Letters to the editor dated April 9, 2021

With reference to news report ‘Maharashtra says vaccine stocks at critically low level’, it seems that politics is being played over this sensitive and critical issue.

The Modi government is saying that States such as Maharashtra and Delhi, who are asking for more vaccines, have not utilised their existing quota while the latter are saying that they need more. This is no time for petty politics.

The Centre must leave aside political differences with Opposition ruled States and be more magnanimous in giving vaccines. It is high time that the age limit for vaccination is lowered and all this talk of need and want must be put aside.

Lockdown is not a solution anymore. We can not allow lockdown to take place across the State of Maharashtra like last year from present night curfew.

So aggressive vaccination is the only way forward.

Noida

The exodus of migrant workers from cities such as Mumbai has started due to fear of shrinking job opportunities in the wake of second wave of Covid. Many of the workers are casual labourers and construction workers. Going by past experience the government must intervene quickly to create jobs and prevent another socio economic crisis.

In these circumstances reviving stalled real estate projects is a viable option to shore up spending and improve economic activity and employment.

The AIF of ₹25,000 crore launched by the government in 2019 has no doubt helped completion of many real estate projects so far but the fund is confined only to ‘Affordable and Mid Income Housing’. There are many large real estate housing projects, stalled for want of the last mile funding, not falling under the above category.

The government can launch a fund — AIF or Stressed Assets Fund — to complete these projects in which huge funds are already invested.

These projects can be monitored by RERA with funding from investors, buyers, banks and builders pooled through an escrow account. Such an arrangement will not only unlock huge investments and also provide employment for migrant labourers.

Mumbai

By maintaining status quo on benchmark policy repo rate and reaffirming its commitment to continue with accomodative monetary policy stance at a time when clouds of uncertainty loom large over the country’s economic recovery following the emergence of second wave of Covid-19, the MPC(Monetary Policy Committee) of RBI in its first policy meeting of the current financial year had underlined its primacy to growth.

However, it cannot afford to ignore inflationary pressures.

Factors such as the rise in global commodity prices and the spectre of possible disruptions in the supply chain in the face of resurgence of contagion has also now raised the possibility of inflation sustaining above the upper threshold of the MPC’s target.

Under these circumstances, the government must scale up the vaccination drive to ensure that the country’s economic recovery does get torpedoed by the second Covid wave.

Sholavandan (TN)

Apropos ‘Arabica coffee prices rise on tight supplies’ (April 9), this is an anticipated situation and the trend may not reverse in the time to come.

Arabica coffee is reeling under the burden of unresolved plant-health issues of Stem borer and heightened cost of plantation maintenance, combined with labour shortage.

A large acreage of Arabica plantations is inevitably getting converted to Robusta, which has major impact on environment and ecology in view of the permanent removal of well grown shade trees, which is irreversible.

The Indian research and scientific community must find a remedy for the stem borer issue in the interest of the environment and also national economy, since coffee is a major forex earner and cannot be neglected.

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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