L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Rising population: Another catastrophe

The editorial ‘Demographic challenge’ has rightly given a clarion call to the country to wake up to tackle the continued population growth. Over the decades, our political leaders and governments have always ignored this problem due to their voter-appeasement policies. The founding fathers of the Constitution should have introduced some compelling clauses for population control.

In 1947, the population was 35 crore, which is now estimated to be around 1.27 billion. And this population boom has eaten away most of our jobs, cheap housing, good food, education facilities, basic infrastructure such as roads and natural resources. The ecology imbalance, environmental degradation and global warming are also the result of this problem. India is going to have a one-fifth of the world’s total unemployed youth.

We need crusaders like Anna Hazare to control the population growth. Moreover, mass awareness programmes should be held by educational centres, radio, TV and cinemas. Those who follow the one child norm should be given preference in government jobs, quota in plots and houses, less rates of interest in banking loans, subsidy in education, child welfare and social welfare schemes, income tax rebates, etc.

B KAPOOR, Jalandhar

Try this system

It is an innovative step on the part of the Railways that passengers can send an SMS or ring up for registering complaints related to cleanliness and other problems in coaches. The state governments must also introduce a similar system in buses on roads as well.

Passengers face many problems while travelling in buses. Most of the public buses are not cleaned and drivers use mobile phones while driving. The conductors never give the complaint book when demanded. This facility can help improve public transport system.

SOHAN LAL GUPTA, Patiala

Fleecing tourists

This has reference to the editorial ‘Paradise at a price’ (June 13). Now a visit to Kashmir by air is hardly affordable for most of the domestic tourists as many airlines are charging exorbitant fares. Strangely, the Civil Aviation authorities or any other competent authority have failed to check the airlines’ arbitrariness in hiking air fares. Moreover, the excessive hotel reservation charges will also dampen the spirits of tourists, who will have to think of visiting some other hill stations. The government must act now and come to the rescue of hapless tourists who fall prey to the insatiable greed of tour operators and hotel managers.

M S TANDAN, Ambala Cantt

Placement drives

The placement drives season in engineering and technology institutes has just passed. With the privatisation of professional and technical education, one witnesses lesser number of companies visiting government engineering colleges and universities as compared to private ones. Today, most government engineering colleges like Kurukshetra University, Panjab University and Punjabi University no longer attract a good number of companies to recruit their students. Some private engineering colleges and universities are able to attract many companies to their placement drives as they adopt an illegal method of paying a hefty amount to HR personnel of private companies. The government should look into the matter otherwise there will be fewer entrants to such government colleges.

TARANJIT SINGH DHILLON, Yamunanagar

Manpower crisis

The armed forces, particularly the Army, face a shortage of officers and ordinary soldiers as most of the youth of the country are opting for the civil services and other lucrative employment opportunities. This manpower crisis does not augur well for the security and sovereignty of the country, especially when we are faced with the problem of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan and Chinese intrusions into Indian territory. Moreover, on the domestic front, the Maoist menace is another threat to the country’s security. The government should take steps to attract the country’s youth towards joining the forces.

BABU RAM DHIMAN, Pinjore

Weaning off books Apropos the middle 'Books to shoes' (June 11) by Rajan Kashyap, the writer has echoed the agony and nostalgia of thousands of book-lovers who must have spent hours of quality time while browsing through books in those shops which have been replaced by shoe stores and other shops selling consumer items. The world has indeed gone topsy-turvy, "where mind is totally empty and foot is held high". All the romance of buying new books, fondling crisp pages, exchanging old ones, hiding certain ones under the pillows, dog-earing important pages, borrowing from friends and reluctance to return them all seem to have disappeared. And one should not forget how convenient books were to send and receive love-epistles. Book-shops were the main attraction of towns and cities. Alas! Most book-lovers are now interested in laptops and smart phones. DR DINESH SHARMA & ANITA MATHUR, Pathankot