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Economic reforms are for rich only

Notwithstanding the fact that there is large-scale unemployment, poverty, hunger and corruption across the country, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the so-called economic reforms, initiated way back in 1991, will continue in the coming days.

It has been proved beyond doubt that owing to introduction of these economic reforms, only big businessmen, foreign capital and the rich, especially those who have formed a nexus, have benefited. It is because of the economic reforms that inflation is touching new highs every day. The mineral wealth of our country is being gifted either cheap or free to big industrialists. The economic reforms have driven 2.90 lakh farmers to suicide. With the coming of the FDI, after suicides by farmers, there will be the turn of small shopkeepers to commit suicide. Under these reforms, corporate business houses are being given a free hand and other benefits while common people are not getting basic facilities like education, health, sanitation, etc. People need food, employment, education, health and social justice and equal rights for women which are far away under these reforms.

To give relief to the aam aadmi, as promised in the election manifesto of the Congress, there is a need to change these so-called economic reforms which are being adopted under the diktats of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO. Despite the fact that the national and international agencies, including the World Bank, are issuing warnings of a slowdown in the economy, the UPA government is claiming otherwise.

SK KHOSLA, Chandigarh

Double standards

I wish to congratulate you on highlighting the issue of adopting double standard in the case of rising the height of boundary walls of private and government houses ( The Tribune, February 23).

MANJIT SINGH, Chandigarh

Juvenile crimes

In cases of juvenile sexual crimes, juvenile punishment in our country leaves a lot of lacunae and provides undue opportunities to the accused to commit violent and sexual crimes against the same victim after his release from jail or ‘sudhar ghar’ after a minimum period of three years – the maximum period in jail for a juvenile convict, so says the law. No one can deny the fact that instead of mending his ways through such meagre punishment, the accused, in all probability, will develop a stronger revengeful attitude against the victim. Therefore, if the punishment awarded to the juvenile “predator”, who was one among the six persons involved in the Delhi gang rape case, is not meted out in letter and in spirit, it would be violation of natural justice.

It is beyond one’s imagination as to how can such a convict be let off scot-free in the name of being a juvenile, when he has committed a crime which even an adult cannot. It would be even more deplorable if such a juvenile convict may be set free even earlier, the day he ceases to be a juvenile.

PC YADAV, Bhiwani

Retirement age

The retirement age of schoolteachers in Delhi is 62 years, whereas in Rajasthan, Punjab and a few other states, it is 60 years. But in Haryana it is 58 years. The retirement age of a schoolteacher in Haryana should be raised to 60 years on the pattern of these and a few other states of India.

RNS, Bhiwani

Land sharks

The land on the periphery of Chandigarh has turned into a gold mine. The bigwigs in power and pelf have connived with one another to grab the prime land illegally (editorial: Land grab en masse, March 16).

The bigger the sharks, the more insatiable appetite they have. That is why, 30,000 land sale deeds were executed in just one village on the periphery of Chandigarh. The nexus between high-ups and influential persons was so secure that no skeleton tumbled out till the Punjab and Haryana High Court appointed a panel under Justice Kuldeep Singh to prove illegal transactions of land.

The common village land (shamlat) is the easiest prey. The panchayat members facilitate deals in conformity with rules, often circumvented. It is not only the revenue and consolidation officers, the booty out of shady deals goes to politicians also. The guilty, however influential they may be, must be handed out severe punishment besides forfeiture of their land thus robbed.

KARNAIL SINGH, Kharar

Endless RC ordeal The Chandigarh Administration, despite having an able UT Administrator, the Deputy Commissioner, the Municipal Commissioner and a long line of high-ups, has failed to redress the five-year-old Registration Certificate (RC) problem of its valuable citizens. An applicant has to wait for at least four to five months for the RC. In this four-month period, he is made to visit the department concerned a number of times. What used to be a one-day process has now become a four-month ordeal. Even a similar problem is also being faced by those visiting the UT Health Department for the birth and death certificates. They have to visit the office frequently for the certificates. Though much has been written in this regard in the newspapers, the authorities concerned in particular and the UT high-ups in general seem in no mood to take remedial measures. JITENDRA SHARMA, Chandigarh