MyVoice: Views of our readers 2nd May 2022

Time to tame spiralling inflation

While confrontationist party politics hog headlines, little attention is paid to the rising burden of consumer price inflation on the common man. The latest wholesale price index and the consumer price index ought to serve as a warning to the policy-makers. The rising food and fuel prices in the recent weeks threaten to hurt the ordinary consumers the most. The war in Ukraine has sent up the price of petrol, diesel, CNG, cooking gas, etc. into the stratosphere. This, in turn, obviously has had a cascading effect on the general price line. Besides, the disruption in the sea lanes due to the western sanctions against Russia has caused the price of wheat and soya oil to shoot up substantially.Cooking oils, including mustard oil, have seen a sharp spurt in prices. Common man needs respite from the ever-rising prices.

N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru

Inordinate delay in justice delivery

In India, the wheels of justice move so slowly that the cases are not even disposed of during the life time of the petitioner or respondent. The lack of judicial infrastructure has resulted in a huge backlog of cases as enumerated in your edit. Blaming only the lawyers is not right. If the government is serious about reducing the backlog of cases, there must be a serious relook at the cases of land or taxes. Artificial Intelligence can be used to segregate cases which can be disposed of without hearings. A holistic look at the entire law and order machinery is needed. Piecemeal solutions will not work.

Anthony Henriques, Mumbai

II

The CJI has correctly stated that all the three wings of democracy should not cross their limits and further that Judiciary should not be utilised as a mere platform for settling one's personal litigations under PIL. With around 4.20 crore cases, several PIL petitions and contempt petitions etc pending in several courts for decades, when can justice be delivered to the honest people? The concerns expressed by the CJI should be given immediate attention by the governments and the required number of Judges along with staff-infrastructure should be created immediately.

K Durga Prasad Rao, Hyderabad

Raise deposit rates for seniors

Seniors deposit their life savings with banks for safety and liquidity. The interest rate used to be 12% at one time, now it is 5%. Most of the seniors depend on their income from banks. But it is reduced considerably. But the cost of living is high. I suggest to increase the rate of interest to 8% at least for seniors. Many seniors are not able to afford to pay the premium to renew their policy due to high premium and high GST at 18% . In case the GST cannot be waived completely it may be reduced to 3% or 5%. Income tax on seniors above 70 years may be waived.

KLRao, Vatika City, Gurgaon

Why impose Hindi as national language?

There is not, was not nor will ever be a country on this earth like India. With class, creed, colour conviction, culture, cuisine, custom, different languages, the country is still really around a consensus. To impose the Hindi as the national language would be churlish. Recall again a transition from east Pakistan to the Bangladesh, who sacrificed their lives to protect their mother tongue Bangla against the imposition of Urdu as the state language. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speaker. Not more than 30% of the population speak Hindi. As far as language was concerned, 'purity' is a self-defeating term.

Uzair Ahmed, Tawli, Uttar Pradesh

Shocking apathy of EV companies

It is unclear why a man from Tamil Nadu set his "Ola EV Scooter '' on fire and that too on camera with a claim of poor service. It is sad that the company created hype at the time of launching the EV scooter last year and people as usual scrambled to book the vehicle and even waited for delivery which began in December 2021. Apart from this, a few others also caught fire and the company was forced to recall about 1,400 scooters. Commuters need to understand pros and cons keeping in mind their own safety and that of family members. Also, when it comes to service, auto companies in general do not deliver what they promise at the time of selling the vehicle and after sales service is going from bad to worse.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad