Editor,
This is with reference to your editorial (ST Oct 29, 2019) on the manhandling of the a policemen in uniform inside the police station. It is an ugly incident which should never have happened. I do not condone violence and no one should. Yet to call it a breakdown of law and order in Meghalaya is too far-fetched I think. Please let us not make a mountain out of a molehill. I read Khasi and I listened to both sides of the story here and this is the picture I got, for the benefit of those who do not understand the language. The editorial’s question as to why the KSU leader should interfere in the altercation between a driver and another person is very wrong. In fact it is precisely why the issue reached a boiling point because the police arrested a KSU personnel who had no part in the altercation. The driver gave this testimony before the police and refused to file an FIR because he was sure that the police caught the wrong person. Yet the police were adamant and tried to convince the driver to file the FIR and verbally abused the KSU representatives who came in big numbers. He even uttered other defamatory statements which are best not mentioned here, which incensed the KSU leader who slapped him. If anyone sees the video one would see that the mannerism of the student leader was peaceful and disciplined until those incendiary remarks were made by the police. Incidentally, I had just watched another video involving a few policemen in Ri Bhoi area who took money from truck drivers. It is good and healthy to have a positive image of police as guardians of law and order, but with these kinds of corrupt outlaws in uniform on the loose, you never really know who is right and who is wrong. The police department would do well to rein in these wayward personnel and teach them to be more polite in speech and behaviour.
Yours etc.,
Edelbert Kharsyntiew,
Via email
Diwali pollution
Editor,
During this year’s Diwali celebrations, Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index (AQ1) of 999, beyond which reading is not possible. The prescribed limit is 60. Massive toxic fumes generated on bursting of crackers and fireworks on Sunday night had literally turned Delhi a gas chamber. Despite several attempts made to curb the menace of air pollution, a layer of haze enveloped the national capital a day after Diwali as the city’s air quality plummeted on Monday to the severe category for the first time this season.
It may be recalled that Delhi has been struggling hard to come clean out of its polluted level of environments and the government was doing everything possible to make it clean. But with a large number of revellers brazenly flouting the Supreme Court enforced two-hour limit for bursting crackers, the city again became highly polluted.
This tragedy for Delhi is that it is wilfully courted by the revellers who comfortably forgot the highly vulnerable condition of environment while celebrating Diwali. Delhi government also seemed to have been less strict in enforcing the rules. Rampant bursting of crackers had pumped ultra-fine particles, less than 2.5 microns, into the air making it difficult to breathe, especially for kids and the elderly.
If the authorities had been a little more vigilant in strictly enforcing the rules and if people had been educated more about the possibility of deteriorating the environment with bursting of crackers and other fireworks during the Diwali, Delhi would have been a little more purified than now.
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Via email
Of death holes
Editor,
Various district administrations ,city corporations ,municipalities and Panchayaths in Tamil nadu have started issuing urgent orders to close all abandoned bore wells and open wells following the tragic incident of a two year old toddler falling into one in Tiruchy district of the state. If the civic bodies had shown such vigilance and passed strict orders to cap such death traps the Manapparai incident would never have occured. The civic bodies have warned strict action against those indulging in digging such wells without proper permission and has cautioned of criminal action against those responsible for abandoned bore wells, ring wells and open wells . In a similar situation earlier this year the Punjab state administration had closed more than a hundred wells after the death of a two year old who got trapped in a bore-well shaft in the Sangrur district of the state in the month of June. Multi -agency rescue operation agencies are the need of the hour and such agencies should be made available with the latest equipments in all the districts of our country to be immediately put on action during such emergencies.
.As lack of standard operating procedures result in failures and disasters the state disaster management groups/cells should set and follow standard operating procedures to check and prevent such incidents in future.
Yours etc.,
M Pradyu
Kannur