Drowned cities

Why have the metros of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai gone under the water, one after another, in recent days and weeks? 145...

Why have the metros of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai gone under the water, one after another, in recent days and weeks? 8216;City limits8217;, IE, October 27. The answer is obvious, there are millions of encroachments of roads, lakes, rivers, canals. There are, besides, thoroughly institutionalised corruption; dangerous levels of vehicular and industrial growth; millions of illegal constructions; an exploding population; massive migration of rural folks. What compounds this is the present focus on developing mega-cities to the neglect of towns and villages. When did any government act before a problem went out of control and assumed the proportions of a full blown crisis?

8212; R.P. Rammohan Hyderabad

Still illegal

8226; Apropos of the letter, 8216;Vacate now8217; IE, Oct 28, even paying rents at market rates to the government doesn8217;t make the status of an illegal occupant of government accommodation legal. The government is not entitled to accept such payments and is required to get evicted such occupants under the provisions of the Public Premises Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants Act, 1971. Since top personalities of various political parties are among the defaulters, every government looks the other way. Once a government bungalow is allotted to a politician, it is taken as his/her personal property for all time to come. The Supreme Court8217;s rebuke to the grabbers of public property and the government has been widely welcomed by the people fed up with the tactics of law-breaking lawmakers. Supreme Court must ensure that the government gets evicted every such unauthorised occupant in the national capital. The high courts should also be asked to take similar action in state capitals.

8212; M.C. Joshi Lucknow

Look into it

8226; Looking at Indian media reports from overseas, one reads about somebody or the other seeking, being granted or being refused this wonderful gift of anticipatory bail. Whatever may have been the original intent this law, it is today among our most abused laws. Shouldn8217;t the law ministry change the law to make it difficult to even apply for this kind of bail?

8212; Shekhar Naik On e-mail

Clarification

8226; This refers to the report, 8216;Close call for TN Cong chief as Sharjah flight overshoots runway8217; IE, October 31. We would like to clarify that the Indian Airlines aircraft did not overshoot the runway and go on to a green patch as reported in your columns. In fact, the aircraft made a normal landing at Chennai airport. The aircraft was flying from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli when, while nearing Tiruchirapalli, the captain of the flight 8212; IC 967 8212; observed a nose wheel fault indication. As a precautionary measure, he returned to Chennai where he made a normal landing, since engineering maintenance facilities are available at Chennai. Thereafter, in order to ensure minimum delay and inconvenience to passengers, another aircraft was made available and the flight left Chennai at 1245 hrs.

8212; Deepak Brara Director, Public Relations Indian Airlines, New Delhi