Court on hanging
It is quite paradoxical that the Supreme Court of India seeks alternatives to hanging while the rest of the ‘civilised’ world seeks alternatives to the death penalty itself. One is reminded of Bernard Shaw’s comment on UN disarmament talks as debates on whether to carry a twelve inch sword or a nine inch knife to the battlefield.
A. Balagangadharan,
Pollachi, Tamil Nadu
Stop the trouble
The Editorial (March 22), “Trouble in Punjab”, took me back in time, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was kind enough to grant me an audience on July 13, 1983 at No. 1, Akbar Road, Delhi. Mrs Gandhi also wrote me a letter on July 2, 1984: “...I have your letter of 23rd June... All that we stand for as a nation, indeed its very unity was challenged. We had to act. The time now is for healing. Overlooking the fact that desecration had been going on for quite some time by those inside the temple many Sikhs are feeling hurt that the Army or police entered their sacred places. However, this is the time for soothing feelings and forging anew bonds of brotherhood which bound the different communities. The Sikh community is an integral and also admired part of our great country.” The letter speaks for itself. There must be iron resolve to stop the trouble.
Mani Natarajan,
Chennai
The poor and health care
The allocation made in the Tamil Nadu Budget for the Health and Family Welfare Department highlights how the State is an advanced one in terms of health as well as maternity and child health. However, those in the lower middle income group have to continue utilising the services of government hospitals and medical college hospitals to meet their health needs. Nearly one lakh out-patients and 25,000 inpatients are treated on a daily basis in the State. The public health system is unable to compete with the corporate sector for want of experts and equipment. There are many children who have cardiac anomalies while the elderly wait for cardiac and cardio-thoracic surgery, intravascular surgery and organ transplantations for long. Government hospitals have to be upgraded with modern equipment/facilties such as hybrid cath-lab and enable Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TVAR), laser therapy for coronary artery occlusion and calcification, rotary ablation as well as robotic rota machines for neurosurgery. No government hospital has extracorporeal membrane oxygenation facilities that can be used in cardiac arrest patients. The required equipment and machinery may cost anything between ₹100 crore to ₹150 crore. Government doctors are second to none but can move ahead only if they have the latest equipment and are given training by experts. The poor and the downtrodden deserve better health facilities in government hospitals and Tamil Nadu can certainly be a pioneer in this.
Dr. Arunachalam,
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu
