Why break up?

With reference to your editorial 'Three to go8217; , further break-up of any state will not really help matters.

8226; With reference to your editorial 8216;Three to go8217;, further break-up of any state will not really help matters. New and smaller states have failed to keep their governments alive for full term. The stability factor puts a question mark on the rationale for smaller states. Any marginal player will be able to destabilise the government, with fewer MLAs. The demand for Telangana and the division of UP into three states must be examined in this context. The national parties should use their good sense if they still have any.

8212; Naval Langa

Ahmedabad

Think tanks8217; role

8226; Apropos of the article 8216;Track every rupee8217;, I compliment Jaithirth Rao for this most timely and thought-provoking piece. He has rightly focussed on the role of appropriate incentives which should also include disincentives for bringing changes in the behaviour of all economic players, which would be congruent with the goals of public policy.

A proper alignment in this direction will help to efficiently translate public outlays into public outcomes for achieving inclusive growth for benefiting the weaker sections of the society through market-based economic reforms. Having been associated with the Centre for Policy Research CPR, New Delhi, for a long time, I appreciate Rao8217;s compliments for the work being done by this think tank. Public policy management think tanks are invaluable in assisting officials with better delivery systems for public programmes, which are capable of neutralising inimical vested interests and effectively delivering maximum feasible public good.

8212; Charan Wadhva

New Delhi

Fall guy on field

8226; At 61, Steve Bucknor, a former FIFA referee, but more famous as one of the most respected umpires in the world who umpired five straight ICC World Cup finals, was dumped by the ICC, following complaints from India. Bucknor responded to the sacking saying that 8220;it8217;s a sad day to see umpires sidelined after making only two wrong decisions out of a record of 35 appeals8221;.

But what cricket-lovers failed to see is that in the Sydney Test, it was Mark Benson who was the main culprit, with at least seven wrong decisions. But Bucknor took the flack. Maybe India didn8217;t complain about Benson, because three of his decisions went in India8217;s favour. The ICC8217;s decision comes across as partisan. At least when you remove a judge and the umpire is the judge in the cricket ground, you teach him how justice is to be done. Sorry to say this, but by not taking action against Mark Benson the ICC and the BCCI have both killed the gentleman8217;s game of cricket.

8212; Bidyut K. Chatterjee

Faridabad

Court correction

8226; This refers to media reports about the Union government favouring the idea of granting the Chief Justice of India absolute powers in appointment of judges of higher courts. No individual, no matter how elevated, should be given such absolute power without an accountability mechanism. This prevents any chance of human bias, especially following the charges levelled against a former chief justice, and the controversy over judicial appointments when the erstwhile President Abdul Kalam had to return files approved by a Supreme Court collegium.

It8217;s best to stick with the favoured formula to appoint a National Judicial Council comprising retired Supreme Court judges as member-nominees of the President, Prime Minister, Opposition leader and Chief Justice of India with the central vigilance commissioner to finally recommend appointments, transfers and promotions of the judges of higher courts.

8212; Subhash C. Agrawal

Delhi