Get young players

Refer to the Indian cricket team’s pathetic performance during the World Cup semi-final; they did their best. It just happens that the so-called ‘best’ was thrashed by their past ‘worst’. If it was not enough, the coach not only defends them, but ends up defending himself. It is time that senior players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin are handed ‘Thank you’ notes. Learning from the armed forces, if a unit does not perform, the unit’s Commanding Officer pays a heavy price. Rahul Dravid should face the music. If we are looking for younger players, we also need to have a younger, self-motivated coach.

SPS NARANG, DWARKA

Need new team

It was an international shame for the Indian team to timidly lose to England in a knockout match. The team was washed out and lost their face for playing a deciding match so irresponsibly. The team needs overhauling. Younger, energetic and settled players should be roped in. Older players are a spent force and should call it a day. Even replacing the captain and coach with more talented ones is the need of the hour.

Maheshwer Sharma, by mail

Not our heroes

The zeal in our cricket team was missing, and as such, the team of money-minting cricketing ‘heroes’ selected by the world’s richest cricketing board, BCCI, has been outplayed and defeated embarrassingly by the maximum possible margin of 10 wickets by England. They cannot be our heroes in the real sense. Our heroes are the soldiers defending our borders, even at the cost of their life.

Krishan Kant Sood, Nangal

Shameful defeat

It was indeed pathetic to witness the helplessness of Indian fielders in the match against England. The annihilation should jolt Indian selectors. The aura of invincibility surrounding Indian cricketers took a severe beating as the English batsmen simply thrashed the Indian bowling outfit. Nobody had thought that India could lose so badly.

RAMESH GUPTA, NARWANA

Get to the root of it

Stubble burning has indeed created a complex situation (‘Need political will to curb stubble burning’). The root cause of the menace must be traced and eliminated. No amount of force and political will can solve it. It is not a political problem, it is a problem of ignorance. By burning stubble every season, farmers are causing an irreparable loss to their fields. The heat generated penetrates deeply, destroying moisture and beneficial microbes present in the soil. The aim should be to teach them repeatedly that what they are doing with impunity has devastating effects not only on the fruitfulness of their soil but also everyone’s health and environment.

Sunil Chopra, Ludhiana

Ineffective measures

Refer to ‘Need political will to curb stubble burning’; the state government has only two ineffective solution to control the problem. First, it will spend a lot of taxpayers’ money on advertisements to make people aware about the ill-effects of stubble burning. And second, government officials will issue challans to farmers for disobeying instructions. But stubble burning will go on as usual. It is like issuing a challan to a rider not wearing a helmet. He continues his journey after paying a fine. Instead, the government should understand that the farmers are not burning stubble willingly, it is a compulsion in the absence of a cost-effective alternative. The government had announced Rs 2,500 per acre incentive to farmers for not burning stubble, but it was not given. As reported in The Tribune, a 90-year-old farmer managed stubble without burning, but such farmers are never encouraged.

Naresh Johar, Amritsar

Affiliated colleges

Both Punjab and Haryana enacted the Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Act in 1974 and 1979, respectively, and framed service rules thereunder. The purpose was to save the teachers of 95% govt-aided private colleges from the high-handedness of autocratic private managements. However, some powerful private managements, like DAV and SGPC, continue to violate government and university rules to the detriment of teachers. Despite pervasive control over such errant colleges, the authorities concerned are mute spectators, and, consequently, frivolous litigations abound. Lately, in a DAV case, the apex court held that when the Act provides a particular body to act in a particular manner, the act must be done by that body in that manner only or not at all. This is a salutary principle of administrative law. There cannot be any waiver or estoppel against a statute. Stern action must be taken against recalcitrant colleges by either stopping their grant-in-aid or disaffiliating them.

Anil Bhatia, Hisar

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