For democracy in party functioning

TO have a meaningful democracy in the country, there has to be a democratic structure of political parties also. After watching the working of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the last over 20 years, I feel that the structure of the party may be democratic but its working is not.

For this, both leaders and workers are to blame. The result is that whenever there is any difference of opinion among senior persons, the party splits. There are no built-up shock absorbers within the party to accommodate healthy discussion and dissent.

During the time of Mr S.S. Barnala there was a diagonal split in the party on account of difference of approach on certain issues. History seems to be repeating now.

Over-concentration of power in one hand could not tolerate an innocuous suggestion of Mr G.S. Tohra and threw him out of the party. He formed a new party and split the Akali votes in the parliamentary elections held in September, 1999. The loss suffered by the Chief Minister was beyond his wildest dreams.

Now Mr Ravi Inder Singh is in trouble for those very reasons.

When all powers concentrate in one person, an unpopular caucus develops around that person which leads him from one mistake to another.

The fact remains that the party and the state are moving towards a serious crisis.

G. S. GREWAL,
former Advocate-General, Punjab
Chandigarh

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Teaching without salaries

Since the Chautala government was formed after the fall of the Bansi Lal government in July, 1999, a sort of new liberalisation has ushered in — a series of welfare measures to ameliorate the lot of a cross-section of society. All these measures have been widely hailed, signifying the installation of the popular government. But the privately managed colleges which have been receiving 95 per cent grant-in-aid over the years have been starved of funds by withholding the grant against the salary of the previous four months in succession.

This has precipitated a financial crisis in the affected colleges. The teachers are passing through a grave situation in the wake of the non-receipt of salaries for as many as four months continuously. They feel extremely demoralised and a sense of disquiet has gripped them.

The teachers are at a loss to understand how to cope with their monthly financial liabilities which they have to incur to keep their body and soul together. They are said to be handsomely paid employees, but they find themselves in a financial morass, jeopardising their credibility in the market on account of their inability to clear their monthly bills of routine nature. Besides the 5000 teachers, the affected employees include a large number of non-teaching category employees.

Only God knows when the arrears of the teachers, which have accrued in the wake of the implementation of the new UGC scales with effect from 1.1.96, will be released as the pall of pessimism is enveloping them for the non-receipt of salaries.

The Central government, which was to bear 80 per cent liability of the arrears, is said to have already sent the money to the state government to facilitate an early release of the arrears. But one simply wonders where the funds have gone and why the arrears are not being paid.

R.L. GOEL & R.S. CHAWLA
Ladwa

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Shifting of veterinary hospital

The move to shift the district veterinary hospital, Jalandhar, to the campus of Animal Husbandry Department at Ladowali Road is a step in right direction (The Tribune, December, 3). This campus has many plus points. Those with raised eyebrows in the Veterinary Department do not look forward to the status the veterinary hospital will achieve at the new site.

At this campus there is a well-equipped diagnostic laboratory. Here a pathologist, a bacteriologist, an epidemiologist, a poultry specialist and a gynaecologist are heading their respective sections to cater to the needs of sick animals in Punjab. The veterinary hospital in the vicinity of this laboratory will have all diagnostic facilities to treat sick animals after having a series of tests.

Dangerous diseases in animals can be treated by a timely blood examination, culture and sensitivity tests. An unnecessary injection given to a sick animal without diagnosis is tantamount to cruelty. Rational and ethical treatment will be conveniently possible here. All difficult cases can be discussed on the spot as in addition to the laboratory staff, the Deputy Director and two Assistant Directors have their offices in this campus. The confluence of veterinarians at this one place can go a long way in the establishment of a veterinary hospital with a difference.

Since all the dairies are proposed to be shifted outside the city, the location of a veterinary hospital in the periphery of the city will be conveniently accessible to dairy owners. Carrying animals through jampacked roads is neither in the interest of animals nor citizens. All that has to be done at the new site is the construction of a boundary wall to give a separate entity to the veterinary hospital.

SOSHIL RATTAN
Animal Production Specialist
Amritsar