M A I L B A G

Don’t treat the jobless as criminals

I refer to the editorial “Handle the jobless with compassion; not with lathis” (Sept 16). When Members of Parliament pass a Bill hiking their pay and perks, there is no single voice to raise concern. And when they create unruly scenes in Parliament and disrupt the proceedings, no action is taken against them because of the immunity they enjoy.

What was the fault of the agitating jobless? They just wanted an ear to listen to their grievances and a shoulder to cry. Being jobless is not a crime in itself. But treatment like lathi blows, water cannons and tear gas shells make it so. As the editorial rightly says, the jobless were not hardcore criminals. But if such inhumanly treatment is meted out to them, they could be turned into criminals.

As far as the teachers employed in public schools are concerned, it is well known that they are lowly paid and the most harassed lot. They get a paltry sum of Rs 2,000 or even less. Is it enough to make both ends meet vis-à-vis the high cost of loving?

VIJAY DHIMAN, Lecturer in Physics, GSSS, Bankhandi, Kangra

Justice in instalments It took 13 years for the court to decide about the involvement of suspected terrorists in the Mumbai blast case. Our juridical system has to admit one point — the criminal justice system needs reforms. Justice Pramod Kumar will take several weeks to pronounce judgement on the 123 people charged with perpetrating a terrorist act that killed 200 people on March 12, 1993, and destroyed the lives of those they left behind. The accused should have been punished 10 years ago. Rather several of the main accused continue to live happily in Karachi and Dubai only due to an ineffective judicial system. Most courts are housed in buildings which are totally unsafe. The minimum requirement is a clean courtroom. We must do away with the system of writing detailed judgements. Judges should be asked to use computers to save time and energy. Judges should be paid handsomely. An advocate makes more money in one court appearance as compared to a month’s salary of a judge. Last but not the least, the vacancies in the courts must be filled without any delay. Lakhs of cases are pending in courts due to the shortage of judges. Dr NARESH RAJ, Patiala

Onus on govt too

If Punjab’s Education Department has initiated action against some school teachers on account of poor results in the board examinations, it is just. But the fault does not lie with teachers alone. The onus of falling standards in government schools has to be shared by the government also which puts teachers on odd tasks not remotely related with their exclusive duty of teaching.

Teachers have been protesting against this system for long, but in vain. Consequently, the teachers are kept away from classroom teaching for months. The classes go unattended, courses are not finished well in time and the tension to finish them in a hurry towards the last leg of the session makes matters worse.

Posts lying vacant on account of death and retirement have not been filled. The burden of the increased workload disturbs the balance and affects the system. Apparently, schools which have not shown good results could not get a chance to help the students adopt malpractice and unfair means in the examination. This is a very common phenomenon in most educational institutions including the ones with the suffix of “Model”.

C.L. ARORA, Ferozepore City

Debate on hanging

Is hanging the ultimate result of all crimes? While capital punishment must be given only in rarest of the rare cases, life imprisonment should be given to all those found
guilty of murder.

Serial killers must be hanged because it is their psychology that makes them doing so. If they are given life imprisonment, then after their release from jail, they will again commit crime. Life imprisonment will help a criminal to improve and reform himself. A criminal is also a human and he must be given one more chance.

RUCHI SHARMA, DAV Centenary Public School, Una