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The Lahore strike
Decisive action needed |
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Baingan in your plate
Choosing judges
Woman, thy name is might
Fragile food security
From power surplus to shortage
Health
Corrections and clarifications
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The Lahore strike
THE expected ground offensive by the Pakistani army against an estimated 10,000 hardcore Taliban in their stronghold South Waziristan is yet to begin, but the militants seem to have already launched an offensive of their own, that too right there in the heart of the country. On Thursday, they carried out a series of attacks on police offices in Lahore, traditionally the seat of power, including the regional headquarters of the Pakistani Police’s Federal Investigation Agency, in which at least seven persons were killed. The same building was targeted in March last year also, killing 21 people. Gunmen also attacked two police training centres in Lahore taking several hostages. The Lahore incidents came shortly after a suicide car bomber set off his explosives outside a police station in Kohat in the troubled northwest region killing 10 persons. The number of casualties has already reached 24 and is expected to mount further. It has been a bloody week for Pakistan in which more than 100 persons have died. By first launching a brazen assault on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and now on the police establishments in Lahore, the militants seem to be throwing an open challenge to the might of the government and warning it not to launch its anticipated assault on the Taliban by sending in ground troops. They have also vowed violence in revenge for the killing of their leader Baitullah Masud in a US missile strike in August. Pakistan’s difficulty is that most of the Frankensteins which are now mounting a challenge to its very existence happen to be its own creations. They have turned against their mentors following the US drive against them. The US has made its frustration known to the Pakistani authorities over their failure to eliminate Taliban sanctuaries on its side of the border and the latter has now no choice except to go along with the American offensive. That was bound to cause reaction against its own forces. The Taliban offensive is going to be painful for Pakistan, but may perhaps teach its ruling establishment a lesson that promoting terror as an instrument of state policy is fraught with grave risks which are better avoided. India has been giving this advice for years now but sadly it was always ignored by Pakistan.
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Decisive action needed
THE Maoists have been on the rampage in Jharkhand and other states killing people and policemen with impunity. On Tuesday they attacked polling personnel and a police station in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra , seeking to disrupt the electoral process. They have also enforced a ‘bandh’ in large parts of rural Jharkhand and Bihar, set railway stations on fire, torched trucks and blew up sections of the railway track, disrupting movement of trains between New Delhi and Howrah. They are also suspected to have killed on Monday two senior officials of a coal mine in Pakur district of Jharkhand when they were out on their morning walk. The Maoists at the same time seem to be holding their own in the Lalgarh area of West Bengal despite the four-month-old offensive launched against them. Seldom before have the Maoists asserted their potential for mischief and violence in such an extended area and at the same time. It is a grim reminder that the ‘Red Corridor’ may not just be a Maoist rhetoric. This is bound to force any government to resort to taking a decisive action to counter perhaps the most serious threat to the state. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee have both indicated their readiness, if not preference, to have a dialogue with the Maoists. The Home Minister’s offer for talks came with the rider that the talks would be held only if the Maoists gave up arms. The Centre is right when it says that the campaign against Maoists is going to be a long haul. While its responsibility for launching massive operations against the Naxalites has enormously increased, it should also impress upon the states that they cannot abdicate their responsibility in tackling the menace. Individually, neither the Centre nor any state can fight the threat. The operations in the offing will have to be well-coordinated and decisive. |
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Baingan in your plate
FOR the first time, a government committee has approved a genetically modified (GM) food crop for commercial cultivation in the country, sparking a controversy fiercer than that surrounded the clearance of Bt cotton a few years ago. Critics who had warned of adverse environmental effects of Bt cotton are more hostile towards Bt brinjal as its long-term effect on human health are not yet known. The recommendation by the country’s regulator for GM crops is subject to clearance by the government. Since opinion is sharply divided on the emotive issue of genetically altered crops, it may take quite some time before the new brinjal variety is ready for mass consumption in India. Unlike the natural crops, the GM crops are modified in laboratories by altering or adding to their genes supposedly to make them pest-resistant, improve their nutritional value, prolong their shelf life and enhance their yield. That is why agricultural scientists like Dr Norman Borlaug have favoured them to rid the world of hunger and malnutrition caused by shortages of fruits, vegetables and foodgrains. GM foods like brinjal, tomato, cauliflower and cabbage are widely used in the US. Argentina, Brazil, China