|
LETTERS
 Push
And Shove
"Every time you highlight a non-performance please
suggest a few feasible solutions so that we can push our elected representatives
towards performance."
—Dr Trilok N. Sindhwani, Delhi
Ministering Discontent
While evaluating
the performance of Ananth Kumar, minister of tourism, you say, "One
fax and over 30 phone calls in 10 days. No response." ("Ministries
of Inaction", August 27). I am quite surprised that with the kind
of clout and popularity your magazine enjoys no response was received
from this affable Union minister. I say this because I, as an ordinary
individual, could get to talk to him-albeit briefly-on a project at his
residence in Bangalore on the day he was holding a house-warming ceremony.
Further, I could continue the dialogue with his officials in Delhi with
ease, just by picking up a pass at the reception-and I saw many doing
just that.
N.S. Soundara Rajan, Mysore
|
Murder No Bar
|
|
|
The freeing of convicts by Om Prakash
Chautala through his recommendation to the governor is an instance
of a politician having a criminal record pardoning and encouraging
criminals ("Crime and Reward", August 27). If the state
Government overrules the judgements of the courts in cases where
criminals were tried for murder, then what is the significance attached
to the legal system? How can innocent people expect justice from
courts? The Haryana Government should stop taking the law into its
hands and reverse the pardons granted to the criminals.
—P.V. Neelima, Chennai.
Your article depicts the true state of
Indian politics. It is shameful to know that the people elected
to take care of the public bow to criminals and foster them in order
to serve their own ends.
—Gagnish Gautam, Chandigarh
|
|
Your story draws an adverse inference regarding
the strategy of Indian Airlines (IA) to hold back the fare hike during
2000-1. The factual position is as follows: IA's decision not to increase
fares despite the aviation fuel prices having increased by nearly 48 per
cent in 2000-1 was a strategic initiative to regain market share which
had declined to 44 per cent in July 2000. The management's efforts in
holding the priceline paid off and IA's market share rose to 50.5 per
cent in January 2001 and has stabilised at that level since then. As for
the loss of Rs 177 crore posted last year, it needs to be noted that IA
exceeded all the physical performance targets in the budget of 2000-1.
R.N. Pathak, director, public relations, Indian Airlines, Delhi
The section on the road transport and Highways
Ministry has a few inaccuracies.
1. You say "But the project is three years
behind schedule and part of it will take off only by the end of 2001."
This is incorrect and the article too goes on to say that I have advanced
the deadline for the first phase of the programme to 2003 from 2004.
2. The other inefficiency attributed to my ministry
relates to the work on state highways and other roads. I clarify that
my ministry is responsible only for the maintenance and development of
the national highways; the state highways and other roads are the responsibility
of state governments.
3. Also, the information on the cover-"Rs
5,000 crore funds for roads unutilised"-is not correct as far as
my ministry is concerned.
—MAJOR-GENERAL B.C. KHANDURI, minister of state (independent charge),
Road Transport and Highways
The very fact that the delay in the National
Highways Development Project was mentioned in the introduction of the
story and not in the section on Road Transport and Highways Ministry proves
that Khanduri was not blamed for the delay. He has, as the story subsequently
said, actually advanced the deadlines for the project. But the project
did take three years to take off since the prime minister first announced
it in 1998. Nowhere did the story attribute the "inefficiency"
of the state highways to Khanduri's ministry-indeed state roads are the
responsibility of state governments. But Khanduri did tell India Today
that he was trying to improve the funding of state highways by asking
states for project details before sanctioning money from the Road Development
Fund. The caption on the cover was attributed to the government and not
to Khanduri's ministry alone.
—Editor
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
