Letters to The EDITOR: Combat alarming pollution in Guwahati

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Combat alarming pollution in Guwahati

I am writing to express deep concern about the severe and escalating pollution crisis gripping Guwahati, a city rapidly becoming synonymous with hazardous air and water quality. Recent reports, including IQAir data, have placed Guwahati among the world's most polluted cities, a stark reality demanding immediate, concerted action from authorities and citizens alike.

The core issues are multifaceted: unchecked vehicular emissions choking our air, industrial waste poisoning the Brahmaputra River, and rampant, unscientific garbage disposal marring our streets and water bodies. The winter months exacerbate this, with fog trapping pollutants, creating a dangerous environment, especially for children, the elderly, and those with respiratory issues.

This crisis threatens our unique ecosystem and public health. Therefore, I urge the local administration to implement strict emission norms, invest in eco-friendly public transport, expand green spaces, enforce better waste segregation, and launch robust awareness campaigns. A healthy Guwahati requires more than development; it demands sustainable solutions and collective responsibility.

Himanjyoti Kalita

(himanjyoti632@gmail.com)

Historical India-Russia relationship

The Russian President Vladimir Putin's first trip to India was indeed a remarkable one when he was given an airport welcome with much fanfare. With a warm hug on the tarmac, a shared car ride and a private dinner, PM Narendra Modi demonstrated that New Delhi remains wedded to its relationship with Moscow. At a time when Mr Putin is under pressure from the United States of America and the West to accept a ceasefire in Ukraine, and India has been slapped with tariffs for continuing to buy Russian oil.

During their public statements on Friday last, Mr Putin's declaration that Russia will ensure uninterrupted oil supply to India has suggested that both India and Russia are determined to keep crude flowing despite the sanctions. It is expected to dent India-Russia bilateral trade, which was at an all-time high after India's record-breaking purchase of Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine.

It is true that in the past few months geopolitical turbulence has reinforced both India and Russia. Both now need each other based on decades of trust, which is invaluable insurance against instability in today's changing world order.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Save the future generation from drugs

The huge success achieved by the law enforcement agencies in seizing prodigious amounts of drugs across the state in recent times deserves commendation. While the appearance of such news in the media underscores the administration's effort to make a narcotic-free society, the presence of such a gargantuan amount of illegal substances inside the state manifests a deeper security deficit at the border.  It speaks about a silent duality – the existence of a robust and effective police force inside the state and the presence of a loose border at the same time. While inland security forces use modern strategies like call tracing, analyzing bank transactions and employing advanced sensory technology (like Thermo Scientific TruNarc) to find the hiding places and catch the drug lords and peddlers. But the checking of the people entering surreptitiously through secret land routes to Northeast India still remains a challenge due to the porous border.  Being lighter in weight and high in cost, a few kilograms of drugs costing crores of rupees sneak past the border easily through different routes exploited by the hanker to earn money by illegal ways.

Moreover, though some of the large drug traffickers get an extended period of incarceration, the petty peddlers who get exonerated from their charges just by remaining a few months in the prison as retribution join the old drug network again once they come out of the jail, and thus the pernicious cycle continues. Apart from sealing the border completely, the border security guards should be provided with a sufficient amount of sophisticated scanning devices and updated tools to detect the presence of drugs concealed by trespassers with them. Provisions should also be made to detain the drug peddlers and smugglers for a longer period of time behind bars. The juveniles should be encouraged to continue their education inside the prison, and facilities for books and to appear in exams should be made available there. While giving approvals to open the rehabilitation centres, it should be made mandatory that the proprietor shall not have a drug addiction history in the past. Provisions for counselling should be made in every rehab centre so that those who recuperate and get discharged on becoming normal do not fall prey to such demonic substance use again.

Today drug abuse stands as an anathema in the society which has snuffed out numerous young lives and stolen the jollity in many houses. The burden to make a drug-free Assam does not lie only on the narcotics department and rehab centres. The collective effort begins from the border and finally converges towards every individual of the society to preserve and groom a healthy generation for the future.

Kabir Ahmed Saikia

Rajabari,Jorhat