and India too have accepted them. Last August Britain too opened up to GM crops to improve crop yields and meet the nutritional needs of the future generations. But Europe, by and large, is still hostile to them. Civil society groups and NGOs like Greenpeace resent the near monopoly of a few MNCs on GM seeds, their marketing and research. Profit motive of these multinational companies is quite clear. The politicians and regulators, it is feared, may succumb to MNC pressure and temptations, ignoring concerns about public health and the environment. It is for the government, therefore, to address these concerns and evolve a transparent and independent regulatory mechanism involving reputed persons of integrity and competence so that benefits of biotechnology are not delayed by needless controversies. GM foods cannot be objected if they can help fight malnutrition and hunger, but the government will have to guarantee that the GM vegetables don’t cause harm to the health of the people, or affect their taste. |
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God is subtle but he is not malicious. — Albert Einstein
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Choosing judges
Recent developments concerning the integrity of Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran of the Karnataka High Court have caused serious embarrassment to the collegium of the Supreme Court. They underline the need for an appropriate mechanism to assist the collegium in making proper selection of candidates. Integrity is an indispensable requirement of a judge. Socrates said: “Four things belong to a Judge: to hear courteously; to answer wisely; to consider soberly; and to decide impartially.” A dishonest Judge cannot decide impartially. Over the years, there has been a growing concern about the deteriorating standards in judicial appointments. At the inaugural sitting of the Supreme Court in January 1950, Chief Justice Harilal J. Kania observed: “Unfortunately, during the last 20 years, that respect for the position, status and dignity of the judge has not been fully maintained.” Forty years later, Nani A. Palkhivala observed: “Public disenchantment with judicial administration has been vastly aggravated by the recent developments in the Bombay High Court. If you lose faith in politicians, you can change them. If you lose faith in judges, you still have to live with them. Corruption in the upper reaches of the judiciary is illustrative of the incredible debasement of our national character.” In the words of Chief Justice S.P. Bharucha: “The quality of our judges has regrettably fallen”. Seven years ago, he made a public statement that 20 per cent of the judiciary was corrupt, mostly the subordinate judiciary. What is the position today? Obviously, things have gone from bad to worse. Even after the superior judiciary has assumed the power of final selection of candidates for High Courts and the Supreme Court by a strained interpretation in the Second Judges Case of Article 124 requiring the executive to consult the Chief Justice of India, the quality of judicial appointments continues to cause concern to the Bench, the Bar, the government, the litigants and the public alike. The Supreme Court in that case noted: “Legal expertise, ability to handle cases, proper personal conduct and ethical behaviour, firmness and fearlessness are obvious essential attributes of a person suitable for appointment as a superior judge.” The judgement aroused great hopes that henceforth the quality of appointments would be very high, but experience of last 16 years has belied the expectations. A few deserving Chief Justices of High Courts were constrained to resign having been overlooked by the collegium. When Chief Justice M.L. Pendse of the Karnataka High Court was superseded in 1996, Mr Fali S. Nariman lamented: “There may have been good reasons why a judge with an excellent record was not appointed in one of the vacancies in the Supreme Court. But this `non-appointment’ has put in doubt the continuance of a system by which secrecy governs the entire selection process. We do not know, and we cannot know, why Justice Pendse was overlooked. No one can be asked what were the written reasons for not appointing one of the then senior-most judges in the country, and a person of reputed competence and integrity. The judges’ lips are sealed, because of confidentiality; inevitably this gives rise to gossip and rumour which cannot be contradicted without breaching the code of confidentiality. This is not good for the system. It is not good for the Chief Justice of India nor for the judges of the Supreme Court.” There were several instances where the then Chief Justice of India and his senior colleagues could not agree over the selection of candidates for appointment as judges. In some cases, highly deserving persons were made to wait for years together before appointment, without any justification. There is no country in the world where the power of appointment of judges is exercised by the judges themselves and the executive’s role is restricted to issuing formal warrants of appointments. Conceding that the executive lacks credibility, it cannot be kept out altogether in a democracy. If the selection of candidates for judgeship had been left entirely to the judiciary from the beginning, a pathfinder like Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer would never have been appointed a judge. Some of us who had assisted the court in interpreting Article 124 of the Constitution the way it did, now realise the handicaps of the collegium. It has no machinery at its disposal to collect and screen the relevant data about all prospective candidates for judgeship. They select candidates based on their limited personal knowledge and the assessment of a few others whom they choose to consult individually. The collegium has been giving undue weightage to seniority and Chief Justices of High Courts in preference to more meritorious Judges. This practice has resulted in some unsatisfactory appointments. Before the last batch of appointments was made in May this year, for the first time, the government was constrained to raise queries as to why certain senior Chief Justices were overlooked and juniors selected. The need for transparency and accountability in the selection process is urgent. The problem is crying for a solution. It has to be within the existing framework. Handing over the power of final selection back to the executive is neither feasible nor desirable. Parliament can put in place a mechanism to assist the collegium and facilitate proper and better selection without in any manner curtailing its power of final selection, by providing for the constitution of a statutory search committee by the President in consultation with the CJI consisting of eminent persons of impeccable integrity including a former Chief Justice and a retired Judge of the Court, two senior renowned lawyers of the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General, the Secretary (Law) as Member-Secretary, the Secretary (Home), and a very senior and well reputed journalist. The functions of the search committee would be to collect all relevant data from the executive, the Bar and the judiciary throughout the country, analyse it and make assessments of probable candidates who are eligible and deserve to be considered for elevation to the Supreme Court both from the Bar and the Bench and also mention the names of Chief Justices and senior judges of the High Courts who do not enjoy good reputation. The former CJI could be the Chairman of the Committee. The search committee shall prepare a panel of selected candidates, three times the number of vacancies to be filled and forward it together with the entire material to the collegium for consideration. It should be open to the collegium to consider any other candidate, for reasons to be recorded, who deserves such consideration. Generally, universities while advertising the post of a Professor, insert a clause to the effect that it would be open to the selection committee to consider cases of other deserving candidates who had not applied for the post in question. There are several high posts like Vice-Chancellors for which search committees make the preliminary selection. In the matter of judicial appointment, the question to be considered is not whether a particular candidate is proved to be corrupt, but whether he or she is a person of doubtful integrity. Only men of undoubted integrity ought to be considered for elevation. As David Pannick observes: “Judges are mere mortals but they are asked to perform a function that is truly divine.” The judiciary has acquired credibility because, in the past, by and large, the members had conformed to standards of life and conduct which are, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “far more severe and restricted than that of ordinary people”. It is the credibility which sustains the judiciary. The day the last citadel loses its credibility, there will be no rule of
law.
The writer is Senior Advocate, the Supreme Court of India.
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Woman, thy name is might
FRAILITY, thy name is woman”, was how William Shakespeare, the greatest bard of English literature, painted the ‘fairer sex’ in his famous play, Hamlet. These ‘contemptuous’ sentiments were ‘echoed’ by another eminent writer, Khushwant Singh, four centuries down the lane when he also passed an ‘unilateral decree’ in mid-seventies that a female was a ‘perpetual parasite’ on a male ‘from her cradle to grave’ — on father as an unmarried daughter, on husband as a wife and on son in the ‘evening’ of her life. The observations left a permanent ‘etching’ on my thought process. How could a woman be dubbed as ‘weak’ when she even as a neonate could tolerate the ‘shock’ given by her own ‘not-so-happy’ parents at the time of her birth? As the little ‘fairy’ starts spreading her wings, she is again ‘shocked’ to find that she is being ‘unfairly’ discriminated vis-à-vis her brother. As an adolescent girl, she is made to ‘confront’ with nature-conspired challenge of menstrual cycle which tends to ‘dwarf’ her growth while boys on the other hand keep growing uninterrupted. She turns shy, becomes an ‘object’ of eveteasing and conscious of hormonal changes cascading in her body. Here, she learns another ‘lesson’ of her life to perpetually keep struggling to survive. She then sets on in a ‘roller coaster’ when she is ‘transplanted’ in a family of strangers after her matrimony. She is treated as an ‘alien’ and has to wade through the ‘saas-bahu’ and ‘nanad-bhabi’ ordeals day-in and day-out and compromise her dignity every now and then. The Elizabethan poet and his Indian incarnation omitted to ‘peep’ into the ‘psyche’ of a woman and appreciate her feminine persona before passing an ex-parte judgment against her. Nor did they have the courage to nail the real ‘culprits’ for her predicament. Is it not the male-dominated society that keeps ‘exploiting’ her real ‘self’ despite her presence lending sobriety and elegance to a habitat? Without her, any place would obviously acquire the notoriety of a ‘stud’ farm. In spite of all her inherent handicaps, natural or male-sponsored, she has somehow managed to launch herself in all arenas of life, be it the army, aviation, space, sports or police. Though the father helped her to just ‘walk’ a bit, Kalpana Chawla taught the art of ‘space walk’ to the posterity. While the father just helped her to ‘climb’ the stairs at home, Santosh Yadav taught how to ‘climb’ the highest peak in the world known for its hostility. As an epitome of sacrifice, patience, love and inspiration, a woman ever loves to ‘propel’ her man to achieve newer heights in life. Little wonder that behind every successful man, there is always a woman! How can a woman be a ‘parasite’ when she has so much to offer? It is different that she smilingly ‘accepts’ to perform ‘errands’ for a male all throughout her life, be it her father, brother, husband or son. A bubbling ‘resolve’ in the eyes of my daughter, Archna is an indicator of a sea change in the ‘outlook’ of women who are now getting mightier. Little doubt that I seize all opportunities to condemn female subjugation, female foeticide and male
