Learn from mistakes

This refers to ‘Delhi govt bans plying of 10-year old diesel and 15-year old petrol vehicles in city’ (August 31). It was intriguing that the owners of all such ‘out of sync’ vehicles have been advised to get these vehicles “scrapped” through authorised scrappers of the Delhi transport department while advising them not to ply the same on Delhi/NCR roads as all such vehicles may be impounded as per the SC’s orders. Significantly, Delhi government’s advisory does not talk about extending their “validity” period, subject to payment of “yet to be specified” renewal charges. This virtually leaves no option for the owners except to “dutifully” bow down to the Centre’s mandated “scrappage” policy.

However, the Centre’s proposal includes grant of marginal relief towards the registration amount payable in respect of the newly purchased EVs. But are we properly “equipped” with enough electricity charging stations across the country? We saw the long serpentine queues when CNG vehicles were introduced. Let us learn from our past mistakes.

Vinayak G

New Delhi

The deficit boulder

With reference to 'A large Budget deficit is like riding a tiger' (August 31), despite its usefulness governments must also spell out the processes of making good the deficit and not switch on the currency printing machine every time, which has cascading impact on inflationary trend.

Also ministries concerned need to start reducing budgetary deficit from 12 per cent to less than 5 per cent by eliminating undesired expenditure.

These measures would definitely keep the deficits within mandated limits and may even lead to a revenue surplus budget. Let us not be dovish but be hawkish and not buy inot the arguments of Modern Monetary Theory protagonists at any cost.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Vehicles logjam

‘Two-wheeler dealers left with over 70,000 unsold BS-IV stock’ (August 31) highlights the complex motor vehicles legislations in India. Rules could vary across States which makes it difficult for manufacturers, dealers, and users. Permission for use, configuration, carrying capacity, etc in some cases could vary across States for the same vehicle.

For the customer, annual renewal of insurance, frequent PUC certification, fitness for commercial vehicles, etc are procedural hassles. Transferring ownership of a deceased person’s vehicle to a relative, transferring registration from one State to another while on transfer or job change, and end of life disposal of vehicles present bigger challenges.

It is time for a detailed review and overhaul of some archaic motor vehicle regulations. In the case of unsold stock referred above, why can dealers not register vehicles (and report to RTO) themselves when selling them?

V Vijaykumar

Pune

Small farmers ignored

Although the webinar “What ails India’s Animal Husbandry sector?” was pertinent for the fast growing dairy segment, it was dominated by the corporate sector, despite the fact that 80 per cent of the contribution comes from small and marginal farmers. Issues haunting the unorganized sector were not a part of discussion though the webinar is not accessible for grassroots level farmers due to technical reasons.

The maajor issue for a small farmer is his accessibility to timely bovine health and quality feeds at an affordable price, in addition to unforeseen concerns of high labour cost and remunerative prices for his produce linked to milk quality (SNF). Unless these matters are addressed, together with regular payment for his supplies, the dairy sector will be by the affluent class, allowing the corporates to grow rich.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)