Letters to the Editor: Punching bag?

Punching bag relates to the sand-filled bag which is usually found in training centres of boxing where a budding boxer perfects his/her punches. With the early advent of monsoon this year, the entire Northeast India, and more particularly Assam, had untimely floods causing immense hardship to people and livestock. The concerned department was caught on the wrong foot. The very same untimely flood, better termed as flash flood, has crippled low lying areas of Guwahati city, catching the newly-formed GMC on the wrong foot as well. The print and electronic media are going hammer and tongs against the poor newly-formed GMC body under new Mayor Mrigen Sarania. I, as a senior citizen, have experienced the agony of flash flood for a couple of decades. I still remember with amusement when the then Chief Minister, Late Tarun Gogoi, dared the mediamen to see the plight of Mumbaikars after a heavy downpour.

All said and done, I personally feel good to see GMC workers working overtime to clear the clogged drains even at the dead of night. Any sincere effort is well appreciated and it usually bears fruit. So let us hope and pray for a flood-free Guwahati and cheer and urge the new Mayor Mrigen Sarania to work with more vigour. In the meantime, the dwellers of Guwahati city have to raise the bar of their civic sense. The GMC cannot be always the punching bag for the difficult situations in Guwahati city.

Dr Ashim Chowdhury,

Ambari, Guwahati.

Tampering with facts

Once again, Sivasagar MLA and former KMSS chief Akhil Gogoi is in the news for the wrong reasons. After Kamal Medhi (a chameleon and one-time comrade in arms of Akhil Gogoi), speculations were rife that Akhil Gogoi may, too, join AAP. Though Akhil Gogoi very assertively denied this in his usual style, but while doing so he did tamper with the facts before the media that it was only he who contested and won an election from jail. To put the record straight, it was Late George Fernandes who contested and won a parliamentary election from Tihar jail with a record margin from the Muzaffarnagar constituency of Bihar at the end of Emergency in1977. We also know that Akhil Gogoi contested and won the last Assembly election from Sivasagar not from jail, but by staying in the deluxe paying cabin of the GMCH for more than a year with an unknown disease still not known to the tax payers of the State.

Misinformation never pays as it happened in case of Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the one-time firebrand leader of AASU who totally misled us with gross misinformation during anti-CAA stir.

Lanu Dutt Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

Private tutoring

Of late, the popularity of private tutoring has been on the increase. It should not come as a surprise at a time when many a student has the competitive spirit. Needless to say that a student can gain huge positives from private tuition as it negates several problems of a classroom. Few will deny that in private tutoring, lessons can easily be tailored to suit each student, which is not possible in a larger class. Private tuitions can assist students with personalized one -to-one attention and, hence, can easily troubleshoot the weak points in their knowledge. However, one should be very cautious while picking a tutor. Hiring a tutor who is wanting in teaching skills or qualifications or is not well-suited to a student will, no doubt, do more harm than good. But, receiving tuition from a tutor who is well versed in his field, or whose personality the student gets along with, can indeed make a big difference for him or her.

Dipen Gogoi,

Teok, Jorhat.

Will the flood problem be solved?

Floods are an inevitable fundamental problem of our lives. There are many reasons why people have been suffering from floods for years. There are many novels and films about floods. There is politics about floods. They build dams and break dams. Floods, landslides etc., are our own disasters. There are many reasons why floods are increasing day by day. In the era of building houses in the sky, it does not seem impossible to control floods by controlling rivers and planned urbanization. There are many problems we have created ourselves, like building houses on the slopes of the mountains, destroying reservoirs, sewers etc. But when will this problem end? Will floods remain an issue without an effective solution? Twenty-seven districts were reported to have been affected by the recent floods. The Central Government and the State Governments can control floods if they wish.

Our visionary and skilled Chief Minister will surely be able to prevent floods. There is a lot of hope that the long-term well-planned schemes of Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma will end this problem once and for all.

Paban Kumar Borah,

Puranigudam, Nagaon.