Letters to The Editor: Neeraj Chopra scripting history

First of all many congratulations to Neeraj Chopra for making our nation proud by scripting history at Tokyo Olympics winning a Gold medal. The historic win of the 23-year-old spearman from Haryana's Khandra village is a moment of great pride.

Chandan Kumar Nath,

Sorbhog.

Restart inter-district travel

The Covid-induced lockdown has been difficult for everyone. But let's be honest it has not been so difficult for the regular income people, the hammer has made the most impact on the daily wage workers, small shopkeepers, bus drivers and conductors and all those people who earn daily. The inter-district ban on travel has only served as oil in the fire for the bus owners, drivers and conductors. It is understandable that to curb the spread of the virus the inter-district travel ban was the only way but the government must have thought of a B-plan to engage these bus drivers and conductors in other work so that they can keep earning bread for their families. The buses which are mostly diesel-based are lying unused for several months now. The diesel buses tend to depreciate in quality when kept unused. Who will bear the costs of these repairs? Now that the state is seeing a dip in the positive cases, it can think of restarting the inter-district travel.

Noopur Baruah,

Tezpur.

Digital divide

Through your esteemed daily, I would like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned and responsible citizens of Assam regarding the existing problem of the digital divide in our society. Students from different educational backgrounds are relying upon online lectures and classes. The sudden shift from offline mode to online mode due to the Covid-19 lockdown has further intensified the differences between various sections of our society and income groups regarding education. Students belonging to lower-income groups are finding it very difficult to adapt to this online mode of education. It is hard for parents to afford to buy a smartphone for their school-going children which will at least cost Rs 6,000. Apart from that, there are numerous problems like network issues, electricity problems in rural areas which causes problems for students to learn through online mode. For some students, the online mode of learning is not at all problematic as their parents can easily afford smartphones and the internet for them. It's the students belonging to the highly unorganized sector and daily wage earners who are facing the problem greatly. There are also government colleges and educational institutions in rural areas of our state which are lacking the good infrastructure to provide quality online education to their students. Our society which is already unbalanced in terms of income and living conditions is now facing another serious problem of the digital divide.

The government of Assam has clearly stated that offline classes of all the educational institutions would start from 1 September only if there's no spike in Covid-19 cases. So I request our government to look into the matter and make necessary arrangements for the re-opening of educational institutions as soon as possible.

Suraj Das Boro,

Cotton University,

Guwahati.

Reopening of weekly bazaars

There's no denying that weekly bazaars - the gateway to the larger marketing network, play a significant role in sustaining the local economy. These open-air markets not only cater to the needs of the people locally but also provide many a small vendor with their bread and butter.

These bazaars, which are considered the perfect go-to places for organic produce and traditional art and craft, had been called off in the state due to the fallout of the second wave of the pandemic. Consequently, the petty vendors as well as the wholesale traders have been struggling to survive for the last couple of months. Since lockdown restrictions have been relaxed in several districts lately, the government should consider complete reopening of these markets with strict instruction of following Covid appropriate behaviour.

Dipen Gogoi,

Teok, Jorhat.

Indian Women's Hockey team

The Indian Women's Hockey team though lost to Great Britain in the match for Bronze but they played very well and showed their competency in the world arena and I convey my heartiest congratulations to them for securing the fourth mark and it is for their hard work and team spirit that they have been taken to such a position. Our women's Hockey team should not lose heart and rather practise with more concentration and perseverance. Our Prime Minister has congratulated the Team on their achievement for which the entire Nation has been made proud. We are confident that our Women's Hockey Team will make history in the next Olympics. Our encouragement and applause go to the Indian Women's Hockey Team.

Subhash Chandra Biswas,

Tezpur.

Schools and COVID

Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu recently announced that that the State Government is planning to reopen schools from class 10 to 12 from September 1 only if the situation is normal. But the question that occurs is, are students safe to attend classes without being vaccinated? As the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) says that people who are fully vaccinated can resume activities that they did before the pandemic. So the State government should be clear about this question that students are withstanding and not put them in a predicament and quandary.

Srishty Kandarpa,

Jagiroad.

Tweet master

Going by the present trend in the nation's political scene one must admit that our prince Rahul Gandhi has in the meantime become a tweet master in every issue which even put his party into big trouble as seen on so many past occasions. On the contrary, our PM is hardly seen tweeting unnecessarily even in face of deep provocations and always maintain his dignified composure as a PM of the nation which no doubt is very praiseworthy. Despite his very busy schedule in the ongoing monsoon session of parliament our PM was keeping a close eye on the performances of our athletes. He was seen keenly watching India's semifinal against Belgium and also the bronze medal playoff against formidable Germany, cheering the players and always congratulating the prize winners and consoling the deserving losers over the phone which is a very rare sight seen in the past. But we have not noticed any words of encouragement from the opposition leaders. Our opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee to name a few seem to be even not aware of the ongoing OLYMPIC at Tokyo as their main aim is to unseat PM Modi at any cost by hook or crook. Interestingly, our opposition's PM candidate even forgot to congratulate our Golden Boy Neeraj Chopra for his brilliant feat due to reason best known to all.

The whole nation is watching them. Let us treat them with utter disdain once and for all.

Dr Ashim Chouwdhury,

Guwahati.