letterstoeditor

CREATE AN INDIAN EDUCATION SERVICE Apropos ‘Rethinking the essentials of university reform’ by Pankaj Chandra on September 19, it is sad that no government has paid attention to the recommendations of various commissions and committees during the post-Independence era. It has rightly been held that education has never been considered as the basis of national development. It is evident not only from the financial allocations but also unimaginative governance which is crucial to education. With the bureaucracy failing in its job, the question certainly arises whether we must create an Indian Education Service for teaching. We also need to provide autonomy to schools and colleges to improve the standards. S Kumar, Panchkula SWACHH BHARAT: TIME WE STARTED WORKING To ensure that we are a clean country by 2022 will require adequate attention to detail, along with institutional changes. Some suggestions are that collection of waste material/garbage from residences and markets be handed over only to government sweepers. Private sweepers usually throw the garbage in nearby vacant plots. To ensure institutional respect is given to making the effort towards cleanliness, we must introduce a chapter on cleanliness in school books. A separate department titled ‘Swatch Bharat services’ needs to be set up with enforcement and prosecution wings in all states. Subhash Chugh, Zirakpur FARMERS MUST ORGANISE THEMSELVES More than 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture and during votes in Punjab, they were also promised the moon. Till now, however, nothing has happened and farmers have again started protesting. This pattern repeats itself. To ensure something is really done, farmers need to be better organised to press the government to accept their just demands. Otherwise like always such protests will end up in failure. Amanvir Singh Tiwana,

Patiala BE BALANCED IN APPRAISING BULLET TRAIN The inauguration of the bullet train project has invited a lot of criticism and even ridicule. At first glance, the project does not seem to be cost-effective, but this cannot be an excuse to stymie an endeavor to upgrade an existing system. By this logic, there was no need for Rakesh Sharma’s Odyssey to space or for that matter the mission to Mars. Luddites like the Left parties are expected to criticise such projects. However, the Congress must refrain from criticising the government at this historic moment. Abhinav Sharma, Ludhi

ana PROMOTE LINGUISTIC HERITAGE Indians are not proud of their linguistic heritage. Not only the tribal languages, but languages such as Punjabi and Gujarati are also in the danger of getting extinct. A language loses its vernacular character when idioms and phrases peculiar to that particular language lose their significance. Similar is the fate of several languages in India. All developed countries work to promote their own languages. To progress, India should encourage schools to impart education in their mother tongue rather than imposing a foreign language or trying to promote homogeneity in language. Gurnoor Mutreja, via email BE WARY OF NRI GROOMS

The women ‘victims of marriage’, left to fend for themselves by their unscrupulous NRI spouses, have nowhere to turn to. In Punjab, the same sad story plays itself out in almost every village and town. Studies put the number of such distressed womenat 20,000. The abandoned women are denied marital rights, turned away from homes. Their absconding husbands, at times, even serve divorce papers on their helpless and hapless wives by post. Abandoned wives need the support of their family and society. Your editorial has rightly pointed out that only the impounding or cancellation of passports can serve as a deterrent. Parents of women should also do proper diligence before finalising marriages with the NRI grooms Dilbag Rai, Chandigarh TOLLS AT ALL HIGHWAYS MUST GO ELECTRONIC The country must move on to a electronic toll plaza at its highways if we are to make real progress towards development and help people be productive. The current manual system means that there are traffic jams galore and the time the country is wasted on a colossal scale.

Gurbaj Singh, Gurdaspur INTRODUCE TWO SHIFTS IN GOVT SCHOOLS The UT administration’s decision to close 57 unrecognised schools is a welcome step. These have no playgrounds, no separate washrooms for girls, no access for fire brigade vehicles and negligible security system. However, shifting 15,000 students to government schools is a mammoth task, especially when infrastructure is already a con- straint. More than 3,000 students are already in the queue seeking admission to Class 11. The problem needs to be resolved, but in a phased manner displacing only few students in each academic session. Introduce two shifts for the schools and develop infrastructure on war-footing if government wantstoimplementthe Right to Education in the true spirit. Wg Cdr JS Bhalla (retd),

via email CENTRE MUST DEVOLVE 75% OF TAX COLLECTION Of the tax that the Centre collects from residents of states, only 42% is returned to the respective governments with the Union pocketing 58%. The Centre then goes on to spend this amount lavishly on projects that might not be of priority to state’s residents, but makes for ample political capital like bullet trains, dams, increasing salaries of its employees and placing big orders of purchasing aeroplanes etc. This is the perfect recipe for lopsided development where the states feel neglected. Farmers commit suicides and employees, in some cases, agitate for their rights. The Centre is also then accused of turning a deaf ear to states’ complaints. States get trapped in loansandrepaymentofunbearable interest and must get 75% of the tax that the Centre collects.

JS Sodhi, SAS Nagar