Calling statesmen

Manipur is at a flash point. Let politicians tread gently lest irreparable damage is to the country as a whole. The Armed Forc...

Manipur is at a flash point. Let politicians tread gently lest irreparable damage is to the country as a whole. The Armed Forces Special Power Act cannot be imposed indefinitely. For that matter, no act that gives special powers should be imposed indefinitely. The time has come for statesmen to take over the issue and bring back peace to the troubled state.

8212; V.S. Venkatavaradan Salem

Pawar politics

8226; Nationalist Congress Party NCP leader Sharad Pawar is playing dirty politics. First, he gave his full support to the ruling Democratic Front in Maharashtra to implement the sop of offering free power to farmers under the hope that such a 8220;populist8221; move would rake in good political benefits for him and his party in the assembly elections. However, much to his misfortune, this scheme did not go down well with the farmers for they realised that a majority of them did not stand to benefit from it for they did not own electric pumps for carrying out irrigation! Now that things have backfired, Pawar is tactfully backtracking by laying the entire blame for this miscalculated move on the Congress. The NCP supremo should bear in mind that being one of the most prominent leaders in the coalition government in Maharashtra, he has that much more responsibility on his shoulders to not indulge in any activity that might create fissures in the alliance.

8212; V. Rajesh On e-mail

Link the rivers

8226; The monsoon has taken a huge toll on human life. But in some parts of the country, farmers are committing suicide because of the drought. This double tragedy can be avoided by river-linking. The Congress-led government has put this project in cold storage, maybe because it was proposed by Vajpayee. This must be condemned. The Congress should take up this project sincerely.

8212; U.T. Radhakrishnan Pune

Easy poison

8226; The continued spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers is tragic. The easy availability of deadly poison in the form of insecticides in every farming household is one of the main reasons for these incidents. To prevent this, spraying of insecticides should be done by professional agencies.

8212; S.V. Belsare Pune

Health it is

8226; The Supreme Court has ruled that state governments have no power to ban gutkha and pan masala, only the Centre has the authority to ban these products. The conclusion may be constitutionally correct, but in terms of social good, it is an unfortunate decision. It has been proved that chewing gutkha and pan masala causes various mouth diseases, including cancer. And most of the sufferers are the young people. The issue should be viewed, above all, from the health point of view. Not from the point of view of the jurisdiction of the centre and the states.

8212; Sandip Kale Pune