MyVoice: Views of our readers 2nd March 2022

How about public toilets?

The new 'Urban Loo' opened near Secunderabad railway station area which is crowded throughout 24 hours of the day is certainly helpful to both male and female persons especially the train passengers who flock the station all the times. However it is the duty of the GHMC to charge minimally for the use and the charges should be displayed prominently in the toilet.

Not only this, the GHMC should ensure that the private agency charges the users as per the displayed notice. This is because, in most of the public toilets the charges are levied exorbitantly with no control whatsoever on them. The reason given by them is that they have to pay for water and current charges in addition to their living expenses which is very important to note. We don't understand as to why on one side hundreds of public toilets existing are in a bad and horrible situation without repairs and on the other side new toilets get inaugurated?

Is it not the duty of local MLAs, municipal corporations to revive such not in use toilets and make them usable. After all, do they expect that the people would search and go to the modern toilets for answering their " nature's calls " .This is a basic public service of providing public toilets and the TS CM who claims that he knows each and every inch of Telangana state does not bother about this reviving existing defunct toilets which is very important to keep up public health.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao, Hyderabad

India should evolve on its own

The editorial 'Ukraine war implications for India' validly advocated the need and importance for India to evolve logically, in the emerging global situation to become self-sufficient on all fronts – primarily on the military front, to be able to defend itself, without undue dependence on others. It is good to learn that India is already in the process of revamping its defence production, incorporating state- of- the-art global technology by including private players in the country. This trend is going on smoothly as more foreign companies are showing interest to open shops, and share the technology with India. China's Taiwan dream cannot be as easy as the present event in Ukraine; to assume that the present incident is a carte blanche to China on Taiwan is wrong. China knows this vital reality.

K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

In the context of the Ukraine crisis, India walks on tightrope to balance its stance of support in the current geopolitics scenario emerging after the Russian attack on Ukraine. With the UN General Assembly session already decided to be held now, Russia is likely to be censured there and, whether stubborn Putin cares or not to stop the aggression remains to be seen which is unlikely unless Ukraine yields to Putin's whims.

Non-aligned stance of India has traditionally paid the dividend, undoubtedly notwithstanding its economic compulsions. However, this is encouraging that GOI is taking cognisance of social media panic and TV reports of standard Indian students in Ukraine and has rushed to evacuate them though coordinating such an operation in a war torn country is very tough. Further, returning Indian students from Ukraine mostly from the medical stream must also be admitted in medical colleges with rational criteria immediately so that youth and their families are not frustrated.

Brij B Goyal, Ludhiana

Winds of change in J&K

There is a quantum change in the socio-political situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370. The main political groups of the Kashmir Valley who have been enjoying the special status at the cost of Indian tax payer, are now aware of the lost status as a result. They have been on Pakistan's payroll and instrumental in inciting violence and terrorism that helped the jihadi and pro-Pak elements in the Valley. The stone pelting incidents against security forces have virtually ended; as more and more ground workers who took up arms against the state are being neutralised by the security forces, and being caught alive too. The radicalisation of youth in mosques and madrasas must be ended, evolving new legislations in paving the way for youth to join the social mainstream. Tourism is picking up in the Union Territory as new hotels and modern, mechanised travel arrangements are in place in the Dal Lake of Kashmir.

K V Raghuram, Wayanad

Protecting the environment

During present times of high-tech era, reality is that gone are past glorious days of pure air or water. Root cause for such situation is human-induced climate change as evident from increase in global warming level which is grave and mounting threat to survival of humanity in this globe which ensue from anti-developmental activities being done in the name of developmental activities. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is indeed dire warning on inherent consequences of inaction by all countries necessitating indispensable collective remedial or corrective measures without fail.

B Veerakumaran Thampi, Pattom (Kerala)