(Organiser, 22.6.2014); This is with reference to the front page story ‘Kedarnath Revisited’ in Organiser. Again we have been witnessing landslides in the Himalayan mountain ranges of Kedarnath Valley. Hardly a year has passed when this area had faced a deluge costing thousands of lives, devastating crores or rupees of property and costing our exchequer a high price. But despite all this we have not learnt any lesson out of it.We must be aware that the root cause of these deluge and landslides are due to the deforestation that has taken place from decades indiscriminately. The simple reason is that these trees hold the soil together and in turn the soil holds the water thus preventing both deluge and landslides. We wish to ask what steps,except to resume puja at Kedarnath Temple, the government of Uttarakhand has taken so that this mishap does not reoccur. It is high time that we should act appropriately lest we would loose the mother earth one day.
SETURAM ASPARI,
Email: [email protected]?
Kudos to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Thanks to the programmes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan access to schooling has been raised manifold. But concerns regarding the quality of education still remains . We need to debate whether the idea to include student learning outcomes in results framework documents and to introduce a school rating system through nation/Statewide learning assessments will indeed improve the learning outcomes ,or whether these measures give rise to another set of malpractices .We know from our past experiences that initiatives to improve school education system, though implemented with the best of intentions, have been counterproductive. Since this is a issue related to the young generation, we must approach the issue of raising standards and improving quality of education with great caution.
AVANTIKA GARG,
New Delhi
Why Mr Muttemwar was earlier silent?
It was really ridiculous on part of senior most Congress leader of Vidarbha , Vilas Muttemwar who asked his party’s supremo Sonia Gandhi to bring pressure on P M Narendra Modi for grant of Statehood for Vidarbha region.I would like to ask why his own party i.e Congress could not create it when it was in power at the Centre for more than six decades.Nor he had put any pressure when he was Member of the Lok Sabha for a long time.What is the point of asking others to bring pressure on NDA government led by Shri Narendra Modi.Separate Vidarbha State will emerge in near future no doubt about it,since BJP is always in favour of creation of smaller states.
SRIDHAR V KULKARNI,
Kalyan (West) 421 301 ??
UNMOGIP: Past the Finish Line
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(Organiser, 27.7.2014); This refers to’ UNMOGIP:Past the Finish Line ‘ in Organiser. It is a good step by Shri Narendra Modi’s government to close the United Nation’s Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan office in New Delhi, as we do not want any international interference in Kashmir. It may be further added that nobody can ignore the fact that the rulers of the princely states were given full authority to decide the future of their kingdoms as per Independence Act of July1947 passed by the British Government, which is binding on both India and Pakistan.It is worth noting that this provision was made because Jinnah insisted for it although Congress and Nehru were not in its favour.Therefore Pakistan has absolutely no legal claim over Kashmir. Moreover Pakistan ,an Islamic country, also got Hindu majority big district of Tharparker in Sind and Chakma Buddhist region of CHT, now in Bangladesh. India stood by the Independence Act of July 1947 and returned both of these places to Pakistan and Bangladesh, although these were captured by our army during 1965 and 1971 war. Indian government must put arguments on this issue.
