Letters to the Editor: Why do heads of educational institutions become corrupt?

It is now as clear as daylight that almost ninety-nine per cent of heads of government educational institutions are involved in corruption directly or indirectly. But why? It has probably two reasons— one is an ardent personal desire for modern luxurious life and the other is a circumstantial compulsion. Personally, I have met so many government educational institutions' heads who are free from covetousness but circumstances compel them to follow the path of corruption. It is known to all that the government and UGC are giving some annual grants from primary schools to the university level for the purpose of infrastructure and other academic development. And as per rules, all the heads of the institutions have to submit utilization certificates (UCs) to their respective authorities. The authorities have an entrenched notion that the heads have misused and pocketed some of the funds. To see the weakness of the heads some of the officials demand money against each government grant instead of making spot verification about the utilization of the funds. If any head is firm not to give any bribe to the officials then he will have to bring the same expenditure vouchers from two-three shops and his file may be given for audit. Some auditors have also the same notion that the heads have misused the funds. The heads have no time to move about after the auditor or the vouchers as they are to look after the academic side of the institutions. So, most of the heads try to manage the officials by offering money and thus they open the path of corruption by stealing a small portion for themselves also. So, the government should form a strong vigilance team that will monitor only the proper utilization of government funds of the educational institutions. Otherwise, the existing system will produce more corrupt heads of educational institutions.

Harsha Mohan Sarma,

Nalbari

Need of speed

governors

Many back-to-back hit-and-run incidents have taken place in Guwahati resulting in injuries to several people. Coming close on the heels of an incident involving an Assamese model resulting in the death of a labourer, the government should act now swiftly to prevent further disasters.

The main cause of these incidents is overspeeding by youngsters. With traffic police being already overburdened with managing the burgeoning volume of traffic in the city and lacking tools/mechanisms to monitor overspeeding, some people have taken the advantage of this limitation of the traffic cops. The government fixes maximum speed limits for different categories of vehicles plying within the city and highways. Many drivers are unaware of these speed limits as the process of driving license issuance and renewal is mired in corruption. Another reason for the lack of awareness is the lack of adequate traffic signage in the city and highways indicating the speed limit.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to install speed governors in accident-prone areas to be identified by the traffic police. To begin with, all flyovers in the city should have speed governors displaying the speed of the vehicles as vehicles tend to over speed in these stretches. This enhances the probability of accidents when vehicles descend from the flyovers. All major metros are having speed governors in flyovers to curb rash and reckless driving. The offenders are easy to identify through such means with CCTV footage supporting the evidence. This will have a deterrent effect on delinquent drivers.

Rajib Sarma,

Guwahati

The flying CM

Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma appears to be playing all his political tricks to the gallery. He hardly attends office as he is flying in a helicopter from one corner of the state to other. Even to cover a distance of 150-200 km he is using a helicopter at the expense of the state exchequer. He is trying to create a gimmick in the minds of people that he is the most hard-working CM Assam has ever produced. Definitely, he has immense capabilities as an administrator but right now his capabilities are not transformed into realities. The state needs growth in the industry, tourism, agriculture so that more opportunities for employment are generated. In the present circumstances, the focus of the government is to create huge subsidy-dependent public or beneficiaries rather than self-dependant ones. Too much subsidy to the pupil will destroy the work culture of the people and that is what unfortunately happening in the state. Presently, the entire labour force of the state is dominated by people of East Pakistan origin as a result the resources of the state are gulped by these people. Indigenous people of the state already carry the dubious distinction of spending more time on chanda collection, andolans, etc., rather than on-field or in the workplace. It is another matter that for this state various jatiyobadi sanghastans more particularly the AASU is responsible.

The financial condition of the state is not good which Finance Minister Ajanta Neog had admitted recently. The state is under immense debt and if in this way the elected government spends the money difficult days for the people would surely come. The State government, in order to balance or manage the financial position of the state, is now imposing certain taxes on the middle and upper class but it is the middle class that is bearing the brunt. Already the abnormal price rise is hitting the commoners like us hard and for folks like us, we cannot take further blows. It's our humble request to the CM to kindly think about industrialization and improve the agriculture sector. Improvement in both these sectors will definitely boast financial condition of the state exchequer and also people will be less dependent on the freebies and in case of Dr Sarma and his party they would gain massively in electoral politics. Lastly, please give out the idea of more by-polls in the state as the people cannot afford to waste taxpayers' money anymore.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

