The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Letters to the Editor

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

LETTERS

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R

Challenge of water shortage must be met

The editorial “The water challenge” (April 30) aptly portrayed the alarming scenario of water shortage in Punjab and Haryana. The two states need to step up rainwater harvesting, sprinkler irrigation, water recharge and recycling. The government and non-government organisations should help make water conservation a way of life.

The farmers must be urged to get back to traditional crops instead of sticking to the water guzzler paddy. Indeed, the environmental fallouts should be considered before increasing the MSP of a crop.

Besides, the misuse of incentives such as free power must be checked. The two states should also urgently curtail the ownership rights of groundwater in order to prevent its over-exploitation.

RAJNI SHARMA, Jalandhar City

Indeed, growing population is the primary cause of water shortage. Basically, we, the people are responsible for the paucity but the governments too have done pretty little in the matter. Daily we see full-page advertisements with the ministers taking credit for the achievements that are yet to materialise. Half the effort to popularise family planning would be more useful to the state and the country.

The government policy is responsible for the (mis)use of free power. Nor can farmers be blamed for selecting crops most beneficial to them. It is state pricing that is at fault. One need not wait for 2030 to see the cities as “dry stinking holes”. These holes are already there in parts of the cities of the state.

Dr LR SHARMA, Jalandhar City

III

Water shortage is a matter of serious concern in Punjab and Haryana. With the projected population of 1.7 billion by 2050 in India the role of water in meeting the needs of food, fuel and fibre is obvious. The recent report of the Planning Commission states that the demand groundwater would go up considerably. Only 433 billion cubic meter of groundwater is replenishable annually.

Serious efforts have to be made to recharge the ground water by adopting the rainwater harvesting system. There is a need to prevent water wastage not only in irrigation but also for domestic use.

Despite the shortage of water, we are still following the “flood system” of irrigation. The total area of crop is flooded with water thus causing a huge wastage of water. We must switch over to sprinkle and drip irrigation system. The farmers can be motivated to switch over to this system if the government provides subsidy. We must conserve water and use it gainfully. Wastage of water should be dealt with a heavy hand.

Capt AMAR JEET KUMAR, SAS Nagar

CBI’s role

It is regrettable that Congress leader Jagdish Tytler who was indicted by the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission for his role in the Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, has been acquitted by a Delhi court by accepting the CBI’s clean chit (editorial, “Tytler escapes: CBI role remains questionable”, April 29).

Was the evidence relied upon by the Nanavati Commission to indict Tytler for the 1984 Sikh massacre not enough to punish him by the trial court that the latter accepted the clean chit given by the CBI?

Once again, it has been established that the CBI acts according to the wishes of the ruling party and not as an independent investigating agency.

It is a blot on the state and the judicial system that for the past quarter of a century, the culprits and abettors of the massacre are roaming free.

LAJPAT RAI GARG, Panchkula

Noise pollution
There are many synonyms – clatter, blare, din, clamour – but essentially noise remains noise: an unwanted sound. Nothing in any case changes the fact that it comes from Latin, nausea. Authoritative WHO studies confirm emphatically that noise leads, among other things, to “annoyance, stress, high blood pressure, sleep loss, the inability to concentrate, the inability to learn, and loss of productivity.”

But nearly everyone living in Chandigarh seems to be blissfully unmindful of it. While the city lays claim to being “Beautiful”, it still has to acquire a civil soul in this respect, I fear. Other sources of it apart, just consider the levels of noise produced by loudspeakers in our city: by religious establishments which seem to have a hot line to God: by marriage pandals which appear to think that everyone is obligated to partake of their merriment; by political parties which fear nothing and care for nothing; by rallyists who place all their faith in noise anyhow. Where does all this take us?
Is the administration not obliged first to make the laws in this regard widely known and then rigorously enforced? Will those responsible for these levels of noise continue to believe that “law” is one thing and “order” another? Will everyone get away with it all the time? Or will someone be able to do something about it?
B.N. GOSWAMY, Chandigarh

Clarification

This has reference to the newsitem appeared in Chandigarh Tribune under the heading "Sons of banker held for snatching mobile" (December 23, 2004).

In this regard, we may clarify that as per the court orders, dated September 16, 2005, in the court of Justice Sri Ram Kumar Singla, Judicial Magistrate, both Mr Ashish Talwar and Mr Anmol Talwar were acquitted in the mobile snatching case.

Sudesh Talwar, Chandigarh