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	M A I L B A G	Thursday, October 21, 1999
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Lack of faith in one-party rule

IT is exactly on expected lines that the Indian voter has reacted to the just concluded general election. The crystal clear message is total lack of trust and confidence in any political party for the governance of India for the constitutionally specified span of five years.

Why is it so, happening again and again? Most political parties entered into prepoll alliances with smaller regional or caste-based parties. No political party realised that for governing a vast country like India with diverse castes, creeds and communities, its ideology has to be in consonance with the national agenda for helping the people in fulfilling their basic needs of life. Such an understanding basically needs renunciation of selfish gains and benefits in favour of smaller political outfits interested only in their regional or caste considerations. Such party considerations are to be totally shunned and avoided in the overall national interest.

The people who exercised their right of vote as their privilege and a constitutional duty did so to choose their representatives who could help them live peacefully with the provision of basic needs of life.

Any prepoll or post-poll alliance is just a palliative to garner support to form a coalition government.

The smaller the coalition partner, the greater is its demand for a larger and important share in the cake. So, the running of a coalition government is always beset with problems. Its smooth functioning in the interest of the country and its people is seldom possible; it is at best a dream.

B.I. BANSAL
Chandigarh

NCC in Punjab

the BJP-Akali alliance has brought the finances of the state to its lowest. Punjab, a state which has the highest per capita income, is suffering from financial crunch because of the wrong policies of this government. The government has brought all the activities of the youth in the state to a standstill.

There is a saying in Chinese, "If you plan for a year, sow paddy; if you plan for a decade, grow trees and if you plan for a generation, nurture youth." But in our state the government is not allocating any funds for youth-related activities. NCC training helps our youth to grow into future officers of our military organisations. It also nurtures youth in a disciplined way. Wherever they go they bring laurels to this organisation. It is shameful that the government is not giving funds to this organisation. It is for the past two years that no cadets from Punjab participated in any of the national-level camps, and no bills of refreshment for the cadets for last year has been cleared. Thus the Associate NCC Officers have no option other than to bring work to a standstill. I fear if this remains the state of affairs of funds allocation, there wouldn't be any representation of NCC cadets from the state on the Republic Day Camp, 2000, or any national-level competition.

P.P. SINGH DILGIR
Raikot

Problem of meter reading

Let aside inefficiency, the goings-on in the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) needs a probe by a reliable agency. Its predecessor, the HSEB, was no lesser evil.

Is it not strange that when power bills are received much later than the reading (new) is taken, quite a few days later, even than the meter shows a reading on the lower side. There seems to have been bungling in the so-called "foreign make meters" which run at a speed of at least 25 per cent higher than the ordinary meters.

Then there are a majority of cases where big houses with three or four airconditioners and so many other gadgets are getting bills of Rs 3000 or so for two months while others with no AC etc, get inflated bills of Rs 10,000 or more for two months. Is it not scandalous? Who does not know the mala fide intentions of the department personnel?

Another scandal is that of bills being issued on an average basis. It is a very serious problem that meter readings are taken by individuals who know little about it. They note down whatever they derive depending on so many features suitable to them. It should be incumbent on the meter reader to get signatures of the residents in whose presence reading is taken (for reasons of authenticity).

The bills should be delivered against signatures and not just left in the letter box or wrongly in other's letter boxes.

MADHU TREHAN
Panchkula