Flood in Guwahati: Letters to The Editor

As the monsoons are arriving in the Northeast, it is time for Guwahatians to tussle with flash floods. Guwahati has been facing this problem for so long, however a permanent and scientific solution is yet to be found. Rather all we hear are false promises and the citizens are made to suffer in the form of waterlogged streets, traffic congestions, increased fares etc. The blame must also reside with the citizens who are fairly negligent in their garbage disposal practices leading to clogging up of drains, illegal encroachments resulting in choking up of natural outlets for the gushing water. A city like Guwahati with its ever-increasing population needs a competent urban expansion plan in place. Lastly, the menace of urban floods can only be tackled if both citizens and the government work hand in hand. It is up to the government to come up with robust plans to find a permanent solution.

Pranjal Kalita,

Guwahati.

Plan failed

The creators of 'Intolerance movement' in the country are slowly raising their ugly head as Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh are nearing. Recently an old Muslim cleric was beaten by some people. The victim filed FIR in the police station against the assaulters. Immediately an MLA of Samajwadi Party reached the home of the cleric and made a short video where the MLA was saying that the cleric was beaten black and blue by a mob for not chanting 'Jai Shree Ram'. The video was circulated on social media platforms. Later on, the police found out the assaulters and bought them to the police station where the old Muslim cleric identified them. All the assaulters were Muslims and the reason for beating up the old man has nothing to do with chanting 'Jai Shree Ram'. The name of the victim is Abdul Saifi who makes Amulet-Talisman or a religious locket to bring charm/luck/blessings to his customers. He was assaulted by the men because the amulet (Tabeez) didn't work for them. Now, vultures of communal politics pounced upon this incident to gain political mileage for Akhilesh Kumar Yadav. Thankfully the vicious design of SP lawmaker fell flat but this will not be the last attempt by the SP, Congress, CPM and the AAP to create an atmosphere of unrest or intolerance in the country.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

PM photo on certificate

If there can be a photograph of PM Modi on vaccination certificates, it is equally essential that it be on the death certificate of patients who succumbed to COVID-19.

Chandan Kumar Nath,

Sorbhog.

Hallmark jewellery

The decision by the Central government to make gold jewellery hallmarking mandatory is a positive step in the right direction. Hallmarking of jewellery is essential to increase the legitimacy of gold jewellery and customer satisfaction by providing third-party guarantees of gold purity and consumer protection. Consumers may make an informed decision and avoid unneeded misunderstandings when purchasing gold by using hallmarking. Only 30 per cent of Indian gold jewellery is hallmarked at the moment. Additionally, jewellers with annual sales of up to Rs 40 lakh will be excluded from the obligatory hallmarking requirement. Hallmarking is not required for watches, fountain pens, or certain forms of jewellery like Kundan, Polki, and Jadau. Jewellers can continue to buy back old gold jewellery from customers who do not have a hallmark. It is hoped that the step will encourage people to purchase hallmark gold jewellery and aid India's development as a global gold market centre. It will also prevent a lot of smuggling and illegal gold acquisitions across the country.

Amit Singh Kushwaha,

Satna (M.P.)

Eviction in Amchang

A few days back forest official and police carried out an eviction drive in Amchang Reserve forest in Khanapara. Twenty families were evicted after reports of encroachment in forest areas were reported by the media. Again it was reported that the encroachment happened during this short mini lockdown period. Amchang Reserve forest is barely a few km from capital Dispur. Why was the administration silent? The role of forest officers like Ranger and DFO is questionable. Without any cooperation from the forest, personnel encroachment is impossible. The encroachers almost created a village. The forest officers concerned must be brought under the scanner. It is only due to corrupt forest officers unabated encroachment and poaching happen. Though a bit late to react by the Forest department, still I congratulate the department for carrying out the eviction.

Pratuljyoti Buragohain,

Guwahati.

Hang the rapists

The rape and murder of two teenage girls in Kokrajhar have been solved by the police. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma himself went to meet the parents of the victims with Kokrajhar MLA Lawrence Islary. The CM instructed the police to find out the culprits and like any other crimes the criminals are Bangladeshi immigrants. Police managed to arrest the rapists and through your esteemed daily we demand that the death penalty should be awarded by the Court. Secondly, the entire crime world in the State is very much under the shadow of immigrant minorities. From cattle lifting, vehicle theft, murder, rape, loot, encroachment, drug trade, poaching and all other crimes are committed in the State.

Why Hagrama Mohilary and the BPF are silent over the Kokrajhar incident. For power the BPF allied with the AIUDF and Congress in the last Assembly elections. Time for the ABSU and the AASU to react or will they wait till the Asomiya people are decimated by the immigrants?

Pratap Dutta,

Tezpur.

ID proof with complaint

It is quite usual that many complainants while filing complaints against government employees and others, mark copies to dozens of authorities like the President, Prime Minister, CAG, CVC, Chief Justice of India and many others even though the original complaint is to be dealt with by some single agency. Many a time anonymous and fake complaints in the names of others mainly involved in public causes are also filed.

Such practice unnecessarily involves huge man-hours and resources of so many public authorities. Even though there are said to be some government guidelines in this respect, yet the Department of Personnel and Training -DoPT should issue fresh guidelines in this regard with due publicity through advertisements in newspapers and TV channels. To avoid filing fake complaints in name of others, it should be made compulsory to attach a copy of ID proof of the complainant with every complaint. Complaints filed with copies to multiple authorities should be filed without any action. Advisories in this regard should be marked to every public authority and government department.

