to deal with or is made to deal with, is fraught with risk. In a society like that of India it cannot be expected that all citizens will make equal strides in information technology. There are a whole lot of slow growers. Let alone developing oneself with information technology, computer illiterates still comprise bulk of Indian society. Apart from general literacy, computer and IT literacy are too important to be without at present.

In a society with highly uneven computer and IT literacy the risk of cybercrimes is always high. Despite the enactment of the Information Technology Act, 2000 there are numerous reports of cybercrimes taking place in the country. Gullible people are the vulnerable ones. Apart from law-enforcing authorities, the media has a greater role to play in making people more informative. I would like to draw the attention to a weekly column – Information – being published on every Monday in the front page of The Sentinel. The last topic on 'Information' on this Monday in The Sentinel was 'Identity theft'. The newspaper also carried its editorial on 'Information Theft' on Monday last. The front page 'Information' piece and the editorial on the same subject together have given enough information to its readers as to how they may be duped by cybercriminals. I feel there is a genuine reason to laud the newspaper for feeding its readers with such valuable information. I hope, the newspaper will keep this trend up.

Topo Singha,

Milan Nagar, Barbari, Guwahati.

Mob violence in Arunachal Pradesh

As the General Election (Lok Sabha) has been fast approaching, all the state governments particularly those with same Political party with center are up and about to gain political mileage by declaring certain bonanzas for the people of the state. In Arunachal Pradesh too, the state government led by Pema Khandu decided to grant permanent resident Certificate (PRC s) to six none –Arunachali tribal communities. This resulted into an agitation and mob-violence. The artists congregated from all over the nation for the first Itanagar International Film Festival, had to bear the brunt of the fury of the mob.

In Assam, derogatory CAB jolted the entire state but without any sign of mob-violence or any news of death from any part of Assam. Of course, once the CAB materializes, what lies in store for Assam cannot be predicted right now.

In Arunachal Pradesh, under the nose of the Government machinery the violence continued in full swing. The agitators burnt the residence of the Deputy Chief-minister and as they proceeded to burn the residence of the Chief -minister, the Para-military forces stationed there resorted to firing, that killed two agitators. The orgy of violence continued for 4 days and the failure of the state government was all pervasive to bring the situation under control. Kiren Rijiju, an M.P. of Arunachal-Pradesh, the union minister of state (Home) vehemently criticized the Arunachal Government, who failed to bring the situation under control. Even after the assurance of the Chief-minister that the decision to grant PRC has been frozen the mob-fury continued.

The people of Assam resorted to agitation vis-à-vis the CAB but no where we come across any news that the agitation turns violent. It was a democratic and a peaceful agitation all through. The people of Assam deserve kudos for that.

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh.