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Immediate action needed

Your special story “Wakf awaits divine intervention” (TSI, Mar 21-27) unveils the real face of the Waqf boards which are grossly mired in corruption. Constituted for the welfare of the poorest in the Muslim community, these boards have become the centres of mass loot. Prime properties are being sold at throw away prices with impunity. In spite of owing more than 600,000 acres of properties worth over Rs. 1,20,000 crore the earning is a meagre Rs 163 crore. This sorry affair clearly hints at immoral activities of its nominated mutwallis (managers) who serve their own interests. Along with land mafia, petty politicians, racketeers and encroachers, the mutwallis are making a fast buck leaving the Wakf’s coffer almost empty. Today maximum boards are dependent on government grants to pay their staff and contest cases pending in the courts. The situation warrants immediate overhauling of all Wakf boards to break the vicious nexus.

Shikha Singh
New Delhi

Perils of power

Apropos of Arindam Chaudhuri’s editorial “India can’t afford a Japan type disaster” (TSI, Mar 21-27), I fully agree with his articulate assessment of the crisis looming large over our country. The worst after Chernobyl, the Japan's Fukushima catastrophe is not merely a warning. How prepared are we to avert or handle disaster of such magnitude which comes without giving any notice? The editor has presented a vivid picture of our existing nuclear plants and suggested an eco- friendly and cheap alternative of solar energy, available to us in abundance. In a mad race for joining the elite club of atomic rich countries, we made a controversial nuke deal with the US. We could not remember the disastrous Bhopal gas tragedy. We are leaving no stone unturned to allow French company to set up nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. This is the right time to review our nuke policy.

Sunil Kumar Gautam
Patna

Utilise solar energy

Ever since the disastrous earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, questions are being raised about the sustainability of nuclear energy. Are Indians safe should such a calamity strike our coastline? Are there any viable alternative sources of energy available in our country? Arindam Chaudhuri must be commended for making such an objective assessment to these difficult questions that have been haunting our national consciousness in the cover story “India can't afford a Japan type disaster” (TSI, Mar 21-27). Your arguments urging the avoidance of nuclear energy are, indeed, very convincing. The alternative for us is solar energy, India being a sub-tropical country with plenty of sunshine. This renewable source of energy is woefully ignored and under-utilised. The same argument was put forth by former President and celebrated nuclear scientist, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, when the Nuclear deal with the United States was signed. Unfortunately, his pleas went unheeded. The reasons seem economical rather than patriotic.

Dr Gulbahar S Sidhu
Jalandhar, Punjab