M A I L B A G

Scrap quotas for national progress

Apropos of Udit Raj’s article “Quota for Dalits” (Sept 7), the issue in question is to uplift the weaken sections of society irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. Caste-based reservations will exacerbate tensions between various castes. This is what the Congress has been doing since Independence.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar hoped that reservations, for an initial period of 10 years, would help uplift the backward castes. But their purpose has been defeated following its misuse by successive governments for narrow partisan ends. Quotas are used as vote banks and, I am afraid, they will continue in perpetuity.

Reservations have divided society rather than promoting societal good. Politicians, who blow the trumpet of serving the have-nots, are responsible for the malady. A telling example is of a family in my village whose third generation continues to clean toilets since Independence. What has quota done to them?

The need of the hour is education, not reservations, which our politicians would never do. May God show the likes of Udit Raj the righteous path. We must scrap quotas if India has to march forward and progress.

ARUN MALHOTRA, Chandigarh

II

The very concept of reservations creates a societal divide. As a result, it is misused by politicians to expand their vote banks. When reservations were introduced for the Scheduled Castes, it was with a view to eradicating the caste system and providing some socio-economic support to them. But today the gap has widened and the situation has also changed.

Reservations should be scrapped as they have compromised merit, talent and efficiency. It is a crime when even the children of IAS and IPS officers use reservation certificates to take admission into professional institutions and secure jobs. It is time to put an end to the quota system before more and more communities get the benefit.

Surely, incentives can be offered to the deserving candidates in the form of scholarships, that too, on merit and by increasing the number of opportunities for them.

MANU SHARMA, Patiala

Guilty doctors must be booked When an accident victim died in Bathinda recently, while he was being taken to Ludhiana, his family members alleged that he died due to lack of oxygen in one of the cylinders; the two other cylinders were empty in the ambulance. They also alleged that the doctors had delayed in providing the treatment. When the relatives of the victim got a case registered against the erring doctors after resorting to agitation and dharna in front of the civil hospital, the doctors threatened to go on strike. The Senior Medical Officer said that the case registered against the doctors was against the recent verdict of the Supreme Court which said that doctors could not be charged with criminal negligence if a patient died due to an error of judgement. I would like to know whether it is an error of judgement if a patient dies when the cylinder ran out of oxygen on the way. The Supreme Court has rightly referred the doctors’ case to a larger Bench. The media should spread the message that a doctor is responsible for the death of a person in case of gross negligence by the doctor. I request the authorities concerned to take stringent action against the doctors if found guilty due to gross negligence. GURDEEP MANN, Bathinda

Ill-advised yatra

After the Karnataka government withdrew all the cases against Ms Uma Bharati and subsequently released her from the jail, her current Tiranga Yatra is ill-advised. It may create tension and divert the people’s attention from major issues confronting the country. She should have started a long pada yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar on issues of rampant corruption in public life and administration and neglect of primary education, health care, sanitation, roads etc. The common man is clamouring for a pollution and crime-free atmosphere to lead a normal life.

Ms Bharati should focus all her energies on the burning issues. The Tiranga Yatra may help BJP garner some votes in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, but it may not earn the people’s goodwill.

R.L. SINGAL, Chandigarh