MyVoice: Views of our readers 29th November 2021

Turn judicial system into an essential service

Our honourable CJI has rightly assessed that the pendency of cases is a multi-faceted issue and the Parliament is also responsible in some ways. The Parliament does not seem to assess the impact of its laws, he says. Maybe true, but as an ordinary citizen of the country, why cannot the important pillar of democracy be made into an essential service? Today, including the Sundays and the vacations, the courts do not work for almost 130- 135 days of an year, a whopping amount of official holidays (almost 30-35% of the year). Is it any wonder why the backlogs run for many decades in many cases? Why cannot the courts run like all other essential services like electricity, railways, hospitals, all days of the week? There can be provision to deal with the cases after hours and on Sundays by emergency rotations of the judges like they do for doctors. Increasing the number of judges, which our articulate CJI seems to be batting for, is a good solution, but only a partial one. We need more working hours. The courts and judges are very quick to make moral judgments on rest of the society but it would be nice if they reflect on their working pattern and also address the extreme corruption rampant in our courts at all levels.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal

Paddy farmers must shift to alternative crops

Due to tussle between the Centre and Telangana State government, the farmers have become paws and are not in a position to withsand the nature's vagaries, resorting to distress selling of their paddy stocks to private parties at Rs 1,200 per quintal which is much below the MSP of Rs 1,960. So, the farmers who want to grow paddy by taking the advantage of water availability, should think about market for paddy and go for alternative crops like pulses,millets and oil seeds. They should know that the state government has neither funds for procurement nor Silo godowns to stock the paddy.

Pratapa Reddy Y, Tiruvuru

Brace for another variant

The new variant of Corona virus, Omicron, has emerged dangerous with its threatening presence and high transmissibility across the globe. This variant of concern does need meticulous attention of all countries as South Africa and Europe are already registering rise of numbers fast. India should review its air travel policies with other countries, especially high risk countries to contain the spread to minimum. The people are complacent in observing covid protocols witnessing the lowering number of active cases. The vaccination programme has not been gaining pace. Even the mounted vaccine loads are said to be nearing expiry dates in private sector. Now there should be an aggressive plan of action with the country to avert another serious wave of corona.

Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

II

Now that the new variant, Omicron, has been found in several countries, it could inevitably spread worldwide in the next couple of months despite the travel restrictions and border controls imposed after the discovery of the ominous Omicron. A virus has the knack for spreading far and wide. Omicron has shaken the global economy as is evident from global markets tumbling; it has given rise to fears of another slowdown in the global economy. As of now, it is an evolving situation; we need to know more about the composition, characteristics and behaviour of the new variant to know if another surge of the pandemic is imminent for the world to contend with and science to combat.

G David Milton, Maruthancode

III

As Omicron cases are being found in different countries, India should revisit its decision of permitting quarantine free entry to foreign tourists of 99 countries. The authorities should also tighten rather than easing the curbs on international airflights from 15th Dec,as they were thinking previously. The situation may take an ugly turn as the experts think that new variant contains many more mutations and the existing vaccines may not be showing very promising results in these cases and will likely have to be tweaked. Listening to WHO's warning, once again all of us should start taking all precautionary measures very seriously.

Dr Sunil Chopra, Ludhiana