The Hindu : New Delhi News : Readers' Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Readers' Mail

No, Finance

Minister

Sir, -- At a time when the country is reeling under the after-shocks of the killer tsunami waves and frantic appeals have gone out to all citizens to contribute liberally to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, it is strange that the Union Finance Minister is doing nothing to revive the Government of India Relief Bonds scheme which he abolished so very suddenly and arbitrarily, without any fathomable reason or a word of reasoning, the morning after his last Budget.

Here was a very fine, open and healthy avenue of mobilising public savings for a noble public cause at 6.5 per cent tax-free interest -- down from 10 per cent not long ago -- but without any word of warning or explanation to the nation the Finance Minister chose to scrap it through a one-line administrative order. Just why?

Just no one knows. Not even the Prime Minister perhaps. To many honest-to-goodness taxpayers who were contributing to this scheme, Mr. Chidambaram's action seemed highly unreasonable and unjustifiable.

No less difficult to understand is his inaction now when the country is trying so very hard to cope with an unprecedented natural calamity. Why has the tax-free Relief Bonds scheme not been revived yet?

For the country to be able to tide over this and any future natural calamity without having to wait for public charity, it is absolutely imperative that this time-tested scheme is put back in place by the Finance Minister at once.

Neelima Gopalan,

C-2-B, Janakpuri,

New Delhi.

Powerless

Sir, -- We were without electricity for almost eight hours in Pocket A of Sector A in Vasant Kunj on January 18. The power went off around 10-30 a.m. and was restored only at 6-15 p.m. The misery of the consumers is enhanced when they have no clue to the cause of such disruption in power supply or to when they might expect the supply to be restored.

We have a service centre (God knows what service they render) in Sector D4 with telephone No. 26131700. When I rang up that number around 12-30 p.m., it was difficult to make out whether the person who attended to the call was awake or asleep. However, after some effort I was able to extract the information that we might get the supply by 4 p.m.

I made a second call at 5 p.m. and was informed by the same person that we might expect it by 5-30 p.m. He also gave me a contact number (9350110344) for the party doing the repair work. When I rang up that number, the person who received the call said he was from Khanpur and had nothing to do with the Electricity Board.

Finally, a third call at 6 p.m. attended by one Vinod elicited some more information: the men were at work at the sub-station adjoining Kishangarh village and we should get the supply by 6-30 p.m.

I went to the site and met a person who identified himself as a supervisor and said the repair work was almost over and in 10-15 minutes the supply would be restored....

I would request the higher authorities to look into the following:

1) At the service centre there should be some responsible person to attend to calls from the consumers and give reliable information. The staff should also be trained to attend to the calls with due courtesy.

2) The Supervisor said that they started the repair work around 12 noon. Why did they delay their work by about 90 minutes? Was it justified to take more than six hours to rectify the fault?

3) There were about a dozen workers assembled there -- some of them apparently doing nothing. Perhaps the overstaffing, as in the case of most of the government and public sector organisations, is the cause of this level of inefficiency.

C. B. Tripathi,

1225, A/A, Vasant Kunj,

New Delhi - 110 070.

Wine shop

Sir, -- A wine shop has opened in Old Rajendra Nagar, beside Vajiram & Ravi, IAS Coaching Institute, which produces many IAS officers every year. The presence of the liquor shop nextdoor greatly undermines the image of the Institute.

The Supreme Court has ordered a ban on sale of cigarettes and paan-masala within 100 metres of schools, colleges and other educational institutions. In letter, a private coaching institute may not come within the definition of "educational institution", but in spirit an educational institution includes any centre imparting education to students. The Supreme Court order implied a similar ban on sale of liquor also.

I leave it to the authorities and the people at large to decide the fate of those who will lead the country in future.

Amit Kumar Gupta,

Student, Vajiram & Ravi,

Old Rajendra Nagar,

New Delhi.

This is AIR....

Sir, -- Every morning for the last 13 years I have been listening to "Archana Karyakram" of the Rajdhani Channel of All India Radio from 0600 to 0650 hours. The first segment of this programme for 20 minutes (from 0610 to 0630 hours) contains devotional songs in Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. The second portion for 20 minutes (from 0630 to 0650 hours) is set aside for Carnatic vocal/instrumental music.

But it is unpleasant to note that AIR is repeatedly playing the same set of songs/tapes numbering probably no more than 24 and not adding any new concerts or recordings by other artistes.

In the public interest AIR should refurbish its Archana Karyakram by incorporating the concerts of new/upcoming artistes.

These tapes can be obtained from other stations of AIR located in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Besides, the capsule of five minutes (from 0600 to 0605) to mention programmes of the day should be done away with.

Will the Prasar Bharati/Director-General, AIR, kindly look into this matter and add new content to this popular morning programme instead of repeating the same old set of songs?

K. S. Gopalakrishnan,

Flat No.80, Vasant Apartments,

Mayur Vihar Phase-I Extension,

Delhi-110 091.

Hello, MTNL....

Sir, -- The automatic fault reporting number of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (25782198) has been out of order for months. The line gets disconnected before the complaint can be registered.

Subscribers have to call up the Fault Repair Supervisor who has to feed in the data manually. This is possible only during working hours and only when the person is available. MTNL may please restore the automatic number as soon as possible.

R. Rajesh,

48/13 East Patel Nagar,

New Delhi - 110 008.

MTNL acts

Sir, -- This refers to my complaint, "Hello, MTNL....", published in these columns last Monday (January 24).

I am happy to report now that the complaint has been promptly looked into by the MTNL authorities and the problem has been solved.

I am grateful to The Hindu and to MTNL.

D. S. Kapur,

K(U)-6, Pitampura,

Delhi - 110 088.

* * *

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

"Readers' Mail".)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi