The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Politicians’ games

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Monday, Aug 18, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Politicians’ games

I refer to the news item ‘Fund allocation has increased, says minister’. It seems our politicians will never see Indians as Indians but only as belonging to this caste or that religion. It is these politicians who rob the Indians of their ‘Indianness’ by branding them as forward, backward, minorities, etc. so that they could remain in power. They never think in terms of welfare of the people of India but make sure that the communal rivalries continue for ever so that they can make capital out of it.

P. U. Krishnan,

Udhagamandalam.

Retrograde step

Education Minister’s announcement that when Coimbatore Government Arts College is converted into a unitary university the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar there will be selected on seniority basis in the college will make any academician wonder whether the government has given a serious thought to the age-old norms of academic excellence and sanctity of higher education. A person who tops the seniority list of the college may not necessarily have the distinction of reputed publications to his credit or even a Ph.D to deserve appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the proposed unitary university. A person without any academic excellence can top the seniority list. A Registrar can be appointed on seniority basis, but not the VC. VCs for the proposed unitary university must be chosen from retired professors of the college with academic excellence and publications to their credit. As an old student and a teacher in the institution for decades, I can say that autonomy thrust on it in 1987 without serious thought has already done irreparable damage to the quality of education in the college owing to acute shortage of teachers for an alarmingly long period and lack of infrastructure. Now the proposal to convert it into a unitary university will in no way improve the quality of education in the college. Government colleges in Tamil Nadu face numerous problems like any other government department and granting unitary university status to any of these colleges, including Presidency College, Chennai, is not advisable or reasonable. Therefore, I strongly appeal to the Govenment to abandon its proposal to convert any of the government colleges in Tamil Nadu into unitary universities.

Raj Sethu,

Coimbatore.

Manning traffic

I was riding my bike on Avinashi Road recently. At the Krishnammal College junction, I saw a person in civil dress in the middle of the road stopping traffic. The man was standing in my way and I could not stop my vehicle. However, I managed to avert a major accident. I request the authorities concerned to deploy a well-trained person in pucca uniform at the junction to man traffic during peak hours. Untrained persons in civil dress manning the traffic at signal junctions will lead to accidents.

N. Sabarish,

Coimbatore.

Electricity bills

At present electricity bills are payable on 15th of alternate months. If the date falls on Saturday and the Electricity Board office is closed payment is not accepted from the subsequent Monday. Therefore the date of payment should be extended up to 20th of the month if it is accepted through the Electronic Transfer Credit System. Since the Electricity Board deals with an essential service, the cash counter should remain open even if 15th happens to be a holiday or the last date for payment of bills should be extended up to 20th.

The bills could be paid anywhere in the State. Electronic bills are now paid at the counters in the offices of the assistant engineer or the junior engineer. As the payment of bills is computerised, the facility should be extended to any of the Board offices, banks, post offices, major sub-stations etc. in the state. Many of the counters do not have proper shelters at places where the bills are accepted. People often have to stand in a long queue for hours under the scorching sun or in rain. Even in the City Corporation building the payment counter does not have a shelter. Proper shelters should be provided to those who stand for long hours for payment of bills.

C.M. Jeyaraam,

Coimbatore.

We want water

The city’s water supply system is awfully mismanaged. Water distribution to the different areas of the fast growing metropolis is deplorable. The Corporation fleeces residents by levying increased property and water taxes without providing adequate supply of water and other amenities. It is hard to describe the hardship faced by them in this regard. Every time there is a breakdown in the supply of water in the Pilloor-fed areas, resumption of water supply does not take place even three or four days after the promised date of the restoration of supply. The worst-affected are the residents of Peelamedu and other surrounding areas, particularly the residents of the two adjacent Bharathi and Lal Bahadur Colonies. While Lal Bahadur Colony is supplied water once in every eight days, some streets in Bharati Colony do not get adequate supply of water. But a particular street in Bharati Colony gets water continuously for four days. When this is reported to the man in charge of the water tank, he pleads ignorance. The ward councillor never visits the area and does not attend to the complaints of the residents. In short, distribution of the available quantity of water is improper. Will the authorities take urgent steps to ensure even distribution of water to Peelamedu and suburbs?

T.K. Ganapathy,

Coimbatore.

Biofuel plants

It is good that the proposal to set up yet another institute to find out fuel plants has been rejected.

The taxpayers are already burdened with many agricultural research institutes which are either in hybernation or dysfunctional. Take for example National Biodiversity Authority whose objective is to explore the flora and the fauna and identify useful plants as food, oil crop or biofuel etc. Its headquarters should have been in the northeast India where biota is rich. Jatropha was introduced by the Portughese and does not belong to our “rich biodiversity”.

Its capability as a biofuel plant is lost. Botanical Survey of India has to be rejuvenated to train scientists in field studies to identify new biota useful to society.

K.K. Lakshmanan,

Coimbatore.

(Readers can mail to cbereaders@thehindu.co.in with address and phone number)

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