letterstoeditor

GORAKHPUR DEATHS: A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government had got its priorities mixed up and the result is the horrendous death of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur. The government remained more concerned about the construction of mosques, temples, anti-Romeo squads and got involved in terrible party politics. It was so preoccupied that it could not even ensure oxygen for its children. What is the kind of society we are turning into? Ashum Khan, Baddi II The Central government should take action on the medical college where officials indulged in this criminal negligence and killed humanity in the form of young children. All other medical colleges and hospitals across the country need to draw strict lessons from the incident. Deepak Sharma,

Chandigarh

III

Can the parents of the Gorakhpur tragedy be compensated for their grief by saying that the cause of death of their wards was not the lack of oxygen supply, but the inflammation of the brain? The hapless poor parents’ infants were under the care of a hospital that was duty-bound to save their lives, but gave them the gift of timeless pain. In spite of this, we are quite sure that hardly any heads will roll, though the blame games will be played in the full glare of the media. PS Kaur IV AG orak hp ur hospital has turned into a graveyard for children. What has the Indian society come to? Such a serious issue of ensuring oxygen supply in a hospital was subject to the whim sofa government system that has shown a remarkable tendency of not caring for its citizens. Sahil Chawla, Amritsar V The government and the doctors have been in a denial mode after the deaths. The real problem is that the bigwigs, everywhere, have their priorities elsewhere. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi is more interest in the protection of cows than children. Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah are obsessively bent on removing the few remaining Congress governments. Major Narinder Singh Jallo (retd), Mohali VI No amount of excuses or hearty commiserations can alleviate the pain that has been inflicted on parents who lost their children due to sheer negligence, at a hospital, of all places. The licence of the hospital must be cancelled. It is a clear case of culpable homicide not a mounting to murder. The Opposition must work to provide justice to suffering parents than attempt to gain political mileage. Upant Sharma, Panchkula VII Instead of owning up responsibility for this awful tragedy or ordering an inquiry, the government has suspended the principal of the college. Some leaders have even had the temerity to say that such deaths during this period of the year in the state are r out ine.Utt ar Pradesh CM Adityanath Yogi is free to strut around feeding cows, but he should also ensure that his government does not kill innocent children. Tarsem Singh, Mahilpur CONFUSION OVER JANMASHTAMI HOLIDAY This year, there was a lot of confusion over holiday on Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna with different states seeing it differently. Haryana government announced a holiday on August 14, Punjab has it on August 15. The UT administration holiday list omits this festival, probably because the man- darins felt that it coincided with Independence Day. Even schools observed it on different days (August 14 or 15) this year. This is an example of Unity in Diversity, perhaps. Seema Garg, Hoshiarpur SOLDIERS IN ARMY: WHY CAN’T WOMEN JOIN Though women were permitted to join the Armed Forces as officers in the early 90s, they are still not permitted to join as soldiers in the armed forces, unlike in the paramilitary like the CISF, the ITBP, the CRPF, the BSF, the SSB etc. This also amounts to ‘hostile and 100% discrimination’— something that the Delhi high court observed recently, relating to another issue. Neetu Dhiman,

Ambala Cantt II

Why should the Territorial Army be open only for men is a question that bothers me? Such a bar is just a reflection on the discrimination prevalent among the two genders in our society. This is something that needs to be rectified at the earliest. Rini Jagota DEBATE PROS AND CONS OF ARTICLE 370 Article 370 of the Constitution provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir and has created a separatist psyche. The state’s people have gained very little, but have encountered numerous problems in development due to the so-called special status. The need of the hour is to hold a nation-wide constructive debate on the relevance of the provision. Amit Kumar, Amritsar BUXAR DM’S SUICIDE: A WASTED LIFE The death of Buxar district magistrate Mukesh Pandey is a life wasted of such a talented and intelligent individual. Whatever might have been the reasons for his ‘suicide’ as reports inform us, it in incomprehensible that a DM thought them to be unsolvable. Kavish Sharma TAX USE OF POLYTHENE BAGS The ban on polythene/plastic bags is enforced in an ineffective manner.To discouragethe use of polythene bags, the authorities should introduce a tax that the shopkeeper can charge while dispensing articles in polythene carry bags. This tax should go to the kitty of the local municipal body. This will compel the shoppers to carry their own bags. This is a common, and quite effective, practice in cities like Chicago in the US. Ranbir Singh Pannu,

Amritsar