Letters to the Editor: Time for the abrogation of Article 30

Like Article 370 loaded to a particular religion/community, Article 30(A) and Article 30 should get abolished at the earliest. The Article says that Hindus in India cannot impart religious teaching in any government college/institution or private college/institution. On the contrary, the followers of the other religions (read minorities) can impart their religious teachings by opening their respective religious schools, be it government or private institutions. It is a direct injustice to the followers of Sanatan dharma. If the Hindus cannot teach the virtues of Sanatan Dharma to the followers of any other interested persons, how can one expect the Sanatan legacy to continue? How will the followers of Hinduism know Puranas, Vedas, their history, culture, etc? This draconian Article got incorporated into the Indian Constitution on 8th December 1948. According to this article, the government take away the collections or donations of temples in nation-building. However, collections or donations in churches, madrassas, masjids remain with the managing committees or trust to be used only to serve their people.

Either the Constitution allows all religions the right to impart their religious practices privately or through government-run institutions or debar all religions from doing so. It cannot be one-way traffic in the name of secularism/minorities, etc. India gets divided into religious and language lines because certain provisions or articles in the Constitution are heavily loaded against the majority. Due to the presence of such articles, our politicians' cash on to divide the people to serve their electoral goals. Congress, leftists, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RJD, TMC and others have divided the people and ruled India.

We Indians, irrespective of religion, caste and creed have failed to stand as Indians.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

Reply forward flyover menace

We all know that flyovers are one of the means to ease traffic snarls. Over the years, we have witnessed many flyovers built and many under construction in the city of Guwahati. As a regular commuter within the perimeters of Guwahati, I feel that there is a lack of proper planning and finishing of flyovers in the city. A few under-construction flyovers, particularly the one at Maligaon and the other at Dispur, are causing immense hardship to commuters as the ordinary commuters don't travel with a police escort as VVIPs and VIPs. I challenge the VIPs to travel through any public roads during office hours without an escort. It will make them feel and see the hardships faced by the commuters.

Anything did without proper planning to gain publicity always boomerangs. Planning, execution and monitoring are a must before taking any megaproject in a city like Guwahati.

Dr Ashim Chowdhury,

Guwahati

Safety of women

The safety of women has always been a prominent issue to address in our country. Nevertheless, there has never been a path towards it. Litigations of rape, molestation, eve-teasing, Acid attacks and dowry have been growing up at a faster rate. Instances of many odd situations are reported in our state almost daily from all corners.

Assam ranks 5th in terms of several rape cases followed by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

According to a report released by NCRB, 28046 incidents of rape cases were reported in 2020 which clearly shows "Women's Safety is still a major concern," despite the numbers going down as compared in 2019.

Thus, from the esteemed column of your daily, I would express my concern over the question of women safety and concern and urge the authorities in concern to formulate strict against any odd that result.

Anjali Chandak,

Cotton University.

Rape cases: These too need attention!

The incidence of rape is always higher than the punishment of rape. This shows that the culprits have no fear. The convict has to go to jail for rape. There have been incidents of the same victim being raped by the same criminal again after he came out of jail. Strict punishment will prevent these incidents somewhere. We keep reading about rapes cases but reports of severe punishment are very rare. It is often read that a person is punished after a few years of committing a crime. Until then, there have been several incidents of rape.

Second, pornography abounds on the internet. The recent OTT platform has added a lot to that. This place is full of pornographic bays. Porn websites earn money from people through an annual subscription. Society is obsessed with pornography. How can this truth be denied? What will those who are influenced by such thoughts do? The answer is quite apparent. Only those who have taken the wrong path are promoting pornography. This has serious consequences for women who have nothing to do with it. For this, the women's section of all political parties should unite to stop pornography on the internet and see how the citizens of the society can participate in it.

Ayesh Rane,

Mumbai

Retrospective bank pension upgrading

Last month the court has reprimanded the Central Government for unnecessarily approaching the courts to hide the incompetency of their officials. The first case was related to a mason, and the Central Government had opposed the payment of arrears to him and approached Supreme Court. The second case pertains to payment of arrears to freedom fighters, and the Central Government approached the Shimla High Court. In both cases, the Courts reminded the government that as per the preamble governments are of social welfare states for the welfare of their citizens.

The third case is of Disabled Bank Retirees who had taken premature retirement due to total incapacitation after completion of 28 years of service and denied the notional benefit of five years in the pensionary benefits even after passing of first Disability Act by the Parliament in 1996. There should not be any infringement of fundamental rights. The second Disability Act got passed in 2016, and there is the provision of fines and punishment, but legitimate rights of Disabled are still not implemented.

Yash Pal Ralhan,

Jalandar 144003