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Centre should help Punjab farmers too This has reference to the editorial “Package for farmers: Why exclude Punjab? (July 3). The people of Punjab, especially its farmers, have always been at the receiving end during the last 60 years. No government has ever thought of paying the farmers of the country remunerative price of their produce. This has resulted in the suicide of thousands of farmers who were under heavy debt. The discrimination does not stop here. For example, the rate of interest on farm loan has been 12-18 per cent for the defaulters where as it has been very low on the industrial loans. Sadly, even after 66 years of his death, the country has not been able to produce a single leader of Chhotu Ram’s stature who was instrumental in getting the farmers of united Punjab liberated from the burden of huge debts. The Centre must wake up to the farmers’ plight and act. The farmers of Punjab deserve as much package and relief as those in other states like Maharashtra and Andhra
Pradesh. Major NARINDER SINGH JALLO (retd), Mohali
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TDS deduction The Director (Budget), Government of India. Ministry of Finance, New Delhi vide its letter no. 2-8/2004-NS-II of date March 28, 2006, has issued instructions to all concerned for deduction of TDS from SCSS. Senior citizens over 65 years have to file Form 15 H and those in the 55-65 age group should file Form-15-J if they do not come within the income-tax limit. However, as both forms are yet to reach the departments concerned, senior citizens are not able to get the payments under this scheme. RAJINDER PAUL JAIDKA, Patiala
Loan recovery The editorial
“Regulate loans” (July 14) rightly observes that “a loan/interest waiver fuels the growing, tendency to default on loans”. Honest citizen also gets tempted to be dishonest when he sees that the defaulters are being pampered by waiving off the loans/interest and other government dues. In India, successive governments at the Centre and in the states, irrespective of their political hues, resort to populist measures to allure the targeted vote banks, unmindful of the long-term consequences on the larger strata of society. The solution suggested at the end of the editorial, if followed in letter and spirit, may become the harbinger of unprecedented growth and phenomenal development of the national economy. LAJ PAT RAI GARG, Hisar
Rising prices Notwithstanding the efforts of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, hoarders continue to create artificial scarcity of commodities in the market. This has led to unprecedented increase in the prices of essential commodities. The UPA government should stop blaming the NDA government for the price hike. It should instead pull up its socks and act faster to check prices. HARINDER SINGH, Tarn Taran
Too meagre This refers to Defence Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee’s statement (June 30) on the increase in the pensions of ex-sepoys, naiks and havildars from Rs 400 to Rs 500. He stated that the demand of ex-servicemen for “one rank one pension” is nearly met. However, the government has carefully sidetracked this genuine demand of pre-1996 ex-servicemen. Even the increase in pension is too meagre. MOHINDER SINGH, Hoshiarpur
HC at Kurukshetra I refer to the news report (July 17) that the Haryana Chief Minister promised that Kurukshetra would be developed and it would be brought on the international map. Let him first bring it on the Haryana map by at least locating the Haryana High Court at Kurukshetra. Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj has stated categorically that it cannot be located at Chandigarh. VISHWA MITRA, Panipat
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