Job well done

It is a matter of pride that Operation Rahat carried out by the Indian Navy and IAF to evacuate Indians from Yemen has earned global acclaim: 23 countries, including the US and France, sought help from New Delhi for evacuation of their nationals. More than 4,500 Indians and about 1,000 foreign nationals from 41 countries were safely evacuated. 11 Indians were evacuated by a Pakistani naval ship, PNS Aslat, while three Pakistani nationals were evacuated from by INS Sumitra.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj oversaw the operation from New Delhi. Minister of State Gen VK Singh (retd) supervised and coordinated the evacuation from beginning to end, in Yemen. When Sabah Shawesh, a Yemeni woman married to an Indian, tweeted to Narendra Modi and Sushma Swaraj “My baby is Indian & has right as Indian to be evacuated from Yemen but can’t walk himself as 8 months. I need to accompany him”, she and the baby were safely brought to India.

MC Joshi

Lucknow

Use technology, help farmers

This refers to your edit, ‘Industry on the mend’ (April 13). The government should concentrate on quality fiscal spending which will crowd in the private sector and give a leg up to recovery. As the RBI governor suggested, our promoters have too much control with too little equity. This needs to change and the government has a role to play here. A market economy will have its failures and we should allow the entrepreneur to exit without hassle.

Our legal system has its work cut out and it needs capacity augmentation to deliver. Already we are a seeing the after-effects of unseasonal rains. The government should draw up a plan using the latest technology to deliver effective crop insurance to all our farmers. We should be ashamed as a nation to allow farmer suicides. Protect farming and farmers for a sustainable recovery of our economy.

CR Arun

Email

Loaded against builders

This is with reference to ‘Real Estate Bill: more power to the buyer’ by Meera Shiva (April 13). The main issue of giving industry status to the realty sector was misplaced. A wholesome remedy ought to have been the approach, instead of focusing only on the demand side. Another nightmarish experience is the approval delays by local government authorities. A clause in the Bill to fix this anomaly is hugely missed.

The government authorities have scant regard for the rules and regulations framed by their parent bodies, however, the builders’ body, which belongs to the private sector, need to follow the law as if only they are responsible. This is one-sided.

The compulsory registration of middlemen is excellent The clause regarding changes in the original plan happening with the consent of at least two-thirds of customers raises issues like: Who is the customer? If a prospective buyer pays 20 per cent and books a unit, he/she becomes the customer. On the whole, customers are hoodwinked by the authorities concerned.A builder instead of focusing on funds, construction and delivery, will need to spend more time and energy on complying, thanks to this Bill.

KS Raghavan

Mumbai

Btw, great stuff!

Yet another wonderful illustration by Dipankar Bhattacharya (By The Way, April 13). The liftman bending to make way for the tea boy, the blonde and the executive inside the lift, the people in the queue — all these make for a great picture, especially the body language of the tea boy.

Milind S Kulkarni

Email

Erratum

b The article titled ‘Tolexo.com sets $1-billion sales target’ (April 7) stated there are over 24 million products with over 17 lakh sellers trading on Tolexo at present. However, these figures pertain to IndiaMart, the parent company of Tolexo.

The figures for Tolexo are 5,00,000 + SKUs in 21 categories and 1200 brands registered on the website. Also, Tolexo.com is backed by Intel Capital and not by IntelleCap as reported. The errors are regretted.

Harassment by IT department

This refers to the interview by Aarati Krishnan with S Mahalingam (‘The tax system completely lacks focus’, April 7). The income tax department is now engaged in arbitrarily issuing letters to many employees, stating shortfall in income tax paid by them and demanding remittance of the shortfall with interest immediately. Sometimes these threatening letters go relate to many years back. How is it anything but tax terrorism?

As far as the salaried class is concerned, tax is deducted from salary for every paisa the employee is paid in the form of salary or perks. Even pensioners are not left out. The IT department expects pensioners to continue paying the advance tax they paid while in service. This is absurd. Since most Indian citizens are law-abiding, the arbitrary issuing of threatening letters is not correct.

Rugmani Vinod

Thiruvananthapuram

Give merit its due

It is rather surprising to note the directions from the government to PSU banks (‘Promote Scale II /III staff on merit FinMin tells banks’, April 13). Does this mean there was no criterion of merit in the past? It goes without saying that at all times, it is essential that merit is given importance. It may be true that merit is a matter of opinion and experience a matter of certainty, but the latter should factor proportionate merit. Experience is not what happens to one, but what one does with what happens to him.

RS Raghavan

Bengaluru

Protect our seas

According to the Meera Kumari Commission report, foreign fishing vehicles may be permitted in our seas and hence it justifies the looting of our marine resources by foreign companies. It welcomes foreign crews in Indian waters. The commission’s recommendations would adversely affect the fishing community and lead to their displacement. We should take no action that affects the livelihood of traditional fishing communities; the government should protect the fish resources on which thousands of fishermen are dependent.

KA Solaman

Alappuzha, Kerala

Remembering Ambedkar

BR Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary is an occasion for us to remember him and his stellar role in the making of modern India. His radical views placed him outside the mainstream of Indian politics during his lifetime. Still, today he outshines all the other leaders of his generation. He is as relevant today as he was during his lifetime. As a passionate champion of Dalits, he represented the ‘otherness of India’s indigenous culture’ and his seminal work is yet to bear fruit. His conception of social justice is the ultimate panacea for social segregation and stratification on the basis of birth.

However, for all his tireless work the caste system perpetuates itself. Dalits are still subjected to all sorts of indignities and their abysmal condition is brought out by untouchability walls, two-tumbler system in tea stalls and manual scavenging. An immense amount of work is still to be done to turn Ambedkars dream of a caste-less society into reality.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

The card conundrum

The Aadhar card has a dotted line and a scissor symbol at the bottom indicating that the bottom portion with the card-holder’s details must be cut off, and laminated. But most organisations and institutions require us to submit photocopies of the top and bottom and back of the card. What are we supposed to do? Will the government clarify?

TS Karthik

Chennai

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