M A I L B A G

Chinese miracle & what’s wrong with India

THE two articles on China were an eye-opener for most of us. The comparative tables on India's and China's progress should put us to shame. It is high time to realise that we Indians should come out of the self-made deceptive illusions of our greatness and spirituality Today in the true sense secularism means giving a respectful living atmosphere to every citizen in the country and not the pscado-secularism type practised by one political party after another.

We have talent, resources and manpower, but the colossal level of corruption, inefficiency, lack of responsibility, general indiscipline, inadequate planning and poor insight about various problems fritter away the little gains that ordinary citizens make by their hard work, skill and entrepreneurship.

During the 1962 war China caught us with our pents down, and in another one decade our barren socio-economic policies will stand exposed before the rest of the world.

Dr RAJEEV GUPTA, Ludhiana

Bungling

Apropos the report "Punjab wheat reaches Rajasthan" (Oct 31), your correspondent seems to have bungled the Christian era with Vikram-Samvat regarding which your daily regularly carries a feature under the headline “Calendar". Actually, the great famine took place some 100 years back in 1956-Vikrami, corresponding to 1900-01 AD. Then also Lala Lajpat Rai and Mahatma Hans Raj had gone from Punjab to Bikaner to carry out relief work.

In Rajasthan even today, in local parlance, a bad debt is called a debt noted in the "chhapania bahi" (account books of 1956-Vikrami). Similarly, in Gujarat local Christians are still referred to as "chhapania khristis" (Christians of 1956-Vikrami) because they were converted by missionaries in exchange for a single bowl of rice during that infamous famine. Gandhi has very rightly designated them as "rice-Christians".

JAGDISH CHANDRA CHOPRA, Amritsar

Contract issue IT is shocking to learn that the decision to get the stage II of Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP), Lehra Mohabbat, constructed through the EPC contract from BHEL is being taken at the directions of the Punjab Government to please vested interests against the firm recommendations of the highest technical authority (Chief Engineer). The PSEB has a golden history of constructing thermal plants in a record time on its own. Recently the Boiler Drum of GHTP-1 was erected in a record time of 84 days and tested hydraulically in 11 months against the normal period of 150 days (for erection) and 15 months (for hydro test). All the three thermal plants constructed by the PSEB are giving record generation and winning award after award at the national level Through the EPC contract the PSEB will lose an opportunity for self-training of its workforce. Keeping PSEB engineers away from the critical aspects of construction will create problems during the operation and maintenance of the plant, thus leaving it at the mercy of the monopolistic BHEL. The EPC contract will result in under-utilisation and idling of PSEB staff. It is highly objectionable that the Punjab Government is directing the autonomous board to lose Rs 200 crore by way of the EPC contract. Earlier also, the dictatorial decisions of the Punjab Government to supply free power to farmers and the Scheduled Castes had ruined the PSEB. The PERC should intervene and order the PSEB to construct the GHTP Stage-II departmentally. BALDEV SINGH, Lehra Mohabbat

Phone exchange

We want to draw the attention of the BSNL authorities to the plight of the telephone exchange at the remote village of Aulakh (Qadian) The exchange is a complete shambles. In-coming calls are rare on the telephone connected to this exchange as it is very difficult to get connected to the telephones of this exchange.

Out-going calls are possible only with a stroke of luck and that too after at least half an hour of constant and relentless dialling.

Lately, the problems of connecting to wrong numbers, cross-talk and snapping of incoming calls have become common. The registration of telephone complains at the Qadian exchange on computer is a worse experience.

The authorities are requested to overhaul/rectify this exchange in response to the joint appeal of all village sarpanches served by this exchange.

KULWANT KAUR, Sarpanch, Khojkipur (Gurdaspur)

Reserved constituency

May I bring to the notice of the Delimitation Commission that the Gagret Assembly constituency continues to fall under the "reserved" category ever since it was carved out several decades ago. The indefinite reservation of a constituency is not only unjust and unfair, but also against the Constitution.

TARA CHAND, Ambota (Una)

Tailpiece

This was written on the rear of a truck going ahead of me on the Adampur-Jalandhar road.

"Sohne gaye hoye ne pekke

Hun ghar ch khulan ge thekke"

PREETINDER SINGH DANG, Jalandhar