M A I L B A G

No politics in job scheme, please

The government needs to be congratulated on launching the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme. This scheme will certainly help villagers below the poverty line. It must be ensured that it helps all those who are poor, irrespective of any caste consideration. In rural areas, there are no large avenues of employment, and even upper castes find it difficult to obtain work.

What is more, the scheme should be extended to urban areas. After all, the numbers of the urban poor are huge. They too need to be helped. In any case, the important thing is to see that the benefits go to the truly needy. It should be a genuine economic measure rather than a mere vote catching device. Let us not politicise it.

Prof Y.L. CHOPRA, Bathinda

II

NREG, if implemented in letter and spirit, will not only provide jobs to the rural needy, check rural-urban migration  and  provide them with more purchasing power, but would also fill critical gaps in infrastructure. In order to avoid leakages, there should be clear division of responsibilities between the Panchayati Raj Institutions and the administrative machinery. Proper planning should go into the works to be executed, and payment to labourers should be prompt. In order to ensure flow of 30% opportunities to women, a proper strategy should be worked out. Women should not be subjected to hard labour and drudgery.

PURAN SINGH, District Rural Development Agency, Rewari

III

The NREG Scheme has been launched with a lot of fanfare. Many such well-intentioned welfare programmes have been launched from time to time but most of these have somehow failed at the implementation stage. In this case, the Panchayati Raj institutions at the peripheral level are supposed to play a vital role under the NREG Act. Given their current capabilities and nature of functioning, it is doubtful if they will be able to deliver the goods.

Dr S.S. SOOCH, Jalandhar

Lawyers’ lot

The article by Mr Fali S. Nariman, “Should lawyers resort to strikes?” was significant. I disagree that without lawyers, the judges will get used to direct exposure to litigants and that cases can be effectively disposed off, thereby ringing the death-knell of the practicing lawyer’s profession.

Lawyers are meant for the Judicial System and not for the litigants. Let us stop thinking about ourselves and our sustenance only and be serious about our duties without fear of losing professionally. Let us serve the system without fear of losing the litigant!

The judge-litigant exposure already exists in alarming proportions. However, strikes by lawyers can never be justified. But why do lawyers resort to strikes? Why can’t their grievances be redressed in the first instance? It is unfortunate that this noble profession has been given a step-motherly treatment, and we still expect a strong and responsible legal fraternity!

JAGRUP S. PARMAR, Ludhiana

Checking corruption

We are often told that an alert public can check corruption. But in our society, an idealistic or moral person is described as childish, a freak, or even mentally deranged. People talk of corrupt officials and politicians during casual conversation, but then go back to living their lives in the same way. As the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan wrote, “who is it that is sitting in the dark night with a lit lamp?”

AKHILESH, Birampur, (Garshankar)

Harassed patients

After the exoneration of a doctor by the Supreme Court, doctors are behaving as if there are no black sheep among them. The truly negligent deserve to be treated as criminals. My son Harish Kumar, aged 26, was admitted at a hospital, where the doctors diagnosed him incorrectly, and gave wrong medicines, without doing the relevant tests. The result was blockage of heart arteries and vomiting of blood. The cause of the deterioration in condition was ignored and the wrong treatment was continued for more than 24 hours.

He died a few days later. A complaint to the Government of Punjab was fruitless. My son will not come back, but if proper action is taken, others will not die.

SOHAN LAL SHARMA, Batala

Scrap MPLADS Apropos your editorial on the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, you are absolutely right that it should be abolished as it breeds controversies and corruption. Such funds are treated by MPs as something to be doled out to their cronies like the rajas used to do in earlier days. These funds are disbursed to well-fed institutions and clubs, while drinking water and toilet facilities do not exist in schools. Moreover, many elected leaders visit their constituencies only during elections. The coming budget session is the right opportunity for the Finance Minister to discontinue this losing proposition. BALVINDER, Chandigarh.