Sadhus should wait for SC’s verdict
Nowadays encircled in the news clip is Ayodhya land dispute, as the matter saw a new twist when Param Dharan Sansad, a 3-day conclave of Hindu seers, declared that they will lay the foundation stone of Ram Mandir on February 21. It also announced that a massive congregation of Sadhus will leave Prayagraj and duly march towards Ayodhya, upping the ante for the laying of stone. However, in the view of this claim to start Ram Temple construction, all eyes are on the outcome of this harsh step, because there is a strong possibility of communal violence after this move. So the government must put some strong measures in place to prevent such steps as long as the matter is going on in the Supreme Court.
M.F.U.Tandvi
India’s communal harmony in danger
It is a matter of great concern not only for the BJP led-government but also for the entire nation of India that our country is on the brink of communal violence before the Lok Sabha polls this year as the US intelligence community’s assessment of worldwide threats. Now the Modi government is once again in the storm of questions after Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, made his statement that BJP policies during Modi’s first term have deepened communal tensions in some BJP-governed states, and Hindu nationalist state leaders might view a Hindu-nationalist campaign as a signal to incite low-level violence to animate their supporters. So, it is now the government’s responsibility to protect the country from communal clashes and to save the communal harmony.
Mohd Usmani
Rationalisation of postal-tariffs not done in Union Budget
Presently mail-tariff for post-cards and registered newspapers is decades old and is in paise where coins below Re 1 are now totally out of circulation. It is senseless to have mail-tariffs in paise. Sale of post-cards has sharply declined, and mostly extra-ordinary heavy subsidy on post-cards is largely misused by chit-fund companies and other business houses. Listeners of Akashvani also misuse extra-ordinarily subsidised post-cards to listen to their names on the radio by sending post-cards indicating any song as their choice. Production-cost of newspapers has increased multi-fold in the last several decades; therefore, it is senseless to continue with mail-tariff in paise in name of benefitting small newspapers.
Minimum postal-tariff should be Re 1 for postal-articles requiring subsidies like ordinary post-cards and registered newspapers. Additional revenue can be earned to partially offset the big loss by providing the remaining half of side bearing address column like on ordinary post-cards in case of post-cards in Meghdoot category. It is also high time to discontinue totally outdated and unpopular Inland-Letter-Cards also bearing heavy subsidy with this subsidised postal-article largely misused for commercial purposes.
Mail-tariffs for rest of postal-articles should be in multiples of Rs 10 ordinary-mail tariff revised from Rs 5 for every 20 gms or part to Rs 10 for every 50 gms and part. Either GST should be abolished from postal-services like Speed Post, or their tariffs should be so fixed that net payable price by users may be in multiples of Rs 10 inclusive of GST. Speed Post tariffs require complete rationalisation for equal tariff-rise for every 50 gms slab-weight. Presently at various slabs, the unreliable ordinary post is costlier than reliable and fast Speed-Post.
Extra earning can be done by introducing sponsored postal-stamps with some minimum print-order and some minimum purchase of such stamps by the sponsors. It will be an extension of the system where advertisements by sponsors are printed on postal-stationery. It will popularise postal-services in competition to private courier-companies where sponsoring companies will prefer using their sponsored postal-stamps, rather than using private courier-services.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
