The Hindu : New Delhi News : On second thoughts -Reader's Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 05, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

On second thoughts -Reader's Mail

Here is a thought for the New Year.

One second was added to the last hour of 2008 for matching Earth’s rotation with the conventional 24-hour clock. It is surprising that when all other measures have been converted into the metric system from earlier haphazard systems, the metric measure of time has not yet been introduced. It is high time the metric unit of time was introduced with a day divided into ten metric hours rather than the present 24 hours. Each metric hour may have a hundred metric minutes with a metric minute having a hundred metric seconds, thereby making it a day of 100,000 metric seconds instead of the present 86,400 seconds.

Except for India and a few other countries like Nepal, most countries have their time-zones separated from the standard Greenwich Mean Time in multiples of one complete hour. International authorities regulating time should make it compulsory for all nations to adopt time-zones deviating from the GMT in multiples of one complete hour. Accordingly, India can be kept in the time-zone of GMT+6 hours instead of the present GMT+5.30 hours until the metric unit of time is introduced globally.

Madhu Agrawal,

1775, Kucha Lattushah, Dariba, Chandni Chowk, Delhi – 110 006.

Railways’ ways

We have been forced to witness massive campaigning by the Union Railway Ministry on “profits” and “turnaround”. It is, however, not evident in passenger amenities and service.

I had booked three-tier AC coach tickets in the Rajdhani Express for my elderly parents’ journey to Chennai. The train’s departure is at 4 p.m. from Delhi’s Nizamuddin station. On December 24, when we reached the station at 3 p.m., the information board was displaying departure from platform No.3 at 4 p.m. The overcrowded platform with no proper seating arrangements was an eyesore. No announcements were made about the departure of the Chennai-bound Rajdhani Express till 3-55 p.m.

An announcement was made at 4 p.m. that it was departing from platform No.3. However, the train had not even arrived at the platform. It did so only at 4-10 p.m. Not only did the anxious passengers rush forward to board the train, the pantry staff/coach attendants were no less aggressive in trying to load water bottle crates and beddings. The beddings were pushed into the doorway passage and passengers had to step over them to get inside. No announcement regarding the departure of the train was made yet.

The train finally left Nizamuddin at 4-25 p.m., late by 25 minutes, and reached Chennai on December 25 at 9-40 p.m., late by one-and-a-half hours.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad should consider providing basic amenities and services to the passengers for a change rather than talk about “business turnaround” and “profits”.

S. Srinivasa Raghavan,

A-3/273, First Floor, Janakpuri, New Delhi – 110 058.

Is law equal?

I fail to understand the rationale behind the latest recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium regarding transfer of four High Court judges allegedly involved in the Ghaziabad Judges’ Provident Fund scam case to other High Courts of the country. Also, it took three months for the collegium to arrive at a decision while a CBI probe into the incident was ordered in September last year. One wonders how the investigation would have proceeded during this span.

Why are tainted judges transferred rather than being suspended? Are they above the law of the land? No doubt everyone is innocent unless proven guilty, but this one seems to be a case of preferential treatment for members of the higher judiciary.

This sends bad signals to society which is already shocked and hurt over the presence of “black sheep” in the judiciary, the most prestigious and reputed institution in the country.

Worse, the new version of the judges’ inquiry legislation was not even introduced, leave alone being passed, during the just-concluded Parliament session.

Hemant Kumar,

414, Sector 7, Urban Estate, Ambala City, Haryana.

Happy New Year….

Mumbai experienced the cruellest terrorist attack on November 26. It has made a deep impact on each one of us. I, however, firmly believe that a day will come when our nation would be free from the scourge of terrorism and there will be peace, harmony and prosperity everywhere.

I wish every fellow Indian citizen a cheerful New Year ahead.

Santosh Kumar Sharma,

T-107, Jhandewala Chowk, Baljeet Nagar (Patel Nagar), New Delhi – 110 008.

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

New Delhi