Letters to the Editor: Pathetic road condition

Recently, I along with my family visited Lumding town and saw that the condition of roads was very bad. At first the road leading to the town - Nagaon-Lumding main road - was not easily accessible and negotiable apparently due to long non-maintenance. The Kalibari road, the main artery of the town, was extensively damaged without any trace of black-topping on different patches and with countless potholes filled with rain water along the road. Seeing the enormous damages of roads it seemed to me that for several years the local PWD (Public Works Department) turned deaf ears to the grief of local residents and travelers. For the persons at the wheel of cars on these roads, it was like walking on a tightrope.

Again, the lanes and feeder roads inside the town were equally muddy and water-logged on a rainy day. In March last, the State's ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party, scored a massive victory in elections to municipal bodies in the State. Two months have elapsed, but no activities of the Lumding municipal board, the local civic body, were observed as lanes and roads were woefully pathetic with road side garbage heaps and rain-induced waterlogging.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma set a goal to see that Assam emerge as one of the top developed States in the country. Over the last one year, he has made untiring efforts to bring about changes by creating a tone of growth strategy. But the monopoly of sections of scamsters in the Government service here and elsewhere in the State and inactive local bodies are hell-bent on negating such prospects! A reversal strategy is the need of the hour to fight out this negative mindset.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati

Freeing Perarivalan

A Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice L Nageswara Rao and comprising Justice BR Gavai, used Article 142 of the Constitution that grants it extraordinary powers to do complete justice, to release AG Perarivalan and 15 other convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who have been lodged in prison for just 31 years. As a human being, I am strongly against any kind of death sentence. Instead, I prefer life imprisonment for the guilty till the very last breath in jail. It is more shocking that this verdict could pave the way for the release of other six convicts in the case, including Nalini Sriharan (pardoned by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on 2008) and her husband Murugan (pardoned by Sonia Gandhi, as both of them did not want Nalini and Murugan's daughter to be orphaned at that time they were death sentence awardee), a Sri Lankan national.

Nineteen years old at the time of the assassination, AG Perarivalan was accused of buying the two 9-volt batteries for Sivarasan, the LTTE man who masterminded the assassination. Both the batteries were used by the woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu. While Perarivalan claimed all along that he wasn't aware of the purpose he was asked to get the batteries for, years later, as per media reports, a retired CBI officer Thiagarajan, had apologized claiming he had altered Perarivalan's confessional statement.

During his 31 years prison life Perarivalan, who was in solitary confinement for many years, has a very good conduct record in jail. He had earned several academic qualifications during the long incarceration. He had also authored a book and no history of complaints when out on parole. Maybe it helped him to be released alive, which is far better than what happened to Stan Swamy in whose case justice failed. Is this case for a PM's murder or not? I just can't understand whatever we call "law". Now they walk free. Something is wrong. Hope there is something the Central Government can invoke to reverse the judgement, if not possible then they should bring a new law.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,

Faridabad -121005.

South movies to the fore

The South Indian film industry has its own place in the Indian film industry and of late, especially during the Covid and post-Covid era it seems the film industry of the South is all poised to lead the Indian film industry as most of the movies made in the four major languages of the South - Tamil, Telugu ,Malayalam and Kannada are doing roaring business in the theatres and the OTT platform clearly showing that the production houses and the film makers of the South are really serious when it comes to filmmaking and their target is not just making the box offices ring, but to carve a niche of their own in the global film world.

An analysis of the recently-released movies in the four languages clearly show that they are far ahead than Bollywood movies - be it the subject, star cast, sets, technique and music . According to film critics and buffs, Bollywood movies need rapid changes and complete transformation which if not done now can play doom to the industry. Gone are the days when movie-goers were catered with a huge star cast, ten songs, some steamy romance , blood chilling stunts and run-of-the-mill stories . Today the new generation need more than this to keep them on their seats as technically, mentally and scientifically a lot of changes have taken place . They have become more prudent, intelligent and more analytical and critical .

Starting with Bahubali some time ago and then with KGF series, RRR and Pushpa and some super-duper hits from the Tamil and Malayalam industries, the South has contributed abundantly in recent times.

Earlier, too, the South has contributed a lot - be it actors, actresses, directors and music directors. Now with the coming of digital era the contribution is instantly noticed and as entertainment lovers get what they expect, the expectation from South movies keeps on rising . Be it RRR, KGF, Pushpa, Priest, Bheeshmaparvam , Hridyam, CBI- the brain , Beast, Master and so on the movies of the South beautifully show the Midas touch of the filmmakers of the South.

These film makers have proved that they know the pulse of the people. Innovative narrative technique, hi-tech cinematic effects, lingering music plus the sterling performances of the actors and the actresses result in super-hit movies that create history at the box office. The film makers have also shown that rather than injecting doses of high voltage action, generous doses of sex and boring dialogue they had the courage to discard worn out formula and try out new sensible subjects. Carefully handled scripts and intelligent star casting that sinks into the characters are enough for a film to be a huge success.

M Pradyu,

Kannur.