Letters to THE EDITOR

Animals in captivity

Keeping animals in the zoos for the amusement is an act against the nature and appears barbaric. We humans have no right to keep them in the prison-like situation, as though they are criminals. These animals are created by the law of nature and have the right to live freely.

I, therefore, suggest closing down all the zoos and leasing them out to the organizations who are sincerely working for the interest of distressed animals or on medical grounds.

Some of the zoos may be converted for the protection of endangered species, under the guidance of experts. The government may think in this line and close down the zoos, thus ending the cruelty.

Prasanta Baruah,

Guwahati.

Biking woes

Nowadays it is often noticed that a section of unruly bikers treats market places in the city as a public roads and passes through them. A year ago an elderly gentleman was hit hard by a running bike at Maligaon Rest-camp daily market. The man suffered grievous injuries on his legs. Even after protracted treatment, including hospitalization, he could not fully recover. Now he has a permanently limping left leg. Ideally, the buyers coming by motor-bikes/two-wheelers should park them outside of the market area, otherwise bike riding through the crowded areas disturb other customers. Auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws also park their conveyances inside market places to pick up passengers.

It is not prudent to turn a blind eye to such cases of risky bike riding.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati.

Firefighters needed

This letter of mine has reference to my earlier letter published in your esteemed daily, dated 5/3/2021, captioned "Deserters' time". As predicted and expected by me in that particular letter, it is rather amusing to see all those fortune seekers of all the political parties contesting in the forthcoming Assembly polls have deserted their original party once they are denied party tickets. Overnight their ideology or principles changed once they didn't found their names in the official list of their respective parties. Leading from the front is Bitupon Saikia (BJP to Congress), Satyabrat Kalita (AGP to Congress), Paramananda Rajbongshi (AGP to BJP) and Prafulla Mahanta. The list is sure to grow longer as political parties are yet to release their full candidate list. Now to curb the uprising amongst the dissidents, all the political parties will require firefighters as the dissidents may resort to ignite an unwanted fire in the State.

Dr. Ashim Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

Birth-control in Assam

The main objective of the National Health Mission (NHM) was to make the healthcare facilities available to the masses through a radical transformation to the rural health sector. One of the aims of the NHM was to promote creation of small families with one or two children through birth control. I myself, as a health department employee, say that so far the birth control scheme has not been fully successful in the State. In this case, all ASHA workers are equally unsuccessful. As such, it was the responsibility of the ASHA staff to ensure that every mother with two children in a rural area undergoes laparoscopic surgery. Regarding the issue, many ASHA staff members complain that many mothers stay away from the issue without giving any importance to their counselling. As a result, mothers re-conceive. There are still many men who do not allow women to undergo laparoscopic surgery. Also, men are not interested in sterilizing themselves.

Therefore, the birth control and family planning scheme should be taken seriously by the State and the Central governments and the government should be strict in its implementation. In particular, NGOs and the government should conduct awareness programmes on family planning and birth control in rural slums and tea garden areas. Of course, the tea garden authority can hold special awareness meetings on this issue and make a special contribution to the successful implementation of birth control and family planning schemes.

Heramba Nath,

Kamrup.

Vaccination for bed-ridden

It is a very good move by the government to vaccinate the elderly people who are above 60 years of age. I took Covaxin vaccine on March 4 as per the directive of the administration at Biswanath Chariali Civil Hospital. The staff and doctors behaved well with me and my driver. I would like to request the government to take measures to provide vaccination at home to the aged and ailing persons who are bed-ridden. It will be a welcome move.

Putul Sarma,

Biswanath Chariali.

Cyber security law

During the lockdown, along with the working habits, the modus operandi of crimes has also changed. The lockdown has exposed our weak cyber laws. The government must come up with stronger laws and strategies to catch up with the hackers. There is a need to introduce some security applications to prevent hacking.

Chandan Kumar Nath,

Sorbhog.

Intentions exposed

Prior to the writing of this piece I have seen Assam politics changing its colours minutes by minutes. Raijor Dol president Akhil Gogoi's open letter to all the Opposition parties to stand in one platform excluding the AIUDF to fight against the BJP in the forthcoming elections has irked some diehard 'Miya Premis' of the State. This statement led Raijor Dal's adviser Dr. Hiren Gohain to resign from the party.

The apparent reason is that, according to Dr. Gohain, the AIUDF president is a son of the soil. A number of other AIUDF sympathisers also trained their guns at Akhil Gogoi. They termed the him an agent or B Team of the BJP. We can ignore Dr. Hiren Gohain and his support for a party like the AIUDF that was born post-the IM(DT) Act with the sole aim of protecting infiltrators from Bangladesh in Assam.

Pratuljyoti Buragohain,

Guwahati.

Politics over vaccine

Indian politics is truly filled with people of negative mindset. Post-invention of COVID-19 vaccine by the genius Indian scientists, they raised a question mark over the safety of the product. Some politicians from the Samajwadi Party, RJD even warned people to be careful about taking vaccine shot as they said it might induce impotency. They were of the opinion that PM Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and other Central ministers be the first one to take the vaccine to prove that it is safe for the citizens. Now, when PM Modi along with Vice President Naidu and other Cabinet ministers took the first dose on March 1, the negative brigade of Indian politics are back by putting up some silly questions like whether PM Modi has taken the indigenously developed vaccine or an imported one. One section questioned as to why the PM took the vaccine when millions are yet to be vaccinated.

Purabi Miri,

Jakhalabandha.

Foothpaths in Guwahati

Through this column of your esteemed daily, I want to draw the attention of the authorities concerned towards the menace of illegal vendors operating on the foothpaths in Guwahati. Persons with disabilities and elderly persons are facing immense inconvenience due to unauthorized traders or illegal vendors who occupy the foothpaths. These kinds of things are creating unnecessary chaos and as the city is already becoming more congested, people are not being able to use foothpaths freely. On the other hand, the GMC has also failed to clear the squatters from the foothpaths. The shopkeepers are also making money by letting the vendors sit in front of their shops which is illegal.

Plabita Chakraborty,

Guwahati.