chauvinism!
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Fragile food
security
THE World Food Day, which is celebrated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on October 16 every year, focuses the attention of the world on the crucial issue of food which is a vital input of our survival. Today the availability of food has been affected in more than 30 countries and thus the theme for 2009 is “Achieving food security in times of crisis”. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle . Directly or indirectly, agriculture provides the livelihood for 70 per cent of the world’s poor. With food prices remaining stubbornly high in developing countries, the number of people suffering from hunger has been growing relentlessly in recent years. The global economic crisis is aggravating the situation by affecting jobs and deepening poverty. According to the FAO estimates, 75 million of the world’s hungry are a direct result of high food prices. There are 923 million under-nourished people in the world. The FAO estimates that the number of hungry people could increase by further 100 million in 2009 and pass the one billion mark. With an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, there are now 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of all- humanity is suffering from hunger. The gravity of the current food crisis is the result of 20 years of under-investment in agriculture and neglect of the sector. India has 3 per cent of the world’s crop land but feeds 17 per cent of the world’s population. In India also food and nutritional security is very fragile and had been a prime concern in 2009 as adverse weather conditions complicated the situation. Food is the backbone of our livelihood security system and, therefore, it has a different significance in our country in contrast to the industrialised nations where hardly 2 to 3 per cent of the population derive their income from farming. While the share of agriculture in national income declined from 38.8 to less than 18 per cent between 1980-81 and 2000-01, the workforce engaged in it registered only a marginal reduction, from 60 to 52 per cent. According to the latest report of the United Nations World Food Programme, our country has 23 crore under-nourished people, which is the highest in the world. The report further elaborates that 43 per cent of children under the age of 5 years in the country are underweight, more than 70 per cent suffer from anaemia and malnutrition accounts for 50 per cent of child deaths. The report indicates that the proportion of anaemic children has actually increased by 6 per cent in the last six years with 11 out of the 19 most affected states having more than 80 per cent of its children suffering from anaemia. As food prices are rising, more than 15 lakh children are at risk of becoming malnourished. There is an urgent need for securing food security. In fact, 2009 is a classic case of uncertain monsoon behaviour and that should serve as a wake-up call to end complacency over decision-making in agriculture. The country first a faced drought in the traditionally wet months of June, August in most parts of north, central and southern India and then floods in late September, October in the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa. The country may have to rewrite its seasons. Meteorological evidence indicates that temperatures would increase in India by 2-4 degrees by 2050 and the number of rainy days in a year would come down by 15 or more. The future planning in agriculture should, therefore be based on facts that frequency of drought, flood, unseasonal rains and high temperature will increase and the future technologies have to match that. In future, we should be prepared to deal with monsoon failure, acute water and energy shortage by building a weather-resilient water, food and livelihood security system. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should focus on rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge and watershed management and synergise with the priorities of the agriculture sector. In India, food security for the most vulnerable masses is ensured through our public distribution system of foodgrains. At present, the Planning Commission estimates that only 28.3 per cent of the population qualifies for below poverty line (BPL) benefits. However, the committee on BPL surveys, formed by the Ministry of Rural Development and chaired by Supreme Court-appointed food commissioner N C Saxena, has recommended that 50 per cent of India’s population be given BPL cards. Thus, the country has more than 33 crore people who require assured supply of foodgrains for their survival. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), launched in 2000, sought to provide affordable food to below poverty level
