Artificial lake for Jammu

Sir

The article ‘An artificial lake for Jammu’ by Prof B L Bhardwaj took me down the memory lane.

Being a monitor from 6th to 10th class, I had been entrusted an assignment to deliver the current news on every Monday at morning Assembly. As such, I used to get a number of chances to speak the news regarding the proposals to build an artificial lake on the river Tawi. And this news appeared in all the leading papers including "The Partap". And news concerning this lake continued to appear in newspapers during the regime of Late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the proposal remained in the papers only and never matured.

Now there is an urgent need to construct an artificial lake for Jammu on the river Tawi, the water of which has not only reduced owing to change inclimate but has also become very much polluted. Infact, the water of river Tawi is now left only up to Jammu Tawi Bridge. Its water at nearby villages like Mandal Phallan, Makwal, Thub etc, has almost dried, which hitherto used to be in abundance.

Thus, Prof B L Bhardwaj, has done a good job to again highlight the proposal for constructing the lake on the river Tawi for Jammu through his article as stated above.

The present Government of Jammu & Kashmir under dynamic leadership of new Chief Minister, must give due consideration to the proposal for constructing the lake on the river Tawi. If the proposal for constructing this lake is matured, then the would be constructed lake may prove on asset as has been mentioned by the author.

R D Gupta
Ex Chief Scientist KVK
39-Dhakki SarajanJammu.

Change school timing

Sir

It has been observed that the present school timing is quite troublesome for both the children as well as their parents. And this timing becomes piercing and inching at times when the region experiences extreme weather conditions as at present. Most of the private schools have timing between 8.00 a.m to 8.30 a.m. in the morning. However the opening office timings for the adults are between 9.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. The struggle starts very early at wee hours for the parents to take their children out of the bed and to ready them for schools. The children at this very tender age not used to getting up so early are not so enthusiastic and feel very bad when their mamma-pappa struggle to get them out of their bed. Half-heartedly they get up, often eyes winking for the lost sleep; and every thing relating to morning ablutions is to be done very hurriedly including making lunch and packing them in matadors.

There too the inconvenience faced by them is unbearable for them. In certain cases, they are jam packed ino those vans/auto taking them to the schools. Even at that time, the children are found to have still not felt fully awakened. The school buses/vans and autos meandering through the various routes to pick up the children would take from half to one hour to reach their destinations well in time. This means the struggle for the parents has to begun earlier thus putting extra pressure on all of them.

Keeping all this scenario in view, it is requested to the concerned authorities and school administration to get school timing changed.

Ravi Sharma
Shakti Kumar,
Jammu.

The sting operations

Sir,

The sting operations have become the talk of the day. Time to introspect. It started in a big way with Tehelka and did a lot good to Indian politics by way of exposing corruption in high places. It also raised the stature of journalism as Tarun Tejpal fought against all odds to stand for his convictions. But then there has to be a balance for every thing. Too much of any thing is bad.

The press is now over doing the sting part. Just to out do others, they are carrying a hidden camera at all possible places. This is bound to have negative effect on journalism and quality of the press and media. People will now be so guarded and scared of the media people that they will hesitate in even allowing them enter their houses lest they be secretly photographed and conversation recordrd. The real news will suffer. So, a word of caution. Lets maintain balance and not be part of the rat race. This will be good both for the media and respect for privacy of the people.

R D Singh
Jammu Cantt
(J&K)