M A I L B A G

Doctors forced to pay for minister’s functions

We, the PCMS doctors working at the PHC Chakowal, in Hoshiarpur district which falls in the constituency (Shamchurasi) of Ms Mohinder Kaur, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, want to bring to your notice certain facts.

To lure voters, the minister organises most of the health-related functions in her constituency, under the PHC Chakowal, without releasing any funds for arrangements. Nor do the district authorities give any money to organise these functions. And we, the doctors, are forced to contribute money to hold state and district-level functions.

On May 31 a district-level AIDS awareness-cum-No Tobacco Day function was organised at Bagpur under the PHC Chakowal without releasing any funds. The district health authorities say that they have no funds for AIDS awareness. A month before a district-level function (Baal Mela) was organised under the PHC, Chakowal, again without any financial help from the district authorities. On both occasions, we the doctors were forced to contribute Rs 1,000 each and the minister on both occasions accepted valuable gifts from the authorities. At a pulse polio function last year, a doctor was forced to purchase gifts for children to be distributed by the minister.

(Names withheld on request)

Why India-bashing ? The fast changing scenario on our borders has had me thinking with a sense of trepidation about us as Indians. There must be something wrong with us that all our neighbours, or at least five of them, are hostile and continue to indulge in India-bashing as the most popular pastime. Is there something wrong with the mandarins who spin our foreign policy that in return for gestures of friendship all we get is loads of repugnance and antipathy. Nehru signed a Panchsheel with China and believed there would be peace all around, but they stabbed us in the back. We helped Bangladesh get freedom but India-bashing now is a routine phenomena there. Our BSF jawans were the victims of horrendous torture and death even as the South Block looked the other way, not risking the loss of “friendship” with them. Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Army to Sri Lanka to restore peace but got the virulence of LTTE as also the hatred of other Lankans. Mr Vajpayee drove to Lahore with a much-trumpeted peace proposal only to get a devastating Kargil. In the recent terrifying developments in Nepal, it is India, Indian journalists and the Indian media that have been selected as the targets on whom they pour their venom. And Nepal is the country which enjoys all the privileges of the most favoured nation from India. The Tribune too sought to downplay the burning of the copies of Indian newspapers which carried the gory details of what transpired by publishing it on the last page. It is always we who exercise restraint and caution. It is they who have a field day bashing us. Let us stop fantasising that the enemy too would see the reason sooner or later. Should we not start thinking what is wrong with us and our ways of offering friendship? Should we not, like the USA, make sure when we give aid to our neighbours that no unfriendly propaganda on their soil would be allowed? Friendship should beget friendship and where it does not, the Indian Government should not dole out undeserved favours. GULSHAN KATARIA, Punjabi University, Patiala

UGC, B.Ed dates clash

The dates of the UGC and B.Ed entrance tests fall on July 1, 2001. This has put in jeopardy the career plans of several science postgraduates.

A request to change the date of the B.Ed examination was made to the Registrar of Punjabi University. But we were told that the university won’t change its schedule for a “few hundred students”.

The officials also said that it was not within the powers of the university to do so. Well, all the powers lie with Punjabi University because it is conducting the B.Ed test throughout Punjab.

The UGC had declared its test date way back in February, still the university couldn’t adjust its schedule. We appeal to the university to shed its callousness and adopt a considerate approach towards the issue for the benefit of science students.

MANPREET KAUR, Patiala

AJIT SINGH GANDHI, Amritsar

Astrology (non)science

It seems that The Tribune is very much in favour of the introduction of astrology “science” as one of the subjects in our varsities.

For, apart from carrying non-sensical regular columns on predictions based on 12 Zodic signs (that seemingly divide the whole population of the earth into 12 segments), you have started giving credence even to wrong astrological assertions. I refer to a back-page news, “Prophecy comes true” (June 5). How come the prophecy, which claims that no Nepal king would live beyond 55, is true when the King had passed that particular age some six months ago?

Or do you consider that going “beyond” a certain given limit is permissible to such an extent as suits one to make his ridiculous predictions true! Even if just two kings defied the prediction, even if by just a couple of days, it is nothing but false. If newspapers like The Tribune resort to popularising false beliefs that are proven absolutely incorrect, then one should stop even debating the issue of the introduction of “astrology science”, which survives only because of the natural human weakness for knowing future, in our varsities.

BALVINDER, Chandigarh

A building miracle

Inaugurating a new building to house the district-level offices of the departments of excise and taxation and public relations at Una the other day, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal disclosed that although the building was estimated to cost Rs 1 crore, it had been completed and furnished at a cost of Rs 62 lakh only. He not only complemented the PWD officials who had accomplished the “miracle” but also announced a reward of Rs 51,000 for their commendable performance.

The disclosure — a wide gap between the estimated and actual cost of the government building in question — is startling, to say the least.

TARA CHAND, Ambota (Una)

Legal cases of the aged

The year 1999 was observed as the International Year of Older Persons and in that context the Chief Justice of India had asked all Chief Justices of high courts in the country to evolve a system which may ensure timely disposal of cases of those above 65. There is high incidence of litigation, mostly concerning property and inheritance and landlord-tenant disputes, in which elderly persons are generally involved.

Keeping this in view the Chief Justice of India had desired the disposal of their cases on a priority basis and for having a system of periodic monitoring of the cases. In practice, the suggested system has not fully started working. Senior citizens’ cases should be segregated and dealt with on priority. Once this is done and the time gap between the hearings is kept minimum, it would be a matter of great relief for older persons.

M.S. AULAKH, Chandigarh

Postal excellence

This refers to Bimal Bhatia’s “Goodies that come by post”. I beg to differ with the writer when he describes the postal services as slow and reasonably unreliable”. In normal circumstances letters by the postal service reach faster than by a courier.

The postal network is very wide and a letter from a small village in Kashmir reaches Kanyakumari at a meagre price of Rs 4. I have hardly seen any registered letter being misplaced by the department. If it happens, rigorous action is taken.

Some times, people deliberately put the blame on the ordinary postal service for the late delivery or non-delivery of a letter when people themselves have it posted the letter late or the letter has not been posted at all. In my three years stay at Mathura, where I used to post my “daily report” on a daily basis to my company, none of the letters was either misplaced or delivered late as I never received any complaint from my employer.

I do not have any specific dealing or relations with the Postal Department. This letter has been written to motivate those physically challenged people like Hardev who despite all odds are serving the basic needs of the “countrymen”.

DINESH GUPTA, Pathankot

Royal murders

The recent murders at the Royal Palace, Kathmandu, might be horrendous enough to shake up the whole world but truth is that similar dramas are being enacted in our life daily at our home and work.

If there is a lesson to be learnt from this tragedy it is that the foundations of family life need to be reinforced and the complexity of relationships among individual members’ rights and duties better understood. An important question to be addressed is the right to choice of one’s life partner and the tradition of arranged marriage.

I would suggest that the right to choice of life partner be given to children but the parents’ consent to their marriage be considered essential up to a point where the parental decision is fair and just and grounded in reality and not fanciful perceptions of possible problems. A marriage should lead to unity of two families rather than mere coming together of the bride and the groom.

This can only be achieved if there is free and frank consultation among all members of the family in a spirit of unity and harmony.

ANIL SARWAL, Chandigarh