Not patient-friendly

With reference to the article by DR Choudhary "Reviving healthcare in Haryana" (November 28), regrettably, healthcare today is not patient-friendly. The poor patient is being robbed in the form of commissions to doctors from labs for investigations, from pharma companies for medicines, from different hospitals for referring a case. This menace should be taken care of by the doctors' fraternity itself, the IMA, IAP, FOGSI and other bodies on priority. Secondly, many specialist doctors either do not opt for government jobs or they leave the job due to lack of monetary and professional satisfaction. Allowing private practice after duty hours may attract competent doctors to government jobs. This will benefit the patients, too.

Dr PRAKASH, via email

Medical malpractices

Gone are the days when medical and teaching professions were considered noble and pious. Gone are the days when doctors, paramedics and teachers were looked upon as gods because one was the savior of human lives and other was largely responsible for shaping and building the individual.

Now all sort malpractices have made deep roots in both the professions.  Both the professions are as dirty as the Ganga is and efforts are required to cleanse both. Can, we do it?

Most hospitals, labs and investigation centres big or small employ people to distribute "lifafas" to those who send patients to them. But there is nobody to stop this unethical practice that has hit the common man.

Dr Naresh Raj, Patiala

Medical camps

Proper scrutiny and approval must be made mandatory for organising medical camps by various organisations. The eye camp organised at Gurdaspur recently has made the world hell for those who underwent the operations. The authorities must check the competency level, experience of the medical team and the medicines to be used before the camps. The organisations must also take responsibilities for the lapses. 

Wg Cdr Jasbir S Minhas (retd), Mohali

Punjab sliding

Punjab's downslide triggered with Parkash Singh Badal's advent on the political scene in the late sixties. He has been the CM of Punjab five times and there is hardly any worthwhile event of public welfare in his tenures. Rather, sand and gravel, drugs, property and liquor mafias have dominated the scene. Good governance has remained in hibernation. He is going to leave a legacy of ruined Punjab. Wish the old man realises the reality and change his stance. He still has the time.  

Ranjit S Sandhu, Amritsar

Banking woes

Banks have been forced to conduct loan melas to disburse loans at the cost of the quality of the loaning process. Banks have been forced to write off loans so that the vote banks of the ruling party swell. Banks have been used to carry out non-productive services like tax collection, salary payment. Or, they are disbursing subsidy-oriented loans under various government-sponsored schemes. Or, reckless branch expansions have been done in the name of service area approach or the PM's Jan Dhan Yojana. Banks have been allowed to do non-banking businesses like insurance, mutual fund, demat etc. They could earn a few crore rupees in commission on selling insurance policies, but they have lost thousands of crores of rupees by financing to bad borrowers or by neglecting monitoring loan assets or by writing off bad loans.  

Surinder Kumar Mahna, Karnal

BSF mans borders

Apropos the article by TV Rajeshwar “Pak backed infiltrators from PoK inflicted severe casualties on CRPF men manning the Indian posts” (December 16), the CRPF does not man posts at the Line of Control (LoC) or the International Border (IB). These are manned by Border Security Force (BSF). 

GS Virk, Chandigarh

Democracy wins

The long queues of people outside polling stations in the Valley in the cold weather to cast votes are a good sign for democracy and shows that people are looking for change and development.   

 Sahil Syal, Yamunanagar

No austerity

Apropos a news report of December 8, information obtained by an RTI activist reveals that Rs1.60 crore has been spent on the maintenance and purchase of lubricants for the vehicles attached with 11 Cabinet ministers in HP in 18 months. 

This does not augur well for the fund-starved state. Further, the offices of ministers have staff to full strength, some of whom can be seen sitting idle. On the other hand, adequate staff has not been provided to government departments, boards and corporations, affecting work. Will these politicians take austerity measures and avoid wastage of public money?

Jagat Ram, Saproon, Solan

Vijay Divas ignored

It is sad that The Tribune has ignored any mention of December 16 as a day when Indian armed forces personnel laid down their lives for defending freedom and democracy and inflicted defeat on the Pakistan armed forces in a decisive victory.

Brig Harish Malhotra, via email

Depleting groundwater

A report quoting Central Groundwater Board sources says that many districts of Himachal Pradesh, including Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Sirmaur and Una, have been registering a decline in the groundwater level by up to 20 cm per year in the past 10 years.

The report should ring alarm bells. Unless urgent measures are taken forthwith to improve the health of groundwater, the consequences are bound to be catastrophic.

Tara Chand, Ambota (Una)

PCS results

The results of the PCS mains exam held in July 2014 have been declared a good two months after the due date. A total of 213 candidates were declared successful instead of three times the number of seats (120 seats multiplied by 3 is 360) for the interview process, thereby violating PPSC guidelines. The anomaly must be corrected in the interest of hardworking students and candidates. 

Dr Hemant Garg, Chandigarh