The winners of Rs. 3,000 are...

Feed the hungry

This refers to the article “Thought for food” by Prasoon S. Majumdar (TSI, Mar 7-13) on the intention of the government to put a curb on wedding parties to check wastage of food. With more than a quarter of our population under poverty line and rising food inflation, it makes sense to take all necessary steps to prevent wastage of food. Restricting the numbers in a wedding might not work as it is an emotional isue for the people. If rules are made, it would be a bonanza for the opportunist and corrupt police officials. They would do a brisk business by jumping into the middle of a lavish wedding party, creating a ruckus, taking bribe and allowing the wedding party to go its own way! And while food will continue to be wasted, an alternate method of generating black money will come up and spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. However, to check the wastage of food by the rich in restaurants and in parties, system of monetary penalisation by the service provider on the customers responsible for it may be put in place. Such collected money may be put in a separate fund for providing food to the street children and aged poor citizens.

Navtika Sharma
Patna

Loopholes in the budget

This refers to your editorial “Dear Pranab da...” (TSI, Mar 7-13). The food subsidy bill of Rs 60,599 crore, the fertiliser subsidy bill of Rs 54,976 crore and the petroleum subsidy bill of Rs 38,386 crore in the 2011-12 budget are not sufficient considering the anticipated projection of escalation of food prices, shortage in production of food items and inflation for the financial year 2011-12. The 2011-12 budget has little to say about increasing the productivity of food items or modernising its storage facility. Introducing modern scientific methods in agriculture is not given proper thrust. India is now on a fast track to create wealth to fund ambitious welfare programmes. But in that process it has suffered discrepancies in inclusive and sustainable growth targets. The agriculture sector did not get the most important priority that it deserves.

C. Koshy John
Pune
 

Land sharks

The editorial “Making private entrepreneurs...” by Arindam Chaudhuri (TSI, Mar 14-20)  has made people think on the issue of land grabbing. The land is purchased from the poor owners at prices much less than the market rate. The owners, mostly peasants, who are not rich, cannot bargain beyond an extent as they can't speak against the corrupt government officials who take bribe or other benefits from business houses to fix the deal. It is happening all over and mostly in the areas which have started growth in recent times. When one raises voice against land acquisition, one is termed as anti-government or anti-development. In Assam, leaders of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee (KMSS) who are fighting for the land rights for the farmers are facing problem as the authorities are trying to label them as Maoists.

Ranjan K Baruah
Guwahati