M A I L B A G

AC buses to ease traffic congestion

THE Delhi Government has been grappling with serious traffic problems, the 65-km Delhi Metro service and flyovers notwithstanding. The contagion has spread to peripheral towns like Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida etc. Now people have pinned hopes on the proposed extension of Metro service to adjoining townships. But when it gets ready, the ever-increasing volume of traffic may still keep success at bay.

I suggest a simple solution to solve the traffic problem. To begin with, the government should procure say, 100 air-conditioned (AC) buses and deploy them on the busy Gurgaon-Delhi, Faridabad-Delhi (Connaught Place-Ballabhgarh) routes with the frequency of one bus every five minutes. Simultaneously, ban plying of cars during peak hours (8 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.). Once this experiment succeeds, it should be extended gradually to other routes and townships like Mohali, Chandigarh and Panchkula.

Car-borne office goers will be happy to switch on to AC buses as they are fed up with traffic jams and rising petrol prices. The government can subsidise the fare (say, Rs 30 a trip). DMRC Chief E. Sreedharan has also hinted at this alternative once, i.e. providing feeder service of AC buses to Metro stations. The government should give it a try.

RAM NIWAS MALIK, Engineer-in-Chief (retd), Gurgaon

Creation of chimeras

I refer to the article “Playing god with science” by Dr Rajendra Chawla and Dr Neena Chawla (Science and Technology Page, Oct 27). The successful creation of chimeras (an individual having mixture of two or more species in some body) can be a boon.

It can treat numerous diseases and disabilities like renal and liver failure, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injury, heart diseases, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Here, the stem cell of an organism is used and transplanted to other species.

However, the question arises, by creating more and more chimeras, when one inputs more of human traits into animals, the entire evolution cycle is disturbed, if one is not playing with the natural phenomena. With the passage of time, newer and better species are formed. But by creation of chimeras, the evolutionary cycle will be disturbed. Consequently, it puts greater responsibility on human beings to preserve nature and its processes.

RUPINDER PAL KAUR, Faridkot

District status for Barnala District tag for Barnala is good news. Its original name was Anandgarh. It was changed to Barnala when Ala Singh, founder of Patiala regime, established his rule here. Barnala’s importance is ‘Bar’ (God’s blessings) to Ala (Ala Singh). Once Barnala was a very big district which included the entire Malerkotla state, Bathinda, Mansa, Rampura Phul etc. The Deputy Commissioner was called ‘Nazim’ but later Barnala was made a sub-division of Sangrur district. Barnala is the only sub-division with a permanent court of two Addl. Sessions Judges and 3-4 subordinate judges. Barnala is already a police district with an SSP, two SPs and four DSPs. As Barnala now requires only a District Magistrate, it won’t cost the exchequer much. The district offices can be constructed in the huge court complex. VED PARKASH GUPTA, Barnala

Retrograde steps

With liberal entry of foreign companies in many sectors on the pretext of attracting FDI, we are going to witness merciless downsizing and restructuring. This will result in reduced workforce, reduction of salaries and absence of job security as in the US and many European nations. Gradually, Communists, the main prop of the UPA government at the Centre and their unions are going to be irrelevant.

These days, there are fire sales of large tracts of agricultural land in West Bengal, Punjab and other UPA-ruled states for setting up the special economic zones (SEZs), industrial and other fancy projects. So we will have zamindaries of real estate sharks and industrial houses.

Whatever one calls them, some are purely state-patronised labour camps with massive tax exemptions. These retrograde steps are antithesis of land reforms and social justice.

R.K. MANI, Mangalore (Karnataka)

North Korean blast

North Korea’s detonation of a nuclear device is a sad development. In the beginning of the third millennium, all countries are now disillusioned about the futility of war or violence as a weapon to solve problems. There is a growing realisation that war itself is a problem and hence the indispensability of dialogue, understanding, tolerance and patience.

However, a few countries which suffer from economic mismanagement and cannot feed their population still try to attract world’s attention by going nuclear by hook or by crook, although exploding a nuclear device is not in itself an achievement.

DALJIT KAUR, Amritsar

Speed up justice

The Union Law Ministry has recommended the creation of Indian Judiciary Service (IJS) on the pattern of the IAS and IPS to meet the shortage of judges in the country. This recommendation seems to have been put in cold shortage.

Most High Courts and other courts in the districts and sub-divisions are badly in need of judges. The IJS is a must to clear the huge backlog of cases in various courts and speed up justice.

Lt-Col P.S. SARANG (retd), Chandigarh