Sinister politics of Congress

It is amusing to see that recently Congress leaders Salman Khurshid, Rahul Gandhi, Sashi Tharoor and others have openly vilified the Hindutva ideology in unrestrained words; which begs an unambiguous answer whether they would dare make such disparaging remarks against Islam? The spectre of extremism and radicalization in the name of Islam has overtaken countrywide and worldwide which has endangered humanity the world over. After the formation of the new NDA Government under the leadership of Narendra Modi in 2014, India had embarked on a renewed trajectory of developments in all spheres. The Government has successfully run a corruption-free and result-oriented administration in a stretch of more than seven years now that sent a positive message to the electorate which returned the NDA Government successively for the second term to power with a bigger margin in 2019. It is easy to understand that even in the midst of the corona pandemic engulfing the whole world for nearly two years, India is recuperating very well in the economic context of development administration. On the other hand, the preceding UPA government of the Congress and other allies during their two terms of 2004-2009 & 2010-2014 had been marred by corruption, inefficiencies and policy deficit. These neo-crusaders are now threatened by Modiji's popularity and fearing poll reverses in the ensuing five state polls are hell-bent on diverting public attention by creating chaos and confusion to discredit the BJP. In doing so, these self-serving politicians and the party are not only losing public support but willy-nilly engaged in the game of tarnishing the country's image abroad which is despicable.

The Congress' and its leaders' pitch for secularism always remained only a lip-service as testified by their silence on the horrendous incidents of a riot in three districts of Malegaon, Amravati and Nanded in Maharashtra on November 12-14 where the Congress is a partner in the Government.

The oldest party has never been ready to acknowledge the vicious nature of such communal flare-up which remained a recurring and problematic issue all through their long rule since independence as the party chose to garner minority Muslim votes at any cost. This type of party politics over the decades proved costly for the country as the jihadi militants easily made inroads into our territories for which the later period of Congress and UPA rule witnessed frequent terror attacks of a killing spree with impunity. The Congress rulers would act soft on terror attacks sponsored from Pakistan but would deceitfully blame as acts of imagined local outfit thereby giving a propaganda handle to Pakistan that there were no terror organizations within its territory. During its previous term, the Congress-led UPA Government brazenly coined the term 'Hindu terror' to play dirty politics for appeasement policy. The people sensed this sinister politics of the Congress and moved away from its fold. The party has fully shed its democratic character as the Gandhi Parivar calls the shot and presently it needs new leadership to show ability and direction to remain relevant in current politics.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati.

Polluted Bega river

Recently, the Bega River in the Darrang district has become highly polluted. Every person who comes to Mangaldai observes it. No meeting has been convened to create awareness among the local people about this. Everyone should know that the dumping of garbage in the river pollutes the river water and kills aquatic life. On the other hand, the river water is used by many people for agricultural purposes and also some people use it for washing clothes. Not only this but the water of the Bega river is also used by some people as drinking water for domestic animals. Even then, dumping garbage in this river is highly reprehensible.

Through this letter, I would like to humbly request the local people as well as the Darrang district administration to take a positive step towards the de-pollution of the river.

Heramba Nath,

Hindumaijali, Kamrup.

TMC's Congress-mukt Opposition agenda

Since its victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, for the third consecutive time, trumping the BJP, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is keen to occupy the national stage at the expense of the Congress. It hopes that by winning most of the 42 seats in Bengal and picking up at least a few in some other states, it can put itself in a position to disrupt the conventional national political scene. It reflects when in her second day Delhi visit Mamata Banerjee welcomed a current (Kirti Azad) and a former Congress politician (Ashok Tanwar) and an ex-Janata Dal-United leader and columnist (Pawan Verma) into the Trinamool fold in an apparent effort to emerge as the principal challenger to the BJP but in the process sent out the signal that she was competing with the Congress at the national level. Whether Pawan Verma's "She (Mamata) will be a deciding factor in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and she will play a national role," becomes true or not time will tell. But based on Didi's national ambitions (to take the grand old and her mother party Congress's vote bank to build her TMC's base), she was only trying to fill the vacuum of a "credible Opposition" to the BJP. But the aam aadmi wonders by this way, didn't Didi end up making the path easier for Narendra Modi and the BJP? Doesn't prove that except for self-gain Didi does not want opposition unity, otherwise she would not be doing such things? Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to some extent is correct when he said in this way the "luckiest person" as a result was Prime Minister Modi. "Banerjee wants a Congress-mukt opposition, and Modi wants a Congress-mukt India".

As per media, the entry of the leaders and TMC's determined forays into some BJP-ruled states where the Congress is the principal Opposition bear the imprint of Prashant Kishor, a political strategist, who was TMC's consultant for the Assembly elections. Now Pawan Verma's joining in the TMC, whose cordial relationship with Kishore was an open secret. Earlier the Kishore-Verma duo had tried to project Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but failed as a national alternative to Modi and now seem to be doing the same with Mamata by embracing the BJP again. Whatsoever, unless Congress decides to stand alone, nothing can save it, even I'm sure without Opposition unity with Congress, TMC's ambitious move remained a daydream.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,

Faridabad 121006