Are poor patients pawns in the tussle?
I support the movement for justice for the trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, but I cannot support the cease-work by the doctors. I fail to understand why innocent patients are made to suffer to the extreme. The pictures of untreated patients in pain have raised many questions. Why should they bear the brunt of the strike? What is their fault?
Earlier, while passing directions to the CBI and the State of West Bengal, the Supreme Court only appealed to the striking doctors to resume work.
But it cut no ice. On Friday, the apex court again nudged the striking doctors to resume work for the sake of the patients. But the status quo is still being maintained. Are the poor patients simply pawns in the tussle?
The doctors can continue their movements after resuming work. The Supreme Court says that no coercive action shall be taken against the doctors as long as the protests are peaceful. Given the violent sufferings of the patients, the movement can no longer be termed as peaceful.
Sujit De, Kolkata
Restrict stadiums only for sports
Of late, we have noticed our sports facilities both indoor and outdoor are being let out for weddings and exhibitions in the State. These facilities are built at exorbitant costs to boost up our sportsmen/women skills and make them physically fit and ready for action.
But of late, the Parrikar indoor stadium at Navelim and the Shyama Mukherjee outdoor stadium at Bambolim are being used for activities other than sports. Understand the Parrikar indoor stadium has been booked for a wedding from August 24 for 3 full days depriving the sports enthusiasts of its use for that period. Likewise the Bambolim stadium is regularly used for political rallies and events. The wooden flooring at the Navelim stadium and the turf at the Bambolim stadium is bound to get damaged with scores of people trampling on it. Understand the Sports Minister has given the go ahead for the Navelim event inspite of objections from the Ex Sports Director of the SAG. Let the sports facilities be kept only for sports and nothing else. Hoping the Sports Minister gets this message loud and clear. The tragedy with Indian sports is the political interference in sports is one of the main reasons for India not getting a single gold.
Lucas D’Souza, Verna
Women-exclusive buses needed
In the wake of the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor in Kolkata, protests continued in Margao with citizens, especially women and students, demanding speedy justice to the medic and her family. They also called for educating men on women’s rights. One of the specific demands has been for the state to ensure that there are buses exclusively for women on various routes, especially during peak hours. It may be recalled that last year, India saw a number of women-only bus services being launched across the country. “Pink Express” is a special bus service taking women from Lucknow to Delhi. A ‘SHE’ shuttle App was launched that informs users on the location of the bus, stops and schedule. Women security guards are assigned on “Pink Express” buses. Bus drivers are chosen after checking their background and buses can be booked and tracked easily. It is a fact that women commuters face a lot of problems due to overcrowding of the buses. Several incidents of molestation and groping take place in a packed bus. In Goa, there are seats in the bus reserved only for women. However, more often than not, these seats are occupied by men. A bus service exclusively for women is the need of the hour in the state in order to make bus travel for women safer, especially the working women who have to travel at odd hours.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Madras known for culture, heritage
Madras city, which is known for its rich culture and historical heritage, celebrated its 385th birthday on August 22. A stretch of no-man’s land in 1639, the great city which was rechristened as Chennai in 1998, is now a major industrial, business and cultural metropolis. It was in Madras that virtually everything in modern India began – the first municipality, the first engineering college – Guindy engg. College, the first shopping mall – Spencer’s, the first cricket club, the first big library – Connemara, and the first major book store – Higginbothams. American Magazine Forbes has credited Chennai as one of the top three Indian cities that have made it to the list of the world’s fastest growing cities.
In 2015 when floods ravaged Chennai, the people of the city showed to the rest of the world what humanity and solidarity are all about. Cutting across caste and creed, and rich and poor, they rallied around and helped each other in so many ways. Perhaps, Chennai is the only city in the entire world where everyone claims it as not “mine”, but proudly “ours.”
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
Banks summon small fries, while big fishes fly!
A nationalised bank had published ten “summon for settlement of issues” with the names, addresses, details and amount payable by defaulters for the loans availed and the outstanding balances. The total unsettled amount is about Rs 53 lakhs with Rs 49,000 being the minimum and Rs 14.54 lakh the maximum. The bank must have spent a substantial time and money to gather the data and publish the summons. Similar could be the cases with the other banks too that publishes summon notices. The banks follow the rules, by publishing the summons to recover the dues and sometimes even photographs of the debtors and sureties are printed.
The question is, why take such a harsh step of naming and shaming defaulters who are small fries as compared to the sharks who get away with crores of rupees? Several willful defaulters are given loans repeatedly under the pretext of they being business people who could improve the country’s economy and provide jobs. Many a big fish have flown away, with the blessings of powerful persons, or are become fugitive and sought shelter and citizenship in some other countries.
Efforts are made, but mostly in vain, to get them extradited but with hardly any success. The rich and ultra-rich debt dodgers never return the loans that are written-off by the banks under the euphuism ‘non-performing assets (NPAs).’ This is a misnomer as assets cannot be non-performing but these are ‘not-returned assets (NRA). The private and nationalised banks need to have the will and guts to publish the ‘big names’ and go hammer and tongs to recover the huge pending dues rather than chasing small- and one-time defaulters.
Sridhar D Iyer, Caranzalem
Conundrum of education needs a deeper fix
The India’s youth population is both a burden and a blessing. They has the potential to drive economic growth, innovation, and productivity. India’s educated youth are more likely to be unemployed. As per the report, India’s youth account for almost 83 per cent of the unemployed workforce. The situation is dire. To give examples, more than 93,000 candidates recently applied for 62 ‘peon’ posts in the Uttar Pradesh Police Department. They included 3,700 PhD holders, 5,000 graduates and 28,000 postgraduates.
However, the job requirement had only minimum eligibility of education till Class 5. And in the another case: the Staff Selection Commission, Multi Tasking Staff Exam, conducted in May 2023 in Uttar Pradesh received a mind-boggling 5.5 lakhs applicants for group D positions such as peon, watchman, gardener, etc. Many applicants who had applied for these menial jobs had B-Tech, M-Tech, MBA, and MSc degrees.
The gap between employment and education is increasing day by day. The working-age population needs to be made well-versed with technological evolution and its applications. Public employment is not a bounty in the hands of the state which can be distributed arbitrarily. There should not be a room for back-door appointment nor political influence to government jobs and those who hooked a post through favouritism and nepotism should be boot.
K G Vilop, Chorao
