The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Living dangerously: It may not take long to make up the losses suffered by the defence forces, but the traumatic event will live in the memory of the people in the surrounding areas for many years. It is not only the loss of life and property which will haunt them, the threat of living so near a potential danger zone will be a matter of no little concern. Many of these dumps were initially located in areas far from human habitation. But the growth of population has robbed them of their earlier isolation as more and more people have moved nearer to the depots.

K. M. VASHISHT, Mansa

Explosive neglect: It has been rightly concluded in the editorial (May 26) that no correctives have been applied despite the fact that at least seven major fires have taken place in the last 13 years. The loss in terms of money, human lives and properties, besides many other hassles occur in such accidents.

Trained personnel should be posted at all ammunition dumps to control any eventualities. All civil structures within the non-permissible areas should be demolished. The Army should not be found wanting in any situation.

D. P. JINDAL, Mandi Gobindgarh

Haul them up: Since summer heat is said to be the major cause of the fire which resulted in a loss of crores of rupees, such dumps should either be located at cold places or in air-conditioned storage bins. The persons responsible for such criminal neglect should be hauled up.

K. L. JAITLEY, Dhara (Kulu)

Security endangered: Ammunition worth several hundred crores has been destroyed by fires. Most of the ammunition destroyed at Birdhwal is stated to be imported.

Moreover, such repeated fires will certainly limit the fighting strength of the Army, thus endangering the security of the nation.

AVTAR SINGH BHIKHAN, Cheeka (Kaithal)

Downsizing for efficiency

Government downsizing has become the hottest issue for debate. Since the government’s expenditure has bloated to unsustainable levels because of unplanned investment in so-called development plans, such a move is inevitable.

The government institutions can be made efficient by changing the bureaucratic system of working. There is a need for decentralisation and instituting ways for enhancing accountability of individuals. This will result in increased output from the existing resources and thus justify the expenditure levels.

The trend of formation of smaller states can lead to an increase in expenditure. The existing administrative segmentation of the country can be restructured to achieve the objective of efficient governance.

TEJINDER SHARMA, Kurukshetra

A strange verdict

The editorial “A strange verdict” (May 29) has correctly observed that “even committed liberals would feel uncomfortable in supporting the verdict” that a man and a woman should live together without getting married.

The learned judge has said that “there is difference between law and morality” as if judiciary has no responsibility towards society. It is sad that our judges have a weakness for western culture and complete disregard for moral values. The judiciary would have done good to the nation had the judge observed that a “law should be made to curb such immoral relationships”.

ANAND PRAKASH, Panchkula

Examination marks

This refers to the news item “Tempers flare at PU Senate meeting” (May 28).

When I was the Controller of Examinations at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, I stumbled over a similar case. In MA (Economics) Part II examination, one examinee who had obtained 37 marks, got the answerbook re-evaluated. The second examiner gave him 97 marks. There was a difference of 60 marks in the two evaluations of the same answerbook.

In a very nicely conducted experiment, the reputed University of London, sent 116 copies of a geometry answerbook for evaluation. The 116 evaluators were mature and experienced teachers of mathematics. And the marks were to be given out of 100. On tabulation it was found that the scores ranged from 28 to 92.

The lesson which may safely be drawn from this experiment is that examination marks based on essay type tests are highly subjective. Then why kill the career of Dr B.B. Goyal?

AMAR SINGH DHALIWAL, Amritsar

Chief of Defence Staff

Barring the creation of the new post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), at long last the government has decided to have integrated service headquarters in the Defence Ministry. Although the Group of Ministers (GoM) has accepted the dire need for the CDS’s post, it has been kept in abeyance for what appears to be egostic reasons of the various services.

From the services point of view, the Army Chief has fully endorsed the concept, but has not made a bid for any particular service to have it. This is a selfless and correct response. For some unknown reason, the Navy Chief has stayed out of the race even before it had started. It is only the Air Chief who has thrown a spanner in the works, stating that it will marginalise the role of the Air Force, and more so in the control of the strategic nuclear delivery force, which would now be controlled by the CDS. This would tantamount to a selfish response, wherein he has placed the interest of his service before the interest of the country’s defence.

As if this bickering amongst the services is not bad enough, the government has stated that it will be the IAS Defence Secretary, to be promoted to the rank of Principal Defence Secretary( PDS), who will act as the principal adviser to the Defence Minister (DM)? In that case, why have a CDS at all, as the whole purpose of its creation was to have a single point military adviser to the DM. In any case, under no circumstances, the Defence Secretary (now PDs) should be placed above the CDS, or should have more access to the DM than the latter. This can best be affected, if the CDS is given a five star rank.

Brig N. B. GRANT (retd), Pune

PTU, wake up!

This is a rejoinder to the grievances of Mr G.V. Gupta published in The Tribune (May 15). He along with other parents and academicians should heave a sigh of relief that PTU is now kind enough to declare the results of the winter semester examination held in December 2000, in May 2001, just a week or so before the students started taking the next semester examination.

A sizable proportion of the students who received “Reappear(s)” in one or more papers are really lucky this time as compared to the corresponding semester of last year when the examination conducted in May/June had to be postponed because the results of the previous semester had not been declared till then. According to the self-framed “Regulations” of PTU, the result of any examination has to be declared by it within “one month” of the completion of an examination.

I earnestly request PTU to save the careers of these mute sufferers to whom damage has already been done due to the cumulative effect of perpetuating sitting in these “eye-wash” “Reappear” examinations.

A. S. SANDHU, Chandigarh

Buy and burn grains

I have read in The Tribune regarding the procurement of foodgrains. If we follow the norms and specifications of countries like Iraq and Canada, all our procured stocks foodgrains will be declared unfit for human consumption.

Officials of the procurement agencies are compelled to purchase rain-affected wheat and then they are held responsible for not maintaining the health of the stocks.

If our political leaders want to appease farmers to keep their chairs they should buy and burn such wheat and rice stocks as are unfit for human consumption. The Centre should not time and again relax quality specifications.

B. S. SHARMA, Amritsar