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Protection of Sikhs

Sir,

Please refer to the News Item captioned "Farooq Assures Protection as Sikhs demand Migration" which appealed in the Daily Excelsior on February 6, 2001.

We cannot deny the fact that it is not for the first time the militants have acted by crossing the limits of cruelty by committing the massacre of the members of a minority community. It is a routine matter for the militants because there is no one to check them up or to encounter them despite deployment of BSF, CRPF, and military cops. It clearly shows that there are many loopholes in the arrangements of security.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister and other leaders including the Governor as well as Union State Minister of Civil Aviation assured the Sikh Community to protect them from the militants. Here the question arises as to whether our Chief Minister and other leaders would be able to safeguard the minority community in the Valley? If we take the stock of the past, untoward incidents, happenings reveal that the State Government as well as the Central Government have miserably failed to protect the minority community with the result the Kashmiri Pandits had to run away from the Valley. On many occasions in the past, the heartbreaking crimes had been committed by the militants. While speaking to the people at Mehjoor Nagar, Srinagar Dr. Abdullah and other leaders assured the people that a plan for their protection is being introduced and the loopholes thereof in the system are also being plugged. In this regard, it may be said that mere assurances won't instil confidence among the minority community. Something substantial has to be done.

The Sikh community have also threatened to migrate, if their protection is not arranged for further safety. It is a very serious and important for the Chief Minister to have an immediate plan for the protection of the minority community, otherwise there is every chance for Sikhs to follow the foot steps of Kashmiri Pandits for migration.

As regards the unilateral ceasefire, it has really proved meaningless as the Pakistan Government has not honoured it and the militants are taking undue advantage of it.

Keeping in view all things which happened in the past, we must learn the language of Pakistan so that its strategy is understood and counter measures taken accordingly to safe guard the interests of the country.

Yours etc...
Dwarka Dass Sharma
Jammu.

Modify 3rd schedule

Sir,

To beat the good effects of excise duty being imposed on basis of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) on selected items, several industries have innovated new ways to fraud exchequer and the consumers by charging extra in name of freight, handling and local expenses! Such expenses which are even upto half the advertised cost, are mentioned in small unnoticable letters in the advertisements. Already consumers are confused with infamous narration of 'Local Taxes Extra', because proper implementation of uniform rates of Sales Tax is not yet possible which may force industries to print net payable prices on commodities. Consumers are befooled by yet another gimmick of lower price under 'Waiting Scheme'!

Government should impose MRP based excise duty on all items at least like all electronic and electrical appliances generally sold under gimmicks of exchange schemes. Evidently, net price realized in exchange of the old item is the real sale price of the item. Value of the old item is in fact extra profit for the company or the dealer. Government should also take note of consumers' money being wasted on required items forced 'free' by companies with the required purchases. Union Ministry of consumer Affairs must own responsibility to ban all such gimmick sales and advertisement.

Directorate of Weights & Measures (Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs) must modify 3rd schedule (Rule 5) of the Standards of Weights & Measures (Packaged Commodities Rules 1977) to have a uniform package formula to pack all commodities in either 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 gms. or mltrs., and then in 1, 2, 5 or multiples of 5 kgms. or ltrs. only to save consumers from being cheated by gimmick packagings! Harmful practice of printing both 'Price per Unit' and 'Price per Pack' may then be abolished. For instance on a 500 gms. pack priced at Rs. 10, shopkeepers put a sticker on this pack price, thus charging Rs. 20 which is also printed on the pack as 'Price per Unit'!

Yours etc...
Madhu Agrawal,
1775, Kucha Lattushah,
Dariba, Delhi-110006.

Power scenario in J&K

Sir,

I am of the opinion that people in general like to pay the electric dues. And if some zones are created consisting of four or five stations of particular mohalla or colony which are near to the 33kv station or by feeding them from PHE feeder, on experimental basis, and 24 hour supply given to them, all the meters in that area be sealed, the leakage of power is checked so that all the energy consumed by them is paid for to the Govt. These persons would be very happy on all accounts, since they would not have to suffer for the frequent power cuts which , of course, tells upon the education of the children in addition to the disturbance in daily routine work. All they have to do is to curtail their unnecessary load i.e. like garden and compound lighting consisting of so many lamps, putting off the geyser load when not required, curtailing the use of heaters, using tube lights instead of lamps, and using only those lights where you are sitting etc. This way the department will not only save the energy but the distribution system will also be under loaded. But, to my surprise, when I discussed the idea with some persons who had gathered near a substation, which was running single phase due to over loading, the instant response against it was: plea that

(i) What the Govt. is doing to check the 100 percent power theft in Govt. quarters.

(ii) What about the power being used by the VIPs, Ministers and Durbar move employees, Hospital and other Govt. quarters, (power supplied through special feeders).

(iii) The power should be curtailed in Srinagar and Jammu in the ratio of domestic and commercial revenue collections.

I had really to cut a sorry figure and had to slip away from the gathering. But still I feel that the above exercise has to adopted by the PDD to create an example because, after all, we have to pay, today or tomorrow, for the energy we consume, as the Govt. is already paying to the National Grid. General public perhaps do not know that how much power they are wasting by using unwanted load i.e. by using one heater of 1000 watts for 10 hours a day they consume.

1000X10X30=300 kwh (units) per month @ Rs. 2.44= Rs 732 {bill rate} Similarly 4 lamps if kept off for the whole night i.e. 8 hours, can save power energy: 400X8X30=96 units per month i.e. Rs. 234. (bill rate).

People, of course in most of the cases, may not be paying for whole of the energy used by them, by Govt. is paying for all this energy to the Power Grid, that too, at the rate of Rs. 3.60 per unit. Thus a middle class family, although, saving Rs. 2000 per month for himself, is actually causing a loss of Rs. 3000 each to the Govt., unnecessarily. Similarly, a house without a geyser and a heater, but keeping only 4 lamps of gate, porch, veranda or in side the house, on during the night is responsible for contributing a loss of Rs 350 per month to the Govt.

I would like to invite attention of general public towards the facts as stated above in order to enable the Govt. to spend this saving for other development works in the State.

Yours etc....
B M Kohli
5/202,Indira Vihar,
Jammu.

Crush militancy

Sir,

The recent killing of Sikh brethren in J&K in India by the terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba group must be seen more closely by the media & the people. The terrorists have cleansed the Hindu Pandits are now targetting the Sikhs to further divide the community. This terrorism must be ruthlessly crushed before any more damage could be done.

Hope the GOI realises this and does everything to stop this proxy war with full military might.

Yours etc...
Suresh L Kumar
Toronto-Canada