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

Menstrual hygiene

Swapna Majumdar in the article “Breaking the cycle of silence & shame” (July 30) has brought to the fore an important issue which needs to be looked into seriously and requires the attention of all. Menstrual hygiene, hitherto an unattended area, has been a cause of great loss to the economy, in general, and women, in particular.

Women suffer endlessly because of misconceptions about menstruation in society. Also, no efforts have been made to create awareness about this amongst women.

Therefore, not only women, but men also need to be properly educated about the subject. There is need for a campaign through the media. Women should be taught about the management of menstruation as well as the safe use and disposal of sanitary napkins. It will save millions of work/school days and improve the health of women and children.

Scientists should also come forward and find some alternatives to sanitary napkins.

Dr Puran Singh, Nilokheri (Karnal)

Abolish dowry

India is a big country with many religions and rituals. One of the biggest problems that our society faces is the dowry system. The day a daughter is born, parents tend to feel a burden on their shoulders. The dowry system is responsible for the skewed sex ratio and women not enjoying equal rights as men. In villages, the situation is worse. Parents have to sell their small landholdings to give dowry. It’s time we abolish dowry and parents with daughters live with their heads held high.

VIVEK SINGH BARRING, Patiala

Land-grabbing mafia

The news item “Panel for relief to 25,000 illegal houses” (August 6) highlights a national irregularity breeding corruption for decades. How can charging the so-called nominal compounding rates (fee) make the wrong right? If the government itself connives with the land-grabbing mafia, where is the remedy? The greed of property dealers and construction companies has already destroyed hill beauty in Himachal Pradesh. We recall how the English during their regime in India, did not harm the hills. But our people have done so in a short span of six decades. We have to curb such damaging trends and the government has to be responsive to nature and humanity. If the leaders are erring, let the public remind them of ethics. Are we, the public, so sincere?

MPS Chadha, Mohali

Property mafia

A property-grabbing mafia seems to be operating in Punjab. In collaboration with the local bodies (GMADA, etc) and revenue authorities, the mafia sells properties of NRIs, serving and retired soldiers and others by preparing fake documents to unsuspecting buyers. Many such cases have been reported. Recently, such an attempt was made to sell a plot belonging to Brig Nawab Singh (retd) at Mohali, which, fortunately, was thwarted by the timely and coincidental intervention of his local friend. This case was highlighted by The Tribune (“Brigadier foils bid to ‘grab’ his plot”, July 19). This mafia seems to enjoy political patronage and the politicians concerned may be sharing the spoils. The NRI Cell and the Defence Services Welfare Department which have been set up to protect the interests of the NRIs and soldiers appear to be toothless in this regard. Steps need to be taken to neutralise the mafia.

Brig Harwant Singh (retd), Mohali

Scanty rainfall

We are heading for scanty rainfall in the northern states (“Chances of monsoon revival bleak in North”, August 19). This will give rise to multiple problems on account of shortage in agriculture produce, drying up of water resources, lesser inflow in reservoirs and inadequate recharging of underground water, resulting in the lowering of the watertable and drying up of tubewells. All this does not bode well for our economy. We have to be prepared for not only food shortage but also against drinking water shortages. Conservation of water in all possible ways needs to be taken up as a mission.

DS BANATI, Mohali

People-friendly cops

Reference the article “How to make police people-friendly” by Rohit Choudhary (August 7), I would say that to convert the khakhi terror into being friendly and bring about transparency and efficiency in the police administration, the police will have to come out with ambitious plans with special reference to attitudinal changes.

No doubt, the people think that the police are insensitive, but that is not true. The policemen have to perform very difficult jobs to help people in trouble. But at the same time, their behavior with people visiting the police stations is usually rude. What to say of listening to complaints of vicyims before registration, they don't even bother to offer them a chair.

The police should be more polite and until the police-public relationship is improved, maintaining law and order will be a challenge.

Also, public cooperation is equally important for improving the relations. The most important ingredient in police investigation is public support without which the police cannot do much.

To achieve this goal, seminars on strategies and innovative approaches for creative and coherent and efficient system for the improvement of the relation between police and public should be organised periodically.

HARISH MONGA, Ferozepur

Poor bus service

The bus service between Patiala and Chandigarh is very poor after 5 pm. The commuters suffer due to this. Every half an hour, a bus comes, but it is packed to capacity. Passengers waiting at the Tribune Chowk or Zirakpur have to face a lot of hardship as a result.

They get some respite from maxi cabs which run on this route. However, there are times when the DTO issues heavy challans to these cabs for taking passengers without authorised permission. To avoid the challans, the cab drivers drop the passengers in the middle of the road or await the DTO’s departure. This causes a lot of trouble to the passengers. The authorities should either increase the bus frequency in the evening hours or allow the cab drivers to commute freely on the route.

Amit Garg, Patiala