Letters to the EDITOR: Beggar menace

sentinelgroup@gmail.com

Beggar menace

When we look around outside homes and places of work, we can easily see the increasing number of beggars, a large flock of people claiming to belong to the third gender, and vendors in the streets of Greater Guwahati and the state capitals of other northeastern states. Though there is no official figure of the number of strangers on the streets due to their floating character, they are mostly from rural areas of Assam and other neighbouring states. Some of them came with their families and some alone in search of a livelihood. The editorial 'Strangers on the streets' published in your esteemed daily on September 23 has sadly pointed out that although there is a centrally sponsored scheme called Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprises (SMILES), unfortunately, the state's Social Welfare department is literally  nonexistent despite its bifurcation a couple of years ago. As a result, there is free movement of strangers on the streets as if they have been authorised by the concerned department to earn a living by extortion by annoying the citizens at traffic signals and inside the city buses. The editorial has said that the rapidly increasing self-styled sanyasis in and around the holy Kamakhya and other religious shrines have not only become a law and order problem but also raised various public health issues by their unhygienic acts of defecation and urinating in open areas. Their unhealthy conditions of living are exposed to high health hazards. The majority of them have been found to choose maladaptive strategies such as drinking alcohol and using drugs. Open-air bathing of such people using municipal pipes and water taps on the roadside or railway lines is a very common sight in Guwahati. Moreover, they have much higher instances of HIV infection due to a lack of awareness and supervision on the streets. They deserve specific attention from the authorities concerned because of their vulnerability. It is a fact that the main responsibility of taking care of the street strangers lies in the hands of NGOs, but the state government should also come forward to curb this problem and save thousands of vulnerable lives. As a conscious citizen, it is the responsibility of every individual to talk on the issue with positive-thinking people to find a suitable solution to the problem to achieve a beautiful society. A good outcome can definitely be achieved by focussing on the issue to get rid of the menace once and for all.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

The new slogan

In recent times, the regime in Dispur has carried out eviction drives against the illegal encroachment of government, forest, xatra, and tribal belt lands that were engineered by the previous 'secular’ governments for six decades to consolidate their vote bank. We also saw how Akhil Gogoi and Bhupen Bora resisted the eviction drive in Kaziranga and Garukhuti due to reasons best known to all khilanjiyas in front of their favourite media.

Very recently and very alarmingly in Dimoria, a totally tribal belt area, during an eviction drive by the authority against the illegal encroachers, we heard slogans raised by the illegal encroachers who were armed to the teeth before attacking our police and law-enforcing officials, which we the khilanjiyas had never heard in the past, and it is said that such slogans were used by the mobs in Bangladesh recently while attacking the minorities. Through this letter, I beg to request the 3 Gogois in particular and also the likes of Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and Bhupen Bora to make us understand the meaning of the said slogan so that we also become secular.

Before parting, I, as a Khilanjiya Asomiya Indian, do feel that we do not need another Badan Borphukan. The very same advice goes to AASU, who are very much following the recent developments. Our one-time so-called liberators must be grinning.

Joel Goyari

Assam

Waterways of life

Though rivers are national assets, there is little awareness among the people about ways to preserve their purity and utility. Besides being indispensable for day-to-day use, including agricultural purposes, they serve as a great inland mode of transportation that can bolster trade and commerce. Biodiversity would have been a thing of the past, but for the rivers. The river system, of course, is earth's highest biological diversity zone. World Rivers Day, which was observed on September 22, aims at spreading awareness about the essential role played by rivers in sustaining life on earth. Only about ten percent of the river basins in the world are protected. Dams, encroachments, and deforestation have threatened their very existence.

Therefore, saving and celebrating rivers cannot be overstated. The campaign against the construction of dams is an integral part of "saving rivers," because preserving free-flowing rivers is the key. It is indisputable that "water is for all." That said, it is every citizen's responsibility to keep the nation's rivers clean and pollution-free, devoid of dumps and industrial waste. A country's rivers cannot be allowed to become sites for garbage and sewage disposal. River management, river pollution, and river conservation are three areas that have rightly seized the attention of experts. Rivers, ecosystems, and society are significantly interlinked to represent the "waterways of life.".

Dr Ganapathi Bhat

(gbhat13@gmail.com)

Tirupati laddoo scam

Whether it's a political stunt or true, time will tell. But the way Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had sparked a major controversy when he told NDA allies that animal fat (including pig & beef fat, fish oil) had been found in the ghee for the Tirupati laddu prasadam when Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRC) was in power. YSRC had reacted angrily, denying the allegations and claiming it to be one of Naidu’s political stunts. But Naidu’s allegation and the National Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB) report (which comes with a caveat—there can be chances of false positive results in certain circumstances) have shocked millions of devotees of Lord Venkateswara across the globe as the Tirupati laddus (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) prepares and distributes about 3 lakh laddus to the devotees every day at Tirumala. Every year, the trust earns around Rs 500 crore from laddu sales alone, which is considered Maha Prasadam and carries a high sentimental value.

This is outrageous. No one knows how this scam is going to affect millions of devotees who value spirituality more than life. More shockingly, devotees are unable to understand why the world's richest Tirupati temple cannot afford Rs. 75 lakh worth of ghee testing equipment and it had to wait for so many years for someone to donate it. Actually, this gang of crooks, called TTD Trust, has turned Tirupati into a business house with severe mismanagement, and the way they treat devotees is horrible.

Whatsoever, 'Pure Cow Ghee' quoted at Rs 320/Lt., which is accepted by the TTD, for daily consumption of 10,000 litres of ghee every day in the richest temple in the world has not bothered to even have its own laboratory to check supplies. Immediately after Naidu’s discovery, TTD immediately took quick action. As part of streamlining measures, an inquiry was ordered into the alleged poor quality, taste, and texture of the laddus. TTD constituted an expert committee to look into the quality of the prasadam. But the big question: what about the culprits who made millions of Hindu scapegoats for their benefit? Why not catch them and give stringent punishment?

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee

(bkchatterjee9@gmail.com)