The Hindu : New Delhi News : Decline of morality

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Monday, Apr 21, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Decline of morality

Akshi Goel’s letter, “Hello, Vodafone….” in these columns this past Monday clearly reveals the decline in moral standards that India was once proud of. The recent “economic revolution” in the country enabling the existing economic elite to better their financial status has led to a heavy compromise on morality, values and tradition in general. Money has lost its value and there are no eyebrows raised over a case like this one involving a petty amount of Rs.48. As for Vodafone, they know that in the worst case scenario they will lose one customer, Ms. Goel, which will hardly affect their profit margin. However, if a similar default occurred on a larger scale where, say, a chit fund company owner disappeared overnight there would have been much ado with sympathisers all around. What we fail to realise is that the moral culpability between the two scenarios is no different, but for the scale.

S. Shriman Narayan,

Department of Philosophy, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom.

Hello, MTNL….

I have been paying my MTNL landline telephone bills online through credit card at its website http://billalert.mtnl.net.in for more than a year now. As per procedure, I make my payment at their payment portal and thereafter get an online confirmation slip after two working days. However, on March 25 when I made my payment for my latest bill (No. 2021450787), I did not receive any confirmation slip within the prescribed period. Rather I received a message saying my slip was not available and was asked to check a box requesting for a confirmation slip which, it said, would be sent in the next two days. I did as directed, but in vain. More than three weeks have gone by but the screen still says the confirmation number is not available and demands that I check the box every time I log in. I have repeated the process four times now! The site does not even provide any directions to resolve the problem so that I can get my confirmation slip through e-mail or any other mode. This amounts to sheer harassment of an MTNL landline user making payment through his portal. Since all web payment portals (including MTNL’s own payment portal for its Dolphin mobile phones) provide a transaction report or confirmation report immediately after the payment process is completed, I fail to understand why the landline users alone are being harassed in this manner. Is MTNL trying to scare away all its landline customers?

M. Vasudevan,

12/187, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi - 110 003.

Save the trees!

According to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Central Secretariat to Badarpur line of the Delhi Metro, 4,401 trees will be uprooted, out of which 1,798 will be from between Central Secretariat to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Many of these trees are over 70 years old — from the times of Sir Edwin Lutyens who handpicked every species of trees exclusively for certain Delhi roads. Aurangzeb Road, for example, has only Neem trees lining it.

The idea behind this plan was to provide shady, leafy avenues in order to beat the extreme heat of Delhi’s summer season and provide an ideal layout for pedestrian traffic. These trees form part of the environmental heritage of the city and ought to be protected. However, in disregard of this fact, not only has the EIA given the green signal for destroying these trees but has also failed to provide any direction to replant trees in the affected areas after completion of the construction. It does, however, prescribe the following trees to be planted as compensatory afforestation (which, however, may or may not be planted near the actual affected area): Neem, Sisso, Eucalyptus, Kikar, Ashok and Jamun.

Interestingly, from this list of trees, Kikar and Eucalyptus provide very little shade, hardly serve any decorative purpose, have negative environmental impacts and have been included only because they grow fast. Ashok trees are of some ornamental ecological value but then again do not provide much shade owing to their thin, erect structure. That leaves us with Neem, Sisso, and Jamun, all of which are already specific to Lutyens’ Zone roads and for uniformity’s sake cannot be planted on other roads! So how effective is the plan? Can the DMRC not find a better alternative model to avoid the loss of these trees, which are integral components of our city’s ecological heritage?

Nikhil Singh,

R-10/157, Near District Magistrate’s Residence, Sector 10, Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad-201002.

Immigration pangs

I was at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on March 24 to board a flight to the Philippines. However, before I could begin my journey, I was made to undergo an appalling experience at the Immigration desk. After waiting in a queue for about an hour and a half when I reached the Immigration desk, I was under the impression that the immigration stamp (Departed Delhi) would be put on the page facing my Philippines visa on the passport. However, the lethargic lady officer put the stamp on two fresh pages, rendering them useless for the future. But this isn’t all.

When I returned to Delhi on March 29, I again had to wait in a queue for two hours, only to face an officer who this time put the stamp (Arrived Delhi) right in front of the used United States visa in my passport! Now on a first look at my passport it is difficult to make out when I departed from Delhi for the Philippines. And it makes one wonder how the page in front of the U.S. visa shows that I returned from the U.S. twice — once on July 3, 2007, and then on March 29, 2008! This may also pose a problem for me in getting a visa for any other country in future. Can’t something be done to check such staff behaviour?

Narayan Har Gupta,

110, Bank Colony, Premier Nagar, Aligarh – 202 001.

Quota raj

The Supreme Court judgment upholding 27 % quota for the OBCs in institutions of higher education is commendable. The decision to bar the creamy layer from availing of similar privileges will provide an opportunity to those who are really backward, socially and economically, to fulfil their dreams. But shouldn’t the Government also consider providing reservation to them at the workplace as well?

Ruchi Jha,

YMCA (Television Production & Journalism), Jai Singh Road, New Delhi – 110 001.

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