(BPL) households. The objective of the scheme was to make the TDPS more focussed and targeted an identified 10 million of the poorest of the poor in different states. Wheat and rice at subsidised prices of Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg, respectively, are provided to these households under the scheme. In 2005, the government passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which has been now named after Mahatma Gandhi to improve the livelihood security of rural households. The Central Government has announced to bring the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to eradicate hunger and reduce malnutrition in the country. Implementation of this Act will ensure that every BPL card-holder gets 25 kg of either rice or wheat at Rs.3 a kg every month. The estimated annual requirement of foodgrains is about 446 lakh tonnes under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and 50 lakh tonnes under other welfare schemes. An important initiative towards food security was the launch of the National Food Security Mission (2007) to increase the production of rice by 10 million tons, wheat by 8 million tonnes and pulses by 2 million tonnes by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2011- 12). The buffer stocks of the Central Government are enough to feed the nation for 13 months. The foodgrains (wheat and rice) stocks in the central pool as of June 1, 2009, stood at 204.03 lakh tonnes of rice and 331.22 lakh tonnes of wheat. Harvesting of the wheat crop for 2009 is also almost over with primary estimates put at 77.6 MT, below the previous record set last year at 78.4 MT, but much higher compared to the five-year average of 72.85 MT. According to the latest estimate by the FAO, the country’s paddy output may decline to 145.2 million tonnes (MT) in 2009 after hitting a record of 149 MT in the previous year. In 2007, total paddy output was recorded at 145 MT. As the problem of food security is not confined to individual countries, there is need for concerted efforts at the global level. In a significant shift in focus from food aid to practical help for local agriculture, the richer nations have pledged $ 20 billion to fight global hunger. The fund is aimed at reversing the long-standing trend of underinvestment in agriculture and food security. The FAO is organising a World Summit on Food Security in Rome from November 16-18, 2009 with a prime aim of eradicating hunger from the earth. Not only to ensure sufficient food production to feed a world population that will grow by 50 per cent and reach 9 billion by 2050, but also find ways to guarantee that everyone has access to the food they need for an active and healthy life.
The writer is a scientist at Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni
(Solan)
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From power surplus to shortage Punjab
has been facing a severe power shortage for the past many years and the two major political parties — the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal — have been blaming each other for it. However, both cannot be absolved of the responsibility. In 1956 when the Bhakra power complex was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the state was faced with a problem of plenty. The power demand started picking up only after the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966. Industrial development started during the tenure of Pratap Singh Kairon as the Chief Minister. It was Justice Gurnam Singh who headed the first two non-Congress governments in Punjab that launched the first thermal plant at Bathinda in 1969. Although Justice Gurnam Singh laid the foundation stone of the Bathinda thermal plant, the first and second units went into stream during the tenure of Giani Zail Singh as the Chief Minister in 1974 and 1975. The third and fourth units were put on stream during the SAD-Janata regime headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal in 1978 and 1979. Darbara Singh (Congress), who became the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1980, accorded top priority to power generation. He allotted maximum funds for the Nangal and Mukerian hydel projects. The Ropar thermal plant has now six units and is one of the biggest thermal power plants in the country. The first unit of the Ropar plant was put on stream in 1984 and the second in 1988 when Punjab was under the rule of the Akali Dal led by Surjit Singh Barnala. Barnala could not do much on the power generation front. Again in 1997 Mr Parkash Singh Badal headed the SAD-BJP government which had a full term of five years. The first and second units of the Lehra Mohabbat thermal plants went into generation during this period in 1998 and the third and fourth units of this plant started generation during the current tenure of the SAD-BJP government in 2008. Although Mr Badal is now having his fourth term as the Chief Minister but there is no concrete planning for the generation of power in the state. He keeps criticising the Congress for not taking care of the power needs of Punjab. Punjab has at present 578 lakh units of power from three thermal plants daily. Besides, 120 lakh units are generated by the hydel projects of Punjab and 116 lakh units of power are supplied daily by the BBMB. At present 22 per cent of the total supply goes to the farm sector, 25 per cent to the domestic sector and 55 per cent to the industry. The state government gives a subsidy of Rs 3,100 crore every year to the PSEB in lieu of the free power supply to tubewells. Lately, the urban consumers have also started demanding subsidy and the state government has asked the regulatory authority to keep in abyance the new power tariff hike effective from April, 2009. The consumers are getting power bills at the new tariff despite the decision of the state Cabinet. Work on two thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib has started and the first unit of the plants are likely to be commissioned by the end of 2012 and 2013. The state needs to go in for collaboration with Himachal Pradesh for hydel generation which can be made available through joint ventures. The political parties should stop mud-slinging and work for the welfare of the
state.
