The Hindu : New Delhi News : Readers' Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 12, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Readers' Mail

India vs. Bharat?

Sir, -- An economist-reformer like P. Chidambaram was never expected to create a dangerous India-Bharat divide as he has done by seeking to nourish the rural population at the expense of overtaxed urbanites through a gimmicky budget.

How far is it logical to lavish special favours on Bihar exclusively just for political purposes? Rather, funds must be saved by withdrawing all government facilities to persons/families with more than two children.

Honest taxpayers are being penalised and tax evaders are being pampered because of vote-bank politics. It is time the rural sector was made to make an equal contribution to the nation by taxing agricultural income.

The gimmick of exempting incomes up to Rs.1 lakh while at the same time retaining the present tax structure for the rest will encourage undervaluation of real incomes to evade tax. In all fairness the benefit should have been passed on proportionately to taxpayers in the higher tax brackets who contribute so much to the Exchequer.

Total implementation of the Kelkar Committee's original recommendations would have turned the tax regime taxpayer-friendly and yielded much more revenue with taxpayers finding it advantageous to disclose real incomes voluntarily.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal,

1775, Kucha Lattushah,

Dariba,

Delhi - 110 006

Knock, knock

Sir, -- Reference your report titled "Govt. apathy disappoints Amrita Pritam" by Sandeep Joshi (The Hindu, July 3). As a fan of Amrita Pritam since my college days, I congratulate the distinguished lady of letters on being conferred Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award, which she so richly deserves.

However, I felt very sad and concerned at reports that she is ailing and unable to receive the honour in person and that the Government was planning to send the award to her by post.

Sending the award by post would have been an utterly graceless act. I would have appreciated our Punjabi Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, visiting the ailing Punjabi writer in person at her Hauz Khas residence in New Delhi, offering his congratulations to her and then presenting the award to her.

Onkar Chopra,

Flat-114A, Block-C2B,

Janakpuri,

New Delhi - 110 058.

No power, no water

Sir, -- BSES-Rajdhani has made life miserable for the residents of Sector IV in R.K. Puram, New Delhi. Among all the sectors of R.K. Puram, Sector IV is the worst affected in so far as power supply by BSES is concerned. Power goes off for almost four to six hours daily either during day or at night. Because of this, we face water problem also as the pumping station does not work in the absence of electricity.

Every time we contact the local complaint centre in Sector I, we get a standard reply: "transformer burnt" or "transformer has become weak, being repaired". Even after the so-called repairs, we face low voltage for the remainder of the day, with the result that room coolers do not function in these hot days.

We fail to understand how a powerful and costly transformer can go out of order or get burnt every day and how long will BSES go on giving the same reply again and again. No such thing happens in any other sector of R.K. Puram. Probably with the amount BSES has spent so far on repairing the weak transformer almost daily, it could have acquired several new transformers! We are getting stepmotherly treatment for no fault of ours.

We request the higher authorities concerned as well as the Chief Minister of Delhi to look into the matter, fix responsibility on the officials concerned, and ensure that we are not subjected to any more power cuts for long hours.

T.V. Gopalan,

698, Sector IV, R.K. Puram,

New Delhi -- 110 022

Campus scene

Sir, -- "Campus Jottings" by Anjali Dhal Samanta and Lakshmi B.Ghosh titled "A hectic season at DU" (The Hindu, July 1) has both good news and bad news. The good news is that more students are now applying to Delhi University's School of Open Learning so that they can pursue graduation through correspondence even while pursuing education in a vocational field, thus making themselves better fitted for employment after three years. And the bad news is the confusion over the exact nature of the options being offered under the new BA course in different colleges. This is a case of the University authorities acting in haste and the students repenting at leisure.

It would have been far better had Delhi University used the academic year 2004-2005 to conduct orientation courses for teachers in the new subjects, explored the possible availability of suitable texts under the new syllabus, and called a meeting of colleges to decide which college would offer what options, and then publicise this adequately so that students could make informed decisions on courses and colleges offering them. As of now, there is no clarity on any of these aspects and the Delhi School of Economics has clearly told Delhi University that it will take six months to chart out a new Economics course. Obviously, in all this avoidable confusion, students will suffer.

DU will have to do some quick firefighting and come up with some quick-fix solutions. To begin with, it should call a general body meeting of all BA teachers and answer their queries on the new course.

Vinod Chowdhury,

Reader in Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi.

Thumb rule

Sir, -- A signature has been the conventional norm for all literate persons to endorse a transaction, be it banking, postal, corporate, or will. However, there are occasions when a person's hand is fractured or the fingers bandaged due to an injury, particularly if it involves the index finger and the thumb. In such situations, signing is impossible -- or the signature may vary from the one recorded earlier.

On the ground that the signature does not tally, transactions get delayed and even collapse. Bearing this aspect in view, banks and post offices now need to record the thumb impressions, irrespective of a person being illiterate, an undergraduate or even an academically acclaimed intellectual genius.

Society must not mock at the concept of thumb impression as the identity of an illiterate and uneducated person. No one can predict odd situations that one may have to encounter, like a fractured hand and bandaged palm and fingers.

Above all, a thumb impression is the safest bet against every possible forgery, if only the staff manning our banks and post offices know how to ascertain the authenticity of the thumb impression. Hence this thumb rule should be mandatory for all financial, commercial and legal dealings.

Ruchi Gupta,

B-18, DDA (J) Flats D Block,

Vasant Vihar,

New Delhi - 110 057

Beyond coal

Sir, -- The Union Ministry of Coal may be satisfied with Coal India's claim for raising the price after two years and still keeping the price below the international level (The Hindu, June 16) but that is no consolation when the R and D of the Ministry could have provided an alternative fuel in the same period.

Today China, Indonesia and New Zealand have introduced a new technology which produces eco-friendly fuel more efficient than coal at half the price for both industrial and domestic use.

This fuel can be made available in India immediately and its technology used to set up manufacturing plants which will not only provide this fuel but also help in removing pollutant agents from the environment.

Ashok Kumar Bhasin,

President, Hindustan Global Resources,

Sector A, Pocket B, Flat 1073,

Vasant Kunj,

New Delhi - 110 070

Three cheers?

Sir, -- For Delhiites, beer and wine will now fall in the category of healthy beverages. These have officially been put in the same bracket as rice, dal and atta. Provision stores have been authorised to store and market these freely under the new excise policy for the Capital. Excise Department Zindabad!! And God save the Prohibition Department.

Manmohan Sethi,

A-777, Avantika,

Sector-2, Rohini,

Delhi - 110 085.

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(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address and should be marked "Readers' Mail".)

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehi

1775, Kucha Lattushah,

Dariba,

Delhi - 110 006

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