(Organiser, 19.4.2015);This refers to the article ‘Making Environment Qualitative’ in Organiser by JP Dubey. We are very happy to learn that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a national Air Quality Index(AQI), which will monitor the quality of air in major urban centres across the country on a real-time basis. People should welcome the release of the much-awaited AQI, which can be used to inform people about the quality of air on daily basis and to provide advisories on health consequences. It can probably tell how clean or polluted the air is, and what the associated health effects might be. In fact, the Centre for Science and Environment had been demanding such an index for a long time. This can surely help build public awareness as well as public support for hard decisions that are needed to get cleaner air. The global standard shows air quality on a six-colour scale, dark green being the cleanest and maroon the most polluted. Decisions, actions will have to be taken with emphasis on public transport. Upgrading the institutional capacity to assess pollution sources, bigger fines for violators of set emission quotas and a stronger legal framework for air quality management, cannot be avoided.
J AKSHOBHYA, Mysore
This refers to the statement of Jaware Gowda former Vice Chancellor of Mysore University in a function held recently in Bengaluru that ‘Purohit System’ in Sanatan Dharma sect of the Hindu society should be abolished . We condemn and strongly oppose his this statement. Purohit system is a part and parcel and an integral package of Sanatan Dharma sect , its customs , rituals and tradition . If anyone feels uncomfortable being in this sect, they have the liberty to choose a sect of their choice, but making such comments on a particular sect is unconstitutional. Sanatan Dharma is a flexible religion, it has provisions for the rich as well as the poor too. We do not want that anybody to rewrite the doctrine of this religion since everything is inbuilt in it.
SETURAM ASPARI,
Email: rangeshk@rediffmail.com
It is difficult to believe that the Aam Aadmi Party which has had a resounding electoral success, with the voters giving it a clear mandate in Delhi is on the verge of collapse within weeks after assuming power .The Party which had shown a picture to the general public that it would address the problems of the aam adami is heavily involved in its internal fights with no time to listen to the problems of Delhiites. So much so that it has now reached a stage where the governance of Delhi has taken a back seat. With every leader in the Assembly busy asserting his or her loyalty to the factions involved in the power struggle within the Party, the AAP seems to be going much the way of those fronts which had taken shape in the country some years ago to dethrone the corrupt Congress Party. I feel that these leagues came together as a possible option to the existing power quotients, but disintegrated in no time .
M C SHARMA,
Kanpur
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