II

The editorial, “Growing urbanization” (September 6), is thought- provoking for offering out of the box solutions, and deserves attention of the stakeholders in reducing, if not ending, rural-urban disparities.

To realize the dream of a developed nation, India needs to learn the best practices being adopted in South Korea, which has a unique distinction of adopting the “Saemaul model of rural development”, started as a new community movement on April 22,1970. It is a grassroots-level five-year development plan involving all (cooperation, self-help and diligence among villagers, government and Saemaul leader) with only 11 per cent contribution of the government through training and material, like cement instead of money in cash to villages. It starts with a feasibility report and includes midterm report and final report for income generation, environment improvement with mental reforms, which is essential for stopping migration, and is essential for reducing the gap between urban and rural areas.

Professor MM GOEL,
Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences,
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

Oversight committee

This refers to the news report “Judicial Accountability: Legal community divided on inclusion of MPs in oversight committee” (September 5). I want to point out that this report has wrongly stated, “Under the provisions of the Bill introduced in Parliament, all the members of the oversight committee would be nominated by the Chief Justice of India”.

 On the contrary, Section 18 of the Judicial Standard and Accountability Bill, 2010, says:

(1) The National Judicial Oversight Committee shall consist of the following, namely:

(a) a retired Chief Justice of India appointed by the President, after ascertaining the views of the Chief Justice of India-- Chairperson;

(b) a judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice of

India-- Member;

(c) the Chief Justice of a High Court nominated by the Chief Justice of India-- Member ex-officio;

(d) the Attorney General for India—ex-officio Member;

(e) an eminent person nominated by the President-- Member

 Hence, it can be culled out that all the members of the oversight committee are not envisaged to be appointed by the Chief Justice of India.  Kindly put the record straight accordingly.

Dr RAJENDER GOYAL, Advocate,
Bahadurgarh

Avoidable row

The remarks made by former England captain Nasser Hussain should not be taken out of the context (editorial, “Ass they say! Cricketers now bear a donkey’s load”, September 5). It should not unnecessarily become a controversy. The “donkey” epithet was not meant to be racial. The media should desist from the tendency of creating a controversy where none exists. In fact, it was a comment on the performance of a few Indian players on the field. The editorial rightly says that those who are unfamiliar with words like “underdog” may find its use offensive. An unnecessary controversy was created regarding the title of the movie, “Slumdog Millionaire”. Indians have to learn to ignore such matters and concentrate on serious issues rather than trivial ones.

KUNAL SHARMA,
Ludhiana

Abject poverty

The real cause of failure of laws pertaining to child labour and right to education is abject poverty that is prevailing in the country. Actually, 80 crore people are living below the poverty line and 60 crore of them are living in slums. Such is the sorry state of affairs even after 65 years of India’s independence.

Due to inflation, the poor find it difficult to fulfil their basic needs. They compel their children to work. Therefore, laws are not likely to succeed in curbing child labour unless the basic needs of the poor are met.