M A I L B A G

UNSC seat with veto unrealistic

IT would be extremely naive for India to think that the P5 countries will agree to give it a permanent UN Security Council seat armed with a veto power. Why would the Big Five, especially the US, agree to dilute their own authority and commit harakiri internationally by sharing power with lesser mortals like us?

India has to first establish her political clout and prove her mettle before thinking of being accepted as an equal member. It may depend upon a host of variables. Right now, we are perceived as a country that can be subjected to harangue and hectoring diplomacy. We may have the body of a lion but possess the heart of a lamb. Where a roar is needed, we are content with a tame whimper.

Wg-Cmdr S.C. KAPOOR (retd), Noida (UP)

II

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s rejection of veto power to the new members of the Security Council indicates that he is toeing the line of Mr George Bush and Mr Tony Blair. The US and the UK don’t want India to become a permanent member.

Russia and China should support India and force the Security Council to accept India as a permanent member with veto power. This will later help end the supremacy of the US and the UK. All political parties should join hands and work together to help India emerge as an economic power in the world.

SANJEEV SHARMA, New Delhi

Sack the corrupt

Former UPSC Chairman P.C. Hota has rightly suggested the Centre and the states to sack corrupt officers summarily. Unless dishonest and corrupt bureaucrats are dismissed, we cannot check corruption in the government and ensure smooth implementation of the developmental programmes.

We should make sure that every corrupt officer is brought to book and punished rigorously. As Anon has rightly said, “…When we neither punish nor reproach evil doers…we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations”.

SUBER SINGH PARIHAR, Chamba

II

There was a time when corruption was abhorred as sacrilege by bureaucrats, save an odd exception. Today, regrettably, it is rampant in all departments. Drastic measures are necessary to rid our society of this growing menace. If the polity is cleansed, it would automatically bring sanity elsewhere. Our political culture is in dire need of being lifted from decadence.

Brig H.S. CHANDEL (retd), Una (HP)

Professional deviation THE Ayurvedic system of medicine and health care has long been neglected. Its hospitals and dispensaries in Punjab continue to function under directors who are either PCS officers or allopathic dignitaries. This practice must stop. Ayurvedic doctors, after graduation, love to practice allopathy. They prescribe allopathic medicines and ignore the Ayurvedic formulations in which they have been trained. Their knowledge of allopathic medicines is elementary and superficial. They are just qualified quacks. Experts of Ayurveda should come forward and condemn this professional deviation and exhort their wayward colleagues to go back to their roots. R.L. SINGAL, Chandigarh

Pension relief

In Punjab, pensioners at the age of 65 and 75 years have been getting relief @ 5 and 10 per cent respectively. After Haryana‘s formation in 1966, some employees of erstwhile Punjab were allocated to Haryana in November, 1966, under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. Such employees, on retirement, have been deprived of the aforementioned relief.

The Punjab Reorganisation Act protects the rights of such employees allocated to Haryana. Thus, such employees who retired after November 1, 1966, in Haryana shall be governed under the Service Rules in Punjab. I appeal to the Haryana government to consider the plight of such pensioners and sanction the aforementioned relief to them.

M.S. CHEEMA, Panchkula

School education

There is a lot of criticism of school education in Punjab. Had the system been improved, it would have helped even Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Infection of the disease of the parent state had a contagious effect on Haryana and Himachal Pradesh too.

There have been single-teacher schools in many primary schools. The Centrally-sponsored Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan has been limited to seminars and workshops. There is poor implementation.

UJJAL PAL SINGH, Faridabad

Majitha report

Last year, the Punjab government constituted the fee fixation committee for admissions in private dental and medical colleges in Punjab. However, owing to non-submission of the report, private colleges are forcing students to pay hefty fee. Students are studying in tense situation, particularly in the colleges run by the SGPC. The Majitha Committee should submit the report soon so that the students can study without tension.

G.S. GILL, Amritsar