M A I L B A G

Himachal youth need skills for jobs

Apropos of the article “Creating jobs a road map for Himachal” (May 17), the statistics of unemployment in this small state are quite alarming. The writer has emphasised the lack of governmental efforts to create job avenues and suggested a three-tier system to identify the new avenues.

The opinion “lack of work for the youth leads to frustration among them and is a clear case of human waste” is contrary to the other view that “it’s government job or no job”. According to the figures quoted, 10,000 people engaged in various works in Solan are from Chhattisgarh.

Our present-day youth want only government jobs. Otherwise, they would prefer to stand in the unemployment queue. The reason is the lack of proper technical education which helps one to start his/her own venture or become self-employed. The pass-outs of professional colleges, polytechnics and ITIs are interested in teaching, clerical jobs and some kind of contractual government jobs, where their skill is not challenged. They get a fixed amount after some time. The technical force we generate seems to be lacking in confidence; they do not have the courage to start a small enterprise and be self-independent.

The government has started many self-employment programmes. It has liberalised policies to start any enterprise or business, but the youth do not have the skills required for any given job. That is why, they are unable to join the private sector or even undertake self-employment.

SANGEETA VERMA, Dharamshala

Merge Pipli with Kurukshetra The Haryana government has recently changed the names of the bus stands at Kurukshetra, Thanesar and Pipli. The Pipli Bus Stand has been renamed as Kurukshetra Highway Bus Stand, for the convenience of those coming to the Land of Mahabharata. This will make Kurukshetra easily accessible and bring it on the world map. The government should merge Pipli town with Kurukshetra, making the ancient city situated on the National Highway. For, with the expansion of Kurukshetra, it would be difficult for one to distinguish between Pipli and Kurukshetra. The distance from the Kurukshetra Main Bus Stand to the Pipli Bus Stand is virtually nil. Moreover, according to a survey done by me, most of the residents of Pipli love to be identified as Kurukshetrias, mainly due to the importance attached to the city. From the geographical point of view, my idea would make the location of Kurukshetra very convenient to the visitors and research scholars. Besides, some more beautiful places should be formed in and around this historic place to promote tourism. VIPIL SEHGAL, Ladwa

Hill agriculture

On reading Ranjodh Singh's article “Hill states can treble productivity” (May 26), I found to my dismay that it states nothing beyond what is only too well known about the problems and challenges in hill agriculture.

That Himachal Pradesh's large pasture land area is crying for development, that water harvesting is the prime need and technologies for water harvesting need to be developed and disseminated, that bee-keeping, floriculture, off-season vegetable-growing and so on can boost agricultural income of the farmer have been repeated ad nauseam. And anyone even remotely connected with agriculture has gone almost deaf listening to all this stuff.

Therefore, with due respect to the writer, I dare say that the article falls woefully short of suggesting cogent and innovative strategies for giving a new orientation to hill agriculture — something which is now at least being thought about and attempted by the Agricultural University at Palampur.

And pray, was the writer, who I believe retired as Director of Research from this University only recently, able to give during his long innings any tangible direction, impetus and thrust to translate any of the hackneyed ideas into reality that he is now waxing eloquent about? Did he not become an easy prey for the forces that promote mediocrity and frown at excellence? And is his claim of trebling the productivity in the hill states based on sound and objective economic reasoning or just a wild guess?

SUBHASH C. SHARMA, Palampur (Kangra)

No delay on our part

Apropos of the report “Online lottery project delayed”, we want to clarify that no delay has taken place due to Orbit Group. We draw your attention towards the initial deadline which was till May 10 to sign and execute the Agency Agreement. However, the state government issued the draft of the Agency Agreement to us on May 27. We had indicated through our several written reminders to the state government for early issuance of the Agency Agreement. Arrangement of the bank guarantee by us also got delayed because of the late delivery of the Agency Agreement.

It may also be noted that we have neither asked for any sort of relief in the amount of minimum assured fee offered to the government, nor we sought any concession regarding the payments to be made to the government.

RAM YADAV, Orbit Group, Mumbai

The Tribune correspondent replies: The crux of my report was that starting of the online lottery was being delayed in Haryana. The report mentioned that the bank guarantee for Rs 5 crore was yet to be arranged by the Orbit Group, though the time limit of one month had already passed. Both these points were admitted by Mr Ram Yadav of the Orbit Group. He, however, had held the state government responsible for the delay.

Old parents and goat

When I see the way, old, weak, invalid and innocent parents are insulted and in some cases abandoned, the following couplet of Saint Kabir comes to my mind:

Bakri patti khat hai, ta ki kadhi khal,

Jo nar bakri khat hai ta ko kaun hawal.

Goat is a very gentle and innocent animal. It eats grass only. What happens to it? Its skin is stripped off. What an extreme and painful punishment she gets!

But what is going to happen to those people who kill an innocent goat and eat its meat?

DESH RAMPAL, Jalandhar