Letters to The Editor

The disruption of the telecom network in Punjab under the garb of farm agitation is not the right way to undertake democratic protests. Even after appeal and warning by Government authorities, damaging towers and snapping power supply to networks has been on the rise. It has impacted the lives of common citizens for no fault of theirs. The Government should take proactive measures to rein in elements resorting to such tactics. It might pose a risk to national security in a border state.

Chandan Kumar Nath,

Sorbhog

Something fishy

The threat of coronavirus is not yet over as it is observed that majority of European countries are severely getting affected. In India States like Maharashtra, Odisha, Goa, Delhi have sounded cautions to the citizens about the transmission of virus which has turn into more dangerous form with the detection of the new strain. Here in Assam, the Health Minister in a recent byte said that there is no threat from the virus. How justified is his comment? Is he trying to hide something keeping an eye over the elections? If yes, then it's very dangerous. Public is too getting complacent as they have got rid of masks, social distancing, etc. Earlier, PM Modi in one of his monthly 'Mann Ki Baat' programme urged people not to drop the guard till foolproof vaccine is developed. Of course at present moment we are lucky that number of positive cases has declined but that doesn't mean there is no possibility of sudden increase of positive cases.

Chotu Nath Boro,

Baghbor.

COVID pandemic

Every citizen of the country understands that science is our only hope and guide in the fight against this pandemic that has spread across the country. Despite limited scientific and technological facilities, our country has played a commendable role in the preventing this pandemic. In the early days of the pandemic, there were only a handful of laboratories in India for testing for virus, but soon more than 1,500 government and non-government laboratories were set up. During the peak of the infection, our country was able to test up to 1.5 million virus samples a day. It is not an easy task to build such an infrastructure in a short period of time and to deploy the necessary skilled human resources. In this pandemic, we have lost about 150,000 citizens prematurely.

The biological reasons for this are not yet clear, although it must be acknowledged that our country has achieved this condition as a result of the untiring efforts and sacrifices of all the doctors and health workers involved in the country's healthcare system.

I'm proud to say this for myself as a health worker.

Heramba Nath,

Kamrup.

NEADS' New Year
greetings

On the eve of New Year, the first day of 2021 North East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS) in support of Bread for the World and North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) organized a campaign on combating climate change at the Nimati Ghat which is the gateway of largest river island, Majuli which is a heritage site.

The campaign focuses on reducing use of plastic which is one of the major factors behind environmental degradation. With the help of greeting cards which have been prepared by the adolescent girls' club of Phesual, Jorhat by recycling waste materials, messages on climate changes were spread among the people who visited the Nimati Ghat for New Year retreat.

The retreat parties were requested not to pitch the plastic and other non-biodegradable materials into the river and the surroundings.

NEADS, a grassroots organization working in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response, vulnerable livelihood, child protection, nutrition, gender justice and climate change, wanted to spread the message on environmental protection to the nook and corner of Assam through this campaign.

'Save River Save Lives' was the tagline of the campaign which is led by Mohan Saikia, Jolly Saikia and their team from NEADS.

Ranjan K Baruah,

Ganeshguri, Guwahati,

Suicide by House deputy chief

It refers to Deputy Chairperson of Karnatak Legislative Council SL Dharme Gowda having committed suicide on 29.12.2020 because of being disturbed on happenings in the Council on 15.12.2020. There have been incidents of bitter fights earlier also in some state assemblies leading even to blood baths. There have been incidents when absconding members of Legislative Houses wanted for violation of law disappeared soon after making their presence registered at floors of the Houses. There have also been incidents where members have deliberately shown disrespect to national song. Tearing of bills and frequent adjournments of Houses due to disruption have become common feature.

Concrete steps are necessary to prevent any such incidents at floors of Legislative Houses by abolishing often misused immunity from law for legislative proceedings both at the Centre and in States so that criminal or civil laws may be applicable on elected representatives for things done or said during legislative proceedings.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal,

Delhi.