Madhu Agrawal,

Delhi.

Reservations for women at work

India is always known to be a nation with patriarchal society at its core. For centuries, women have been oppressed in the name of traditions. They were always stopped from taking bigger roles in the way a society functions. But today, the scenario is changing – gradually and for good. They have become leaders and opinion makers, who are given the respect they have always deserved but were denied for ages.

The nation is progressing and it has been accepted that if women are empowered, it will always lead to glorious results. With such societal changes, come opinions, and with opinions, arise questions. While ladies out there are taking up roles, which were earlier restricted to men, there has been a new debate in the picture for a long time now. Do we need reservations for women at work in India?

There has been a huge divide between the thoughts on this matter. Instead of sticking to one opinion and closing our mind to the rest, let's have a brief look at the benefits as well as drawbacks of work-based reservations for women.

Work reservations for women will help in bridging the gender pay gap, which is commonly prevalent in workplaces all across the country. This happens despite the presence of defined laws for equal pay. With the help of a reserved spot for females at work, it can be easier to remove the unfair practice of salary discrimination.

If work roles are defined under a proper reservation system, it'll be easier for women to fight against the commonly perceived notions of society. They can be even more confident than ever in taking up responsibilities they can easily handle but are now allowed to. Not only this, but such reservations can also help us change the regressive mindset of a society that considers marriage to be the prime objective of a woman's life.

While there are many advantages of creating professional reservations for women, it has its drawbacks too. When an affirmative action as such is taken in an organization, it can have several repercussions. If a higher position or promotion is in the picture, then it might lead to a negative change in the attitude towards the woman involved.

Another disadvantage of the reservation is that some women can find it offensive to be given a privilege, thinking that it was provided after considering them weaker. It makes them bad feeling that people might assume their success to be a result of an advantage they had over the opposite sex.

The topic is quite sensitive and it's really difficult to take sides, as doing so might make you stand against someone without any ulterior motive. In a country with drastic social and economic diversities, it is a challenge to find a common solution. However, implementing reservations or not completely depends on the way things are tried and tested. The permutations and combinations will only help us achieve the best results without creating any sort of discrimination towards any group.

Kaustov Kashyap,

Jail Road, Jorhat.

Governments should purchase economy cars

It refers to media reports about Opposition criticizing and righty too, purchase of a fleet of 32 new luxury cars priced at rupees 30 lakhs each for use of Additional Collectors. Both Central and State governments together with their public sector undertakings should take a lesson from a viral video of the Mexican Ambassador in India allegedly having an official three-wheeler rather than a diplomatic car for official movements in Delhi. Video may be true or not but the message is very important for Central and State governments. Especially ordered air-conditioned three-wheelers may replace official cars for those entitled for official cars. The step will not result in big saving of fuel, but will also reduce purchase cost on vehicles and ever-increasing congestion on roads apart from checking pollution. The introduction of air-conditioned three-wheelers will be popular amongst middle-income small families to switch over from cars to three-wheelers.

Otherwise also all possible steps should be taken to discourage big and costlier cars. Cars costing net ex-showroom-price of Rs 10 lakh and above should attract cess over normal GST, and must not be allowed to be financed. Such a step will effectively check the production of big and costlier cars making car manufacturers concentrating on giving extra facilities in economical cars out of competition. Discouraging the sale of big cars will provide extra space on roads and parking sites in the city. Costly and big cars should be allowed in government for use by President, Vice President, Prime Minister and foreign dignitaries only.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal,

Delhi.

SC quashing sedition FIR

Within fortnights of the Supreme Court's (SC) bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Vineet Saran quashed a sedition FIR registered against veteran journalist Vinod Dua in Himachal Pradesh for his criticism of the Narendra Modi government's handling of COVID and the use of the Pulwama attack and Balakot airstrike to seek votes. The SC bench upheld citizens' right to criticize or comment upon the measures undertaken by the government and its functionaries and said Dua's March 30, 2020, statements had neither incited people to violence against the government nor created disorder.

The Allahabad High Court said when it released Dr Kafeel Khan — a complete reading of the speech prima facie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also nowhere threatens peace and tranquility. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens.

Now, the three orders by the Delhi High Court were delivered by Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani, the bench is perhaps the first instance of a court calling out alleged misuse of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against individuals in cases that do not necessarily fall in the category of terrorism cases. The bench's observation came while granting bail to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, along with Jamia Millia Islamia (JMU) student Asif Iqbal Tanha, and gave the Delhi Police a dressing-down for casually invoking provisions of anti-terror laws against the three students who had protested against the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

This is not only a slap to Delhi Police, which is run by Amit Shah's Home Ministry but also Arvind Kejriwal's Delhi government for giving sanction against those students. The High Court has rightly reminded us of the entire basic tenet. The police, who often slap outrageous charges on protestors, should pay heed to this. I agree, in Delhi colonial mentality, police personnel always played into their decision because the police are helpless and the master must be served, not the Law. If not then how conveniently hiding the fact that Kapil Mishra and Anurag Takur (still in Modi cabinet) are still outside roaming freely.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,

Faridabad.