It’s more of ‘duvidha’

Suwidha Centres have not performed up to their expectations ("Grin and bear with them as service comes with a frown", June 29). The suffering of the ordinary people has not reduced.  The staff make unnecessary objections in the documents, forcing people to take the help of costly touts who allegedly work in collusion with the staff.  Getting a marriage registration certificate or birth certificate requires a large number of documents. Persons manning enquiry counters do not tell all the details about the filling in of forms or the documents to be attached. At times, window clerks remain absent from their seats for long periods. Random checking of the centres should be done and the number of documents to be attached with the application forms minimised. Applicants should be intimated through SMS about the progress of their certificates/holidays/strike by staff/non-functioning of server etc.

Ramanjeet, Ludhiana

Concept is good

The news report entitled "Grin and bear with them as service comes with a frown" (June 29) highlights the issues and problems of the Suwidha project but ignores its benefits. As a researcher of e-governance practices, I can state that this project has brought a new outlook in the administrative culture of Punjab. A majority of Suwidha users have a positive opinion about the project. The users face a problem only in the case of incomplete documents. The major reasons for this are the unnecessary documentation demanded and poor infrastructure, but not the concept of the centre. During my survey, it was heartening to observe that clients in districts like Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar expressed their high satisfaction because the infrastructure is fully developed there. But in Amritsar and Tarn Taran, people were highly dissatisfied primarily due to lack of good infrastructure. The government must address this issue.

Harpreet Singh, Barnala

Give succour to farmers

Recently, Haryana Agricultural Minister OP Dhankar said the farmers who committed suicides were cowards and the government would not help their families. He added that the same policy would be adopted in the case of farmers who died of heart attacks. Relief has to be given on account of damage to the crops by unseasonal rains and hailstorms, irrespective of whether the farmers committed suicide or died because of cardiac arrest. Most of the farmers have no other source of income. Quite a large number of them are heavily in debt. When their crops are damaged, the farmers are mentally disturbed and some of them choose death as the only way to get out of the terrible predicament. The Haryana Government should provide adequate succour to the bereaved families. 

BHAGWAN SINGH, Qadian

Significance of kirpan

This refers to the news item "Italy seeks Akal Takht's nod for new kirpan design" (July 1). Kirpan or sword is one of the five symbolic items that every Sikh is supposed to wear on his person. A neophyte is ritually endowed with a kirpan when he or she is initiated into the Sikh or Khalsa fold. Sword signifies popular sovereignty as well as a readiness to fight political tyranny. Historically, it was an open defiance of the Mughal state, which had debarred the non-Muslims from carrying weapons. 

Such being the semiotics and significance of the kirpan, any attempt to change its design, shape or form will not be acceptable to the Sikhs. The Italian Government is better advised to seek guidance from the Canadian Supreme Court decision of March 2, 2006, as regards the wearing of the kirpan. The Supreme Court said, inter alia, "the argument that the wearing of kirpans should be prohibited because the kirpan is a symbol of violence and because it sends the message that using force is necessary to assert rights and resolve conflict is not only contradicted by the evidence regarding the symbolic nature of the kirpan, but it is also disrespectful to the believers in Sikh religion...." The Canadian Government saw no reason to change the design of the kirpan.

BHUPINDER SINGH, Patiala

Game-changing verdict

Apropos the news report “Himachal tribeswomen entitled to ancestral property: HC” (June 26). It is a landmark judgment conferring equal rights to tribeswomen to inherit property. It is indeed big news for the women facing deprivation, discrimination and exploitation. The tribal belts of HP where polyandry and polygamy are still prevalent in the backdrop of limited education assets that the people carry, the judgment is a game-changer for ending a practice that has long discriminated against women. In HP, where the child sex ratio (906) is declining at an alarming pace, the judgment will have lasting impact in the tribal belts, eventually giving equal social status to women. The social activists who fought for the cause deserve applause.

Abhineet Katyayan, Kangra 

Tribeswomen get property

The high court has done justice to the tribal women by giving them the right to inherit property under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, heretofore denied to them under the unwritten/uncodified tribal customary law. Such retrograde practices must go and people should not wait every time for the courts to interfere. I remember a case brought to me when I was the SDM of Pangi, another tribal pocket of Himachal Pradesh. A brother was claiming the whole property of his deceased brother. As per the customary law, if the deceased is not survived by any son(s), his property devolves on his brothers and not on the widow or the daughters. The widow, on the other hand, was asking for the property of her husband, having no other source of income. It was a difficult decision. But I decided in favour of the widow. The matter was agitated further before the commissioner who upheld my decision. This created awareness among women who then started exerting their rights. A social activist from Kinnaur, Rattan Manjari, who has represented the Tribal Advisory Council raised this issue in the council and other fora many times. Her voice has been heard. 

KR Bharti, Shimla

It is Muzaffarnagar

A reader, Malwinderjit Singh Waraich of Panchkula, has pointed out that in the write-up “It is a difficult job…” (June 28),  the name of the city in Western UP referred to as Muzaffarpur is in fact Muzaffarnagar, whereas Muzaffarpur is situated in Bihar.

The error is regretted.

— Editor-in-Chief

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