M A I L B A G

Loan waiver won’t help farmers

In the article “Loan-waiver scheme” (March 14) S. S. Johl has raised pertinent questions about the implementation of the scheme. For example, how will one or two hectare land-holding be defined? Is it irrigated or unirrigated? Is it one-crop or two-crop land? In my opinion the government’s indulgence will produce more willing defaulters among farmers, thereby putting the financial health of the banks and other agencies at risk.

The peasantry is already a pampered lot and more concessions will alienate it from the rest of society. Last year the government raised the wheat price from Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 a quintal and even this substantial raise has not appeased the farmers. A political party in Punjab is clamouring for a still higher price without bothering what effect it will have on the poor. Needs can be met, greed cannot be.

The waiving of loans will not bring any cheer to farmers as the symptoms of the disease lie elsewhere. In Punjab these lie in the ostentatious social customs and traditions. If free power supply has not brought any change in the economic status of farmers, the loan-waiver scheme too cannot.

What about the labourers and other have-nots? They rot in poverty without the basic amenities of life. Why? Because they do not have any lobby to fight for their rights.

LAKHA SINGH, Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College,Sarhali (Amritsar)

II

Vijay Malhotra, in his article “Farm waivers will harm development” (March 13), has adopted an unrealistic approach. The farming community’s debt burden is rising and profit margin declining. Small and marginal farmers are unable to make both ends meet. They are not in a situation to pay back the loans.

GURKIRPAL SINGH CHAGRAN, Hoshiarpur

Laungewala battle

It is my moral duty as a veteran to advise other veterans to stop washing their dirty linen in public. I might have been anywhere on December 5, 1971, but my military knowledge tells me that an unarmed AOP is a sitting duck for the enemy.

I may be wrong but in the “process of stealing thunder” out of the “Laungewala battle” by highlighting actions of the AOP, more harm has been done. We all know no war movie is ever a true representation of an actual war. Why talk about it?

To leave an aircraft in the no-man’s-land is not as per military teaching and certainly not an act of bravery, especially when at 3.30 pm, another Hunter mission was guided towards the enemy tanks from the same aircraft. Had there been any enemy in the tank gun range of his aircraft, the enemy would have destroyed it as a prize target.

It is common military knowledge that “a brave act in the face of the enemy” makes an individual eligible for a gallantry award. The fact that the aircraft was retrieved after the last light shows that the enemy had not re-grouped by then and the snag didn’t need any technician.

It is none of the business of the veterans to dig old graves now by highlighting what was done or not done then or somebody got more prominence than others. The government has recognised the act of the AOP more than adequately.

Brig (retd) H S GHUMAN, Mohali

White paper

On a petition by an advocate the Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought a status paper on education in Punjab but this is being delayed. A white paper on rural education will help in taking right steps to revamp the education system.

T. R. SHARMA, Patiala