Editor,
Civil Hospital is a Government Hospital which provides free check-up, and free medicines to the poor people. Government set up this hospital in Shillong to serve the lower income groups from all over Meghalaya but especially the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. I am a patient who depends on this hospital and doctors advised me to come for check-up once a month. Every time I go to this hospital for check-up and after that the doctor writes the names of medicines in the card (paper) and tells me to get the medicines from the pharmacy but every time I show the card to the pharmacists I am given only one kind of medicine whereas the others such as Encorate 300 mg which cost Rs 74 per strip, has to be bought from outside the hospital. I am a poor person so how do I buy this medicine as I need about six strips a month which means an expenditure of Rs 440 per month.
I feel sad and angry with the Government which does not have the spirit of social service but whose ministers and health officials are engaged in looting the right of the poor people, in connivance with drugs suppliers. Need we look further? Just see how wealthy the drug contractors are and how much of expired medicines are dumped in Meghalaya. Who is making all the money?
Yours etc.,
Nistarbok Kharthangmaw
Krang
Burdened with homework!
Editor,
Apropos the news item ,’On Pine Mount School,’ (ST April 13, 2017), I would also like to highlight some facts which relate not only to the heavy school bags but also massive homework given by teachers of different subjects in a single day. As a mother of two school going children, I find it hard to deal with this. On reaching home from office, like every working woman I first have to ensure that the children finish their homework, study and go to bed early.
But the trend of multiple homework from various subjects, are taking their toll on these young minds. Aren’t they burdened and confused? What do we expect of a young child, when every letter/word has to be spelled to pronounce correctly? Do you think, they would be able to commit everything to memory? Then where is the joy of learning? Furthermore, when one remains absent for a day or two which is very likely, children are made to stay back after school hours and pounded with those missing lessons. How does one expect a child with tears in her eyes to comprehend and learn when almost all students have left school to be with their loved ones? This creates a fear psychosis in the young innocent minds. Aren’t these highly qualified teachers capable of imparting proper education with lesser homework, project work? Or are they employed just to finish their syllabus on time and take home a big fat salary. Please bring some changes and understand the individual needs of each child because all children are not born geniuses.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request.
Cyber crime on the rise
Editor,
This refers to your report, “State’s cyber cell in sleep mode with untrained officers” (ST- May 1, 2017). It is observed that the internet world is ever-evolving and fraudsters continuously use newer ways to commit frauds. Earlier when internet banking was started, we thought that user name and password was enough security but then additional security measures were developed, but that too is now proving futile. The vulnerability of credit and debit cards and net banking has made it easy for criminals who are just a click away from easy money. Thus there is a need for widespread customer awareness about risks and threats of giving out confidential login information for internet banking. With the right permissions, hackers have succeeded in changing daily ATM cash limits and create fraudulent credit cards with new PINs for third parties to access accounts. It is rightly said that, “Prevention is better than cure,” so it is always better to take certain precautions while operating the internet by way of following good practices in order to minimize the security risks of increasing Cyber crimes in banks.
No doubt, it is near impossible to eliminate Cyber Crimes in total but it is quite possible to check them. Legislation cannot totally succeed in eliminating crime but we must be aware of our rights and duties i.e. to report the crime as a collective duty towards the society and making the application of laws more stringent to check cyber crime.
Yours etc.,
Vinod C. Dixit
Ahmedabad – 15
Bees under threat
Editor,
Bees and other insect pollinators constitute an important natural tool for efficiently transferring pollen grains from anther to stigma of flowers in case of a large number of important commercial crops and forest tree species around the globe. Unfortunately, the native bee populations across the globe are showing signs of alarming decline over the past two decades due to over application of pesticides in our agricultural fields, diseases, ecological stress, lack of quality bee habitats, foraging areas and nutritional deficiency to mention a few. It is important to look into bee conservation with utmost care and urgency as this could have significant negative impacts for future global crop production, ornamental and horticultural species, forest trees and orchard species and apiculture. It is important to develop quality Bee habitats or Bee sanctuaries at appropriate places around crop production areas, hard to reach areas of farms, weedy unused patches, wetland areas, along irrigation canals, unused and undisturbed parts of farm areas, reclaimed areas, city and municipality parks and gardens, private and public lawns, kitchen gardens, boulevards, highways and rural secondary highway areas. Pollinator Mix or Bee Mix can be an important constituent for establishing such Bee sanctuaries using mix of annual/perennial wild flower/native flower and grass mix or pollinator friendly annual/perennial forage mix.
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu
Lethbridge, Canada