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Avoid coercive methods
Sir,
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have earned a bad name due to the wrong selection of sites and by using coercive methods to get land from farmers. On the other hand, SEZs could turn out to be 'islands of prosperity" if the right choice of the location is made. There are degraded lands and waste lands waiting to be developed. Any move to acquire fertile cultivable lands for development should be banned. Any land requisition should be voluntary and the market price will have to be paid to the owners. SEZs could be developed with good infrastructure of roads, communication, schools, hospitals and so on which could also give employment opportunities for the local people. This is the only way we could develop backward areas, with suitable incentives for entrepreneurs.
D.B.N. Murthy
Bangalore
Equal before law?
It is said: “All are equal before law” but in practice this is applicable only to common people and not moneyed and powerful people. When a common official is suspected of malpractices, he would be shunted to some other place and even suspended. But when a judge is suspected and proof is given by Tamil Nadu government, it is not correct for the judiciary or even for him to continue. If Justice Dinakaran is honest, instead of emphasising that the allegation is false, he should say “I am honest and I don’t want to create problems and let the judiciry investigate and prove the allegations”. Instead, he wants to sit in judgments. At least the CJI should have advised him to go on leave. This shows that law is not equal to all.
B S Ganesh
Bangalore
Feasibility study required
Soon after attending office (after 15 day political drama), Infrastructure Minister Janardhan Reddy announced that the state government will commence work on high speed rail link to the international airport from BRV theater, in spite of negative recommendation by ABIDE — which has Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar as its chairman and vice chairman. If this project gets started, Rs 8000 crore of public money would be spent.
It would be good if our state government conduct a demand study with existing users and staff of BIAL, have public hearing with passengers, chamber of commerce and industries and cargo agents before the commencement of the project. The government should also consider extending Metro Rail to BIAL, instead of a new high speed rail.
N Mukund
Bangalore
No punishment for littering
At present there is no law prevailing in India including Karnataka to punish those who litter/spit on roads and thus spoil the city. In foreign countries like china and many others,those who litter/spit on the public roads,are being subjected to punishment in the form of charging fines etc.,to keep the city and the roads clean and tidy and all are strictly obeying the law without being reminded.
The people in foreign countries should invariably throw anything in the bins or spit in the bins kept for the specific purpose and even a child knows the law prevailing in those countries and the punishment for the violation thereof.
Therefore the same procedure should be adopted in India in general and Karnataka/Bengaloru in particular and the civic body should identify those who either spit or litter on the roads and punish the violators of the law so that the younger generation will follow the law in letter and sprit
B S Raghavendra Rao,
Bengaloru.
Irresponsible legislators
The MNS, together with its 'parent' organization, has been running a parallel regime in Mumbai and Maharashtra which is an obnoxious inversion, or perversion, of democracy. In their violence against a colleague for taking his oath in Hindi instead of Marathi, the four legislators from the MNS have failed the people they represent in two ways. First, they have projected their own and their party's bigotry upon the will of the people. Second, by getting themselves suspended for four years, they have rendered their constituencies unrepresented in the legislature for this
period. It would be more prudent to disqualify these four MNS MLAs and bar them from subsequent by-elections to their constituencies.
One thing that is for sure is that a strong message needs to be sent out by the political establishment that the MNS' strong-arm tactics will not be tolerated. For this, it must be impressed upon the MNS and similar outfits in other States that their brand of goondaism will not be without consequences.
K.S.Jayatheertha,
Bangalore
Cleaner planet
This refers to the recent trend of magazines being delivered, wrapped in plastic cover. These magazines have a circulation of over a million, every week. Imagine the total number of plastic covers polluting Mother Earth.
For ages, we have had magazines delivered devoid of plastic covers, without any major concerns. While, every where else, there is a conscious trend towards avoiding plastic, this is a reverse trend.
I would like to appeal to all the publishers of these magazines, through your column , to reverse this reverse trend and move towards a cleaner planet.
Rekha Kudligi
Bangalore
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