M A I L B A G

Tackling the Naxalite menace

THE report “Police backs gangs to counter Naxalites” (Sept 24) seems to be bent on portraying police as the villain in their fight against Naxalites. While there is a plethora of allegations like the ones made in the report, against the police, there is no iota of evidence to point out the extra-judicial enthusiasm of the police in tackling the Naxalite menace.

Even if they resort to “counter-insurgency covert operations”, they are fully justified as tough actions are required to tackle the Maoist threat to internal security which has of late acquired alarming proportions.

When the Rajasekhara Reddy government had lifted the ban on Naxalites and made peace initiative, the Naxalite groups had reportedly amassed over Rs 800 crore raised through extortion during the period of truce. Some money might have been generously presented to various so-called human rights organisations which are, in reality, acting as the frontal organisations of the Naxalites. These organisations indulge in a high-decibel campaign for the Naxalites’ human rights, whereas they never condemn the violence perpetrated by them.

AVUTHU SRIHARI, Secunderabad

II

Through brute force, governments cannot eliminate Naxalism. But tough measures against subsidy thieves, wildlife smugglers, forest wood smugglers, scamsters, ghost contractors, firms producing fake drugs, currency notes, stamps or certificates, petrol and electricity thieves, corrupt babus, food adulterating firms and numerous other big fish all across India would help eliminate Naxalism.

MANIKYAM PRATTIPATI, Hyderabad

III

No doubt, social conditions such as poverty, unemployment are the root cause of this problem. But in my opinion, unemployment itself results in poverty. The top priority of the Centre and the state governments should be to generate adequate employment opportunities, especially in the affected states.

Tourism in eastern states (where the problem is serious) must be promoted. This will attract tourists from both within and outside the country and help people raise their income.

APRAJITA MAHAJAN, Hamirpur

Economy and population rise IT is strange to compare our peculiar economy with other countries. While the labour here get peanuts, the manufacturer and marketing companies harvest the golden crop. This reflects the bad health of our economy. While the cost of petrol is influenced by global price, what makes a litre of packed guava juice at Rs 70 a litre while quality raw fruit is abundantly available at less than Rs 7 a kg in the retail market? It is sheer exploitation of labour and consumers. India’s economy is growing but the benefit of growth is not penetrating to the grassroots level. The ‘labour’ is devalued because of its excess supply and less requirement. The policy makers need to enforce population control through stick and carrot’. We need to boost industrial growth so that the untapped is utilised to its potential. NAVTEJ S. GHUMMAN, Ferozepur

Third front needed

This has reference to Pran Chopra’s article “Limits of a third front: There must be rules for it to follow” (Sept 14). He rightly said that third front is necessary for the survival of our parliamentary democracy. One-party democracy is bad, two-party democracy which thrives on negative votes and does no good to the masses is worse; still worse is the huge multi-party democracy, the anarchist democracy prevailing in the country today.

The Left parties’ outside support for either of the two main parties saved it from becoming an “integral tail” to wither away like opportunist parties flirting from front to front.

Huge multi-linguistic nations like India need the Rajya Sabha having equal number of legislatures from each linguistic region, irrespective of one’s population, to achieve better results. After all, if majority is elixir of democracy, consensus, the respect for dissent, is super elixir. The unilinguistic USA’s presidential form of government is unfit for multi-linguistic India.

PRAN SALHOTRA, Gurdaspur

Save this garden

Reports that the heritage garden in Srinagar village, Kandaghat, Solan district, is being converted into a stadium have come as a rude shock to the people of this region. This garden has been developed on the patron of Pinjore’s Yadavindra Garden by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. It has beautiful terraces, not found in Himachal Pradesh.

If this beautiful garden is uprooted and converted into a stadium, it will not be a correct step. This is a precious lung space and hence should not be demolished.

At the entrance of the garden, an old Shiva temple is located. There are also some rare varieties of trees, not found anywhere in Himachal Pradesh. The stadium can be constructed somewhere else, but not by uprooting this garden. The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh should intervene and help save this garden.

RITU AGGARWAL, Kandaghat

Enforce ban orders

To check noise and air pollution, the Supreme Court has banned the use of loud-speakers and pressure horns from 6 pm to 6 am. The Ropar district authorities have imposed a ban on the use of pressure horns by vehicles in May. The Fatehgarh Sahib authorities have warned that those vehicle owners using pressure horns will be challaned.

Surprisingly, however, these orders remain on paper. The ban orders on the use of pressure horns and loud speakers should be enforced immediately. Those violating the orders must be punished.

Col B.S. GHUMAN (retd), Mohali