All about sugar

This refers to your editorial ‘Cane, but able’ (January 21). State governments fix the cane price arbitrarily for the sake of votes. The price can be dependent only on the realisable price of sugar in the market. The market price of sugar depends on so many factors including international price. Sugar mills need to have a reasonable profit to run the show. At the same time, we cannot ignore the plight of farmers. They can be paid a subsidy directly by the State governments for what they supply to sugar mills. It is also disturbing that a court has said that the proceeds of goods that are pledged or hypothecated to banks must be first appropriated towards payment to farmers. This will derail the financial system.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

The interests of cane-growers should be protected. The pricing of sugar should be according to the expenditure incurred in the farming and production of sugarcane and not vice versa; it should not be that when the price of sugar falls the price of sugarcane also falls. The farmer should get a profit according to labour and capital inputs. Mills should also get crushing charges with a profit.

Avoid subsidies and protect the interests of both the farmer and the crusher. Pricing should be justified from the beginning: cost of seedlings, processing of land, planting, manuring, weeding, irrigation, harvesting, processing of crops, transportation, maintenance and other expenditure. Focus on infrastructure. Procure and distribute.

TV Jayaprakash

Palakkad, Kerala

Opportunist to the core!

It is not surprising that Kiran Bedi has joined the BJP. It is an open secret that if she could topple Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi elections and the BJP gets a majority, she would claim to become chief minister. She gained fame only because of the reforms she brought about in Tihar jail and some good things she did for the inmates. We cannot forget the controversy over her alleged misuse of air fare she had claimed from the Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild.

We are also aware that she went against the NDA government only when she was denied the top job, a post she had been angling for.. The main reason for her falling out with Anna Hazare and Kejriwal can be attributed only to her insatiable thirst to be in the limelight.

Tharcius S Fernando

Chennai

By drafting Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate at the eleventh hour, the BJP has admitted that its Delhi unit is bereft of a leader to take on Kejriwal, while at the same time upsetting old-timers. Given the invincibility of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, and the centralisation of political decision-making in the BJP, resentment in the Delhi unit is unlikely to explode into an open revolt.

More significantly, the BJP is not quite confident the Modi magic will take them home. That Kiran Bedi joined the BJP without mentor Hazare’s blessings has not gone unnoticed.

She is no match for Kejriwal in the game of politics. While Kejriwal is consistent in his approach to the problems faced by Delhiites and in his trenchant criticism of India’s increasingly discredited political class, Kiran Bedi shows a certain vacillation on issues and bases her whole relevance on her ‘uncritical’ admiration for Modi. In the present context, AAP represents the best hope for a clean government and delivery of basic living standards and commodities to the aam aadmi .

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Hard facts

This is with reference to the letter on the problems faced by banks with respect to education loans (January 21). Our experience as bankers shows that 80 per cent of those studying engineering don’t get good jobs, but this information has not quite got across to students from rural and semi-urban areas who join engineering colleges with great hopes. I have come across students with a CET ranking of 50000 joining engineering course and asking for loans. Many times these end up as bad loans. There’s nobody to advise them to think twice before pursuing these courses. Private colleges are only filling their coffers.

S Mahesh

Email

Sugarcane politics

This refers to your edit ‘Cane, but able?’(January 21). The State governments are to blame for the state of our sugar industry. They have treated farmers as a vote-bank; that’s why farmers are holding the government hostage to extract their desired price for sugarcane. The Rangarajan formula is reasonable. When farmers get 70 per cent profit share, how can they frown at this level of returns for their produce? Farmers need to be educated on the rationale and benefits of the new formula so that they can be brought on board. The Centre should take the lead in this effort and facilitate the change.

CR Arun

Email

Long time coming

The news item, ‘Cabs4share starts India’s first long distance, shared taxi service’ (January 21) made interesting reading. Bengaluru-based Signia Corporate Service Pvt Ltd is a pioneer in long-distance shared cab service in the country. In the absence of such a facility, cab owners exploited clients by charging for the return journey, toll free fee and bata to the driver.

With the introduction of shared taxi service in the city, cab owners are left with no alternative but to rejig to remain in the business. The chief executive assuring mandatory police verification and checking the antecedents of the driver besides getting a reference from the previous employer will go a long way in bringing a semblance of security and confidence in the minds of commuters.

Besides, it is imperative to install the GPS system in the cabs connected to the booking office to monitor the movement of the vehicle and behaviour of the person at the wheel.

HP Murali

Bengaluru

Keep the ecosystem safe

This refers to the news item ‘India set to drive south Asian economic growth in 2015’ (January 21). Even as we are euphoric on the possibility of India overtaking China in the matter of the growth rate, let us also take care that the ecosystem in the region is nourished and not ravished by China. Journalist Fred Pearce had long back written on the havoc China created by over-damming the Mekong river resulting in a steep decline in the agro-fisheries economy of Cambodia due to the halving of the reverse flow of its famous Tonle Sap river.

A recently published book, Melt Down in Tibet by Michael Buckley, warns of the exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources and the incompetent and corrupt stewardship of the environment which has the potential of devastating consequences not only for the ‘roof of the world’ but also for nations that depend on the rivers that flow out of it. Degradation of forests, grasslands and glaciers will be a significant contribution to the global climate change, the book warns. To be specific, the Brahmaputra is in danger due to the recklessness of China. It is therefore necessary that India take the lead in raising this issue.

S Subramanyan

Navi Mumbai

The rise in India's tiger population is cause for cheer. The ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign, crackdown on poaching and a scientific approach have all contributed immeasurably in perking up the numbers of this magnificent animal. However, concerns remain and the decline in the numbers of the big cat in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and north Andhra Pradesh, primarily due to poaching and insurgency, should make the authorities sit up and take notice. Karnataka deserves accolades for earning the distinction of being the top tiger State with 406 tigers.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

Logistical ideas

This refers to ‘Vallarpadam forgotten, it’s Vishinjam now’ (January 21) by NK Kurup. While both Vallarpadam and Vizhinjam have ambitions to become a transhipment hub, the most significant question is whether there is a transhipment market in the Indian subcontinent. Every port in India is eager to become a direct call port. No Indian port wants to be a feeder. This approach is well suited especially when ‘Make in India’ gathers momentum so that consignments are not held up at any mid-way transhipment hub. Logistical support for ‘Make in India’ must include discount on port tariff on ship-related charges focussed on direct call shipping, supplemented by disincentives to avoid transhipment traffic clogging any Indian port.

Vizhinjam must be a sea-to-sea transhipment port. There would be no need for government to spend huge amounts to create road/rail connectivity. The government must join in a 50:50 partnership with a private party by offering operating right for 30 years on over 200 acres of land and water spread with 20 metres natural draught as its share of capital. The private partner must bear the project cost as its share of capital by subscribing in cash to the share of JVC at the commencement of the partnership. This type of arrangement by assures commercial viability.

KVA Iyer

Kochi

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