Whipping boys, by choice!

This refers to the report ‘Delhi pollution: SC raps 'inertia' of bureaucracy’ (November 18).

Of late, one gets a feeling that political leadership in charge of governance and the bureaucracy that is responsible for implementation of government decisions are volunteering to become whipping boys of the media and other limbs of the democratic system.

Lack of transparency and delay in sharing relevant information with investigating agencies and/or making available responses in the public domain encourage avoidable speculation and adverse observations by statutory bodies.

Not just environmental pollution, but the overall architecture responsible for policy implementation needs overhaul.

MG Warrier

Mumbai

Wanted, healthcare workers

With reference to the article ‘A global shortage of health workers looms’, indeed it is an alarming sign for the world that this pandemic has taken its toll on nurses who have served humanity across the world without bothering about their own physical and mental health.

The tragic death of 1,15,000 plus healthcare workers is a humongous number and must shake all of us. As far as India is concerned, anyhow we struggle to bridge the gulf between Doctor and Patient ratio and death of 1,500 doctors and other healthcare workers would have broadened this gap further with the fact that numbers could have been more.

We can just imagine the plight of our nurses and paramedical staff in terms of their wages etc, if their overall conditions are not good in other parts of the world. The government must take note of this report and ensure that there is no alarming shortfall in nurses or other medical staff in near future and more colleges should be built across the country.

Bal Govind

Noida

Don’t scapegoat cryptos

The Centre including RBI are overly dogged by the crypto currency as a new age asset class but giving short shrift to other asset classes. Under the watch of RBI, almost every year banks are falling like pack of cards, fly-by-night operators are pervasive, investors are burning their fingers in equity except a few wily investors. Senior citizens are getting rock bottom interest on their nest eggs, who are also getting tempted to experiment with such unregulated virtual currency.

Every asset class has some strengths and weaknesses and so is the crypto currency. Also the contention that it promotes money laundering and terror financing do not cut ice. In light of this singling out and scape-goating it is uncalled for . A holistic approach is the need of the hour.

Deepak Singhal

Noida

Fund pepper stocks

Apropos ‘Pepper turns hot as inclement weather may drag down the crop’ (November 9) — although alarming, the growers must evolve a long-term remedial plan since pepper, an annual crop, is a lifeline in plantations. With constantly rising input costs, uncertain price realisation, weather playing truant, liquidity an issue, growers may not be able to stock the commodity for future sales.

Therefore it would be prudent to demand fiscal support from lending institutions to fund the pepper-in-stock on the similar lines of “forward trading” and “Forward Contract” at a highly subsidised interest rate, which is the only way now to bail out the beleaguered plantation sector and prevent a major collapse, other than regulating cheap pepper import, which looks like a mere assurance as the trading community is more ingenious than the growers.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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