Too many vehicles

Are roads and parking lots being constructed and expanded at the same speed at which cars are being manufactured and sold in the country (‘Vehicle scrapping’)? In November, car sales jumped to 102% year-on-year. It is important to maintain a balance between manufacturing cars and building roads and parking. If this is not done, the day is not far when it will be impossible for people to travel on roads and live in sectors as well as colonies. The government should amend its vehicle scrap policy. It is not only right to fix a period of 10 years for diesel vehicles and 15 years for petrol vehicles in the scrap policy, but also necessary to fix the kilometre limit.

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Shakti Singh, Karnal

Rise in cyberattacks

The editorial ‘Securing cyberspace’ is right in saying that it is imperative to have safety audits and to prioritise investment. It is a matter of grave concern that due to the cyberattack, records of old patients have been deleted. One can well presume that the AIIMS breach was not an isolated event but a progression of similar incidents in the past that were ignored. The Hitachi data breach was a trailer and the 2019 cybersecurity attack at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant led to the detection of the cobalt strike malware.

Subhash C Taneja, Gurugram

Executive vs judiciary

Apropos of ‘Amid standoff over judicial appointments, pendency increasing’; the tussle between the country’s executive and the judiciary over the highest judicial appointments is unfortunate. After all, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that there is no disruption in the justice delivery mechanism and it is thus liable for its failure to handle the issue. The President should intervene in the matter to end the logjam in the larger interest of the country.

JAGDISH CHANDER, JALANDHAR

Tribute to Bhai Vir Singh

Refer to ‘Bhai Vir Singh: Father of modern Punjabi literature’; modern society is getting trapped into numerous physical as well as physiological illnesses. The reasons are many, but moving away from nature is the primary one. People, especially youngsters, have no time to embrace the beauty of stars, relish the calmness of plants and admire the warmth of the rising sun. They have a lot of time to spend on their phones and less or no time to read literature. At this alarming stage, there is a great need of continuing the movements initiated by Bhai Vir Singh to connect people to literature, nature and God. We can pay tribute to him on his 150th birth anniversary by reading some of his creations and by sharing his thoughts among others.

Amritpal Singh, Canada

Why vote?

The poor turnout of voters is because of the apathy of people due to the gradual realisation that no matter who comes to power, it is not going to make much difference to their lives. The entire blame lies with the politicians for their poor reputation among the masses. It hardly matters which party a particular politician belongs to. They are all equally selfish and corrupt. Why should then we queue up at a polling booth in biting cold to vote for someone who will appear only after five years? And while some politicians express their desire for making voting compulsory, can we, in a similar manner, ask them to make working towards national development mandatory?

RAMESH GUPTA, NARWANA

Agri credit

Refer to ‘Need to make agri-credit system equitable’; banks should gear up sources to increase lending to a section of farmers, the share croppers, to come to the expectations of the agri policy-makers. The credit delivery system does not provide scope for adequate finance to the share croppers, tenant lessee farmers. The RRBs and cooperative banks can fill this gap. A hassle-free process should be ensured for positive outcomes. Farmers prefer to meet their credit needs from non-institutional sources, which, though costly, are easy to access. The target of 18% should be reasonably increased, and accordingly, for the small and marginal farmers. The provision of depositing funds in the RIDF to cover the shortfall in priority sector lending should be stopped. A regional approach in the preparation of scale of finance and other parameters can help bridge the gap in disbursement in different regions.

GS MANN, NAYA NANGAL

In service of all

It is heartening that Harmanjit Goraya, heading the Jan Kalyan Charitable Society, was felicitated by the President under the ‘Sarvshreshth Vyakti’ category (‘Batala man gets award for enriching lives of disabled’). His organisation feeds birds in parks across the city; works for eradicating drug addiction among the youth; and provides prosthetic aids like speech-therapy devices, tricycles and wheelchairs to ‘divyangs’, adding value to their lives. Our scriptures preach that service to fellow beings is the best prayer.

Vijaya Sharma, by mail

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