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Monday, Dec 04, 2006
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New Delhi

Reader's Mail

Salute them

Now that the brand new Barakhamba Road-Indraprastha section of Delhi Metro is operational, we should stand up and salute all those unnamed and unsung labourers from all parts of the country who made it a reality and who probably will never get a chance to ride on it.

These hapless labourers worked day and night for the sustenance of their families but the money they got in return was too little to mention.

The Supreme Court, the guardian of the citizens' Fundamental Rights, did not take cognisance of their plight even though the new Metro line passes right in front of it.

Shamim Uddin

4A/4051, Vasundhara,

Ghaziabad (U.P.)

SBI's ways

The story of our very own State Bank of India fleecing Indian veterans that I discovered recently when I went to SBI, Los Angeles, California, US, makes interesting reading.

I was shocked when SBI Los Angeles asked me to pay up $20 (equivalent to Rs. 1,000) for signing a Life Certificate for the pension paying authority, Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), Allahabad.

It sounds atrocious to me for the following reason: the average pension of an ex-Servicemen is Rs. 1,000 per month and here is the public sector SBI asking for $20 for a Life Certificate!

It is a requirement of a government department -- CDA (Pension) -- that a Life Certificate be given every year before release of pension.

And the Government-run bank that benefits most from the Ministry of Defence for distribution of pay and pensions of Defence personnel is asking the poor pensioner to dish out Rs. 1,000 for a Life Certificate! The justification is that it takes one minute of staff time to verify that the man is alive and sign the already prepared Life Certificate!

A thousand rupees are many times more than the interest an average veteran's pension earns in two or three years and it makes more sense to forgo the pension (if one could afford it) till one's next visit to India!

Even a California Notary charges only $10 and they have nothing to do with the Government of India.

A veteran puts his life at risk for the country for 20 years and more to earn a pension. Instead of respecting the risk he has taken for the country, here is the country's leading public sector bank charging money for certifying that the veteran is not dead.

As a veteran, I refused to pay $20 to SBI to prove to the Government of India that I am alive. But at the same time, as an SBI shareholder, I congratulated them for fleecing the customer and increasing my share value! Well done, State Bank of India!

While leaving, I thanked them for not charging me for sitting on the chair for one minute and enjoying the beautiful infrastructure they have created with public money at the plush 700 Willshire Boulevard office in the most exclusive financial district of Los Angeles.

Obviously an over-enthusiastic or plain greedy SBI officer drawing a dollar salary in Los Angeles is to be blamed for it all and not our dear SBI Chairman, of course.

Lt-Col (Retd)

C. P. C. Nath,

01edge Technologies,

6830 Woodley Ave #4,

Van Nuys,

California-91406 (US).

Dwarka calling

The road from Dwarka Gate to Dabri More has been closed for sewer work. Restoration of the road will take a long time.

Those who wish to travel to and from New Delhi railway station to Dwarka are put to great difficulty.

There is a newly constructed approach road to Dwarka Sector 1 from Dabri More, but it is still in its final stages.

It is built covering a sewer line and is meant for light motor vehicles only.

Those who commute to Dwarka day in and day out are forced to terminate journey at Dasratpuri from where they have to find an alternate mode of transport to reach Dwarka.

Though Metro railway services are available now to Dwarakites, they do not cater to all areas and all people.

It is high time that a bus running exclusively between Dwarka and New Delhi railway station was started from Dwarka Sector 19 through the flyover via Sadar Thana and Gopinath Bazar.

I raised this matter first in these columns exactly one year ago (28-11-2005) but to no avail.

I do hope the authorities will wake up now and act.

Johny Zacharias,

E-201, Kaveri Apartments,

Sector 6, Plot No. 4,

Dwarka,

New Delhi - 110 075.

Yes, Sir....

I fully agree with Dr. C. Mukherjee of Kolkata ("No, Sir....", Reader's Mail, November 20) that the University Grants Commission is playing ducks and drakes with academic careers by repeatedly changing recruitment rules with reference to NET and its impact on eligibility. UGC Chairman Sukhdev Thorat should explain what impelled the UGC to first make NET compulsory, then optional for Ph.D. and M.Phil. degree holders, and then for Ph.D. scholars alone, up to December 31, 2002, but not after this.

Dr. Mukherjee calls this time-tested discrimination and mentions how getting a Ph.D./M.Phil. with published papers in peer-reviewed journals is no child's play. The other side of the coin are the Ph.D. degrees, and even more the M.Phils., which are dime a dozen from substandard universities. Like bad money drives out the good, these bad Ph.D.s and M.Phil.s overwhelm the good.

In the circumstances, the NET should be made compulsory again, but with an interview, rigorously conducted by appropriately chosen selection panels, to test an applicant's ability to actually teach in a classroom, and commitment to extra-curricular activities which constitute what St. Stephen's College calls "the total life of college".

In the US and the UK, would-be teachers have to face what Indian wannabes should face: a seminar on their respective specialisation(s).

Vinod Chowhury,

Senior Reader in Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi - 110 007.

Why not, Sir?....

Dr. C. Mukherjee's letter in these columns, "No, Sir...." (November 20), dwelt on the long-running debate over Ph.D versus NET.

Although I support Dr. Mukherjee's view that "getting a Ph.D/M.Phil with published papers is no child's play, not everyone can accomplish it", I would at the same time like to state that qualifying the National Educational Test (NET) conducted by the University Grants Commission that makes one eligible for lecturership in a degree college or university is also no child's play. No one can clear it without a sincere and sustained effort.

In the current age of "knowledge worship" for getting employment and other significant positions in both public and private sectors there are strict provisions of competitive tests for talent assessment and quality enhancement.

Then why do people make such a hue and cry when it comes to qualifying for teaching in institutions of higher education?

Each year innumerable Ph.D thesis projects are submitted and degrees awarded in our country.

But there is no uniform rule or standard parameter to check the quality of each thesis. So why not have competitive tests such as NET to ensure excellence in the education system on a uniform basis?

Dipti Tripathi,

Department of History,

Faculty of Social Sciences,

Banaras Hindu University,

Varanasi - 221

(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 "Reader's Mail".)

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