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

IAS officers often become rubber stamps

Nepotism, misgovernance and corruption are the hallmarks of our present-day civil services. Officials in the upper echelons of the societal set-up are fostering all these ingredients into the system (the editorial 'IAS in crisis', August 7).

The editorial unequivocally states that “politicians in power in states, cutting across party lines, tend to misuse civil and police officials for furthering their financial and electoral interests, and it is easy to manage state officers.” The basic idea of establishing the IAS was to strengthen cohesion and national unity. Young aspirants are expected to have a wide knowledge of our culture and heritage.

Unfortunately, most IAS officers fall prey to the bait of petty considerations like plum postings, state of choice and attractive assignments, becoming rubber stamps in the hands of politicians. Young officers are not protected. They are disillusioned and hence leave the job. Like the judiciary, the control and posting of IAS officers should be given to an independent organ of the government to check political inference. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.''

RAHAT SAAGAR, Nadaun

Farmers' displacement

Sikh farmers are being discriminated against in various parts of the country. Their lands are being snatched in Gujarat. Such incidents were also reported from Haryana in the past. Can a country rise militarily and economically if it treats its soldiers and farmers in such unfortunate ways? India has failed to preserve the importance of Lal Bahadur Shastri's slogan "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan", made in 1965.

MANDEEP SINGH HAYER, Ludhiana

Delhi-Lahore bus

Recently, activists of the Youth Congress disrupted the Delhi-Lahore bus (Sada-e-Sarhand) on the Amritsar-Attari road to protest the killing of five soldiers by the Pakistan army in the Poonch sector. This is not the proper way of expressing one's anger. To show black flags and raise slogans against the Pakistan government in front of bus passengers is useless. We should not create law and order problems; rather leave it for the Indian government to tackle such problems on its own. We have a right to protest peacefully.

SANDEEP SINGH, Hoshiarpur

Join rural postings

This refers to the editorial 'Rural health care' (August 10). India's rural population, nearly 66 per cent of the total population, is lacking in medical facilities. Our young doctors are unwilling to join their rural posting. Their prime duty must be to safeguard their patients. Only female doctors must not be posted in rural areas as they face problems of safe accommodation. The government should provide adequate staff, labs, infrastructure, clean environment, electricity and water supply and recruit medical staff for PHCs and CHCs if it wants doctors to serve in the rural areas.

NIKHIL SHARMA, Bilaspur

Army hands tied

If they killed five of our soldiers, our Army is capable of doing so but their hands are tied by our politicians. Our politicians do not even realise the consequences their statements will have on the nation as such. All they realise is their personal and regional interests, which often reflect their greed. Let us stop this negativity forthwith and pay heed to our national interests above everything, else we perish.

Our enemies are trying to encircle us from all directions and make us weak by all means, be it espionage, sabotage, fake currency and so on. To think about talking to such mindless enemies will be a folly and reflect our cowardice. They understand only one language better and we all know it.

COL PARTAP SINGH, Ludhiana

Poonch killings

The Army chief has rightly pulled up the formation commanders (August 10). That Pakistani-backed terrorists entered our territory dodging our army personnel and killed five soldiers is most unfortunate. Why did our soldiers fail to detect the terrorists' intrusion? How they succeeded in dodging the mines laid in the area is a mystery. All of us expect that our Army will respond quickly to such provocative action by the enemy in future.

R S NEGI, Solan

New RBI chief This refers to the news report 'Raghuram Rajan to be new RBI Governor' (August 7). The appointment of Rajan is welcome as he is an internationally acclaimed economist. His claim to fame rests on correctly predicting the collapse of the US financial markets. But grappling with the ailing Indian economy is a different game. The economic situation is getting worse because of lack of a precise roadmap for development, massive expenditure on populist and projects like MNREGA and poor governance. The critical issues requiring attention are: the rupee, large current account deficit, fiscal deficit, inflation, dwindling growth, poor inflow of FDI, poor investment sentiment, rising debt of major companies, states (Rs 2.25 lakh crore in West Bengal) and state power companies. Therefore, one doubts whether Rajan would be able to save the day for India. The government should invest in hydro-power, solar energy, massive tree plantation, railways, sanitation , population control and mining of coal. RAM NIWAS MALIK, Gurgaon