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Health WHEN Rhonda Bautista Grenier learned she had breast cancer at age 42, she faced not only a terrifying diagnosis but the daunting logistics of treatment. How could she tackle a grueling schedule of chemotherapy and radiation, full of painful side effects and hours spent away from three teenagers and a full-time job? Grenier learned of a new clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center that promised to shorten treatment from more than seven months to as a little as seven weeks for women who had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Instead of treating the cancer first with months of chemotherapy, then weeks more of radiation, patients received chemotherapy and radiation at the same time. The radiation treatments were significantly shortened by delivering higher doses to just a portion of the breast. Combining chemotherapy and radiation treatments was once unheard of in breast cancer treatment, because it posed a high risk of toxicity, resulting in painful, disfiguring burns. But with the experimental treatment at Hopkins showing promising results — fewer side effects, less toxicity and increased convenience for patients — Grenier decided to go for it. “The C-word alone is devastating, then you have to decide how you’re going to attack this thing,” said Grenier, now 46. “The way I looked at it, this new trial was attacking the cancer from both angles at the same time. I was really scared, but it sounded logical to me.” As new technologies enable specialists to detect breast cancer earlier, researchers are searching for ways to treat the disease faster, in shorter intervals and with greater precision. A clinical trial in Canada last year found that giving women just three weeks of radiation to their entire breast worked just as well as the standard five or more. Another huge national trial is under way testing whether giving high doses of radiation to just a portion of the breast is as effective as treating the entire breast. And still other researchers are experimenting with high-tech tools that administer radiation in specialized ways. One, known as MammoSite, is a small balloon connected to a tube that is placed in the breast for several days. Radiation is given through the tube and the balloon is removed a few days later when the treatment is completed. At University of Maryland Medical Center, researchers have received funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop a device that delivers high doses of radiation to small areas. Their hope is that one day women may never need to go under the knife to have their cancers treated — and cured. For many women, a cancer diagnosis comes at the most productive part of their lives as they juggle the demands of work and family life. It means getting time off work for treatments, finding a baby sitter and adding something scary and exhausting to already chaotic schedules. Shortening treatment is not just about improving quality of life; it has practical implications, he said. Some women don’t show up for their treatments because it takes too long, they have to travel too far or they can’t get time off work. Shorter courses mean being able to deliver treatment to more people, he said. Reducing the course of radiation also means limiting radiation exposure to other areas of the body — such as the lungs, ribs and even the heart, said Dr. Richard Zellars, the assistant professor of radiation oncology at Hopkins who is heading the trial.
— By arrangement with
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Corrections and clarifications n
The headline “PC holds olive branch to separatists” (Page 1, Oct. 15) should instead have been “PC holds out olive branch to separatists”. n
In the report “Burns arrives today” (Page 13, Oct.15), the American Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns has been referred to as “she” instead of “he”. n
The headline “Jolly booked for personation too”(Page 1, Oct.15, Chandigarh Tribune) should have used the word “impersonation” instead of “personation”. n
The headline “Rahul to take up varsity issue with Centre” (Page 3, Oct.14) should have said “Students raise quota issue with Rahul”. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find
any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections”
on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com.
H.K. Dua,
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