Distorting
historical facts
Sir,
It is in reference
with Dr. Ali Mohd Bhat's letter titled
"Accession and Kashmir, crises"
published in your esteemed daily dated Dec. 3,
2001. Dr. Bhat Saheb, in his letter has attempted
to distort the historical facts. The premises of
his statement in the letter that Maharaja Hari
Singh signed the Instrument of Accession in a
State of helplessness and not on any stated merit
is white lie. During the partition every ruler of
the princely state was allowed to opt for India
or Pakistan without reference to the people. The
only guiding factor was geographical contiguity.
In the case of Kashmir, what is clear like board
day light is the fact that Maharaja Hari Singh's
own choice and preference was for India. But he
was hampered by the absence of direct motorable
road to India. Secondly, he was annoyed by
keeping J&K State beyond the purview of the
Ministry of States, headed by Patel. Thirdly Hari
Singh was insisted by the then Prime Minister of
India, to hand over the administration of the
State to Sheikh Abdullah as a pre-condition for
accession of the State to India. These factors
were basically responsible to put Maharaja Hari
Singh in a dilemma. But when Pakistan launched
its armed attack on Kashmir during the
intervening night of October 20 and October 21,
1947 to clinch the issue by force, by then
Maharaja realised that his small army could not
stem the tide of Pakistani invaders. He
immediately decided to prioritise Indian national
interest and above all the interest of the people
of his Kingdom which is still a conglomeration of
diverse and distinct regions.
Dr. Bhat in his
letter has exerted to the optimum to prove that
the sufferings of the populace are tagged with
the solution of J&K problem and thus
emphatically suggested that India and Pakistan
should resolve it. But this line of response is
generally used with a view to absolve the local
authorities and bail out Muslim majority
community from any responsibility for their
failure to protect the life, property, religion
and culture of Kashmir's particularly that of
minorities.
Lastly, I find it
my bounden duty to inform the author that India
cannot manage to concede any thing pertaining to
locus standi of Pakistan in Kashmir, because
pluralistic composition and civilised order of
India is unambiguously tagged with the survival
of India in Kashmir in its letter and spirit.
Yours etc...
Bihari Lal Koul
Barnai Jammu.
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Jammu city sans
street lights
Sir,
After chain of
letters I have written on the above noted subject
and published in the Daily Excelsior from time to
time and the latest being on 6th Oct. 2001, it
has been observed with some satisfaction that the
PDD Maintenance Wing Jammu, has now taken the
trouble of making some improvements in lighting
system particularly on Tawi bridge and
Gandhinagar Airport road. My purpose of writing
this letter is never to claim any credit in the
matter but simply I wish to see similar action on
other roads because glittering lights would make
Jammu city safe and more charming at night.
The street
lighting system on the road from Bikram Chowk to
Railway station uia Jammu University which is
equally important stands almost totally collapsed
for quite some time which needs to be attended on
priority as lacs of Yatris and other visitors
follow this route for their journey. The un-lit
lights not only cause problems but also reflect a
shabby picture of the city.
Yours etc...
Dharam Vir Gupta
Senior Citizen,
74-75 Gurha Bakshinagar,
Jammu Tawi -180 001.
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Power
curtailment
Sir,
The Power
Development Department is very much in its right
to effect the power curtailments since it has its
constraints. It has to be answerable for the
energy it gets from the Northern Grid and the
power it receives from its own sources. The
deficiency in power production of course, either
has to be got compensated by effecting
curtailments or by getting additional power from
the Northern Grid. Our Govt. unfortunately, has
chosen the option of effecting load curtailments
without thinking about the after effects of load
curtailments. The PDD of its own has to think
about reduction of the losses of the electricity
it receives and the revenue generated out of it.
But the responsibility of the Govt. is much more.
It is responsible for the health of the people,
the loss of studies to the students, and loss in
the production in the Industries. This in turn
hinders the development of a country. The
curtailment have forced the individuals to go for
the alternative sources of energy so as to run
their business or to meet their day to day needs.
In Urban areas,
people use diesel/kerosene oil generators or
inverters etc. The diesel or kerosene generators
cause a lot of pollution where as the investors
produce gases which are pernicious to the health,
particularly to lungs eyes and the throat. The
latter being used in the household are more
dangerous as these directly affect the members of
the family who inhale the gases the closed doors
emitted by the batteries of investors. The
purchaser, in general, do not know about this and
neither they are advised to install it in a
separate room with an exhaust fan to minimise its
bad effect. In most of the cases, they do not
have enough space. The generators create air and
noise pollutions making life miserable for the
inhabitants of the area.
In a place like
Raghunath Bazar in Jammu, thousands face such
type of atmosphere during curtailment hours.
While calculating the viability one of the norms
fixed for rural electrification for which the
funds are provided liberally by the Central
Government is the saving of foreign exchange by
way of burning of fuel and the pollution of
environment etc. This is, how the Central Govt.
has fixed the norms. Thus, the Govt. should lay
more effective checks on the theft of power than
to go for forced curtailments which is a crime as
far as its after effects are concerned. The
people are learning to pay for the electricity
they use, but more important is to educate them
properly for the judicious use, of power.
Yours etc...
Er. B M Kohli
Jammu.
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