Letters to the editor dated July 3, 2020

This refers to ‘Demand distress’ (July 3). Expansion of cheap credit sans executing measures to raise the demand for indigenous products is detrimental to the generation of employment and income. The disposable income of the consumers has been drastically curtailed because of the heavy damage caused to the various segments of the economy.

However, because of a good harvest, a rise in the income of the rural population is on the cards. But without a substantial increase in the purchasing power of consumers across the economy, demand will be dismal.

The government must prefer more labour-intensive manufacturing activities especially in the areas of building rural infrastructure and agri-related economic activities. Micro-units are still starved of working capital as funding agencies are treating lending to this segment as riskier and less remunerative.

The government and the RBI must assess the impact of the various stimulus packages to ensure that the returns on the capital so employed have created jobs and distributed the earnings so as induce demand.

Kottayam

The loss of lives due to the Covid pandemic is rising in spite of the various steps taken by the government to halt its spread. One reason for this could be that the preventive steps are not being strictly followed by the people, who can be seen walking and standing on roads without observing social distancing norms. The government should take more steps to arrest the daily rise in cases.

Coimbatore

Apropos ‘Covid vs lockdowns’ (July 3), we should compare the cost of Covid spreading with the cost of the lockdown. Undetected Covid cases can result in many more people getting infected and will extend the misery. There’s a need to continue spending on preventing and treating Covid.

While the fight against Covid may be costly, by putting more money in the areas needing attention such as MSMEs and rendering financial help to the poor, the economy can get a boost.

Pune

The Opposition’s objection to the ‘Centre’s bid to privatise passenger trains’ is predictable. In December 2019, the Railways had selected about 100 routes to run 150 private passenger trains, for which it is now inviting RFQ. The move is expected to rake in investments of ₹30,000 crore to the economy under recession. The Railways Ministry has already clarified that the operations, such as the driver, guard, safety certification and infrastructure, will remain with itself.

The private players will only get to handle on-board services such as entertainment, food, cleanliness, passenger amenities and fare collection. As such, the existing employees have nothing to fear in terms of job loss.

Further, monopoly anywhere only breeds inefficiency, corruption and poor service to customers, with a single entity dictating the price, quality and supply of goods and services.

With the entry of private players, travellers may expect better quality service and punctuality of trains.

Chennai

It is quite usual that many complainants while filing complaints against government-employees and others mark copies to dozens of authorities even though the original complaint is to be dealt by a single agency. Many-a-times anonymous and fake complaints are also filed.

Such practice unnecessarily involve huge man-hours and resources of many public authorities. Even though some guidelines exist for filing complaints, the Department of Personnel and Training should issue fresh norms in this regard with due publicity through advertisements in newspapers and TV channels. To avoid filing fake complaints in name of others, it should be made compulsory to attach a copy of ID proof of the complainant with every complaint.

Delhi

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