More horror
The news report (Page 1, May 11), of the bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims being found in the Ganga in Bihar, was horrifying. The reason given, that the poor may have resorted to this because of the exorbitant costs of cremation, made the report even more disturbing. This has happened at a time when the Union Government, especially the Prime Minister, has focused on conserving the river and in arresting its pollution, and has spent crores of rupees in trying to make this happen. The governments concerned have failed.
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D. Sethuraman,
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Chennai
It is distressing that the reason of funeral expenses may be a factor. It must have been traumatic for the families to have done this after the stress of having been unable to save their loved ones in hospital. A crucial issue in all this is the cost of polluting a water body used by many others. Those who lost their lives deserve their last rites to be conducted with dignity and the State government ought to help the families.
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J. Eden Alexander,
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Apart from the disrespect to the departed souls, the contamination of the river is what terrifies me. It was in Jules Verne’s novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , that one has read graphic descriptions of floating bodies of Indians. The novel was written in 1870, but to read, in 2021, about floating bodies of our fellow citizens along with graphic details is unimaginable and harrowing.
Sukumaran C.V.,
Palakkad, Kerala
The report exposes the lack of planning and a mishandling of the pandemic situation by the State administration concerned. The poor in particular are suffering a great deal and the authorities must lend them a helping hand. It is incidents such as these that are a test of the ‘development’ that State administrations are so quick to boast about.
Sali George,
Udupi, Karnataka
The pandemic has exposed to the world the extent of the poor state of many of India’s systems. And there is only one answer from the government to all COVID-19-related questions: we never expected such large-scale devastation. The people are paying a heavy price for the way the government is handling the crisis.
Launching satellites at frequent intervals alone will not make a country technology-driven. There is no dearth of money for wrong priorities such as building statues and grand projects in the heart of Delhi. But there is no money for a free universal vaccine programme! In contrast to this are images of people gasping and fading away for want of hospital beds and oxygen. When the PM CARES Fund is reported to be flush with funds, one wonders why we are not using the money to avert horrors as described in the report.
Girish Ramachandran,
Edathitta, Pathanamthitta, Kerala
NGOs and government
The ‘crushing’ of NGOs by the government of the day by bringing in amendments to FCRA regulations has no doubt affected their work at a time when their services are much needed (“FCRA amendments crippling our work, say NGOs”, May 10). It is an open secret that the amendments were brought in to stall donations from abroad by missionaries through their NGOs for the services rendered by them to the poor and the downtrodden. It is unfortunate that religion has to come into the picture when it is humanitarian services that matter.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
Chennai
Hardest hit
The picture (Page 1, May 11), of children waiting in a queue to get free meals provided by the Delhi government, was wrenching. It was an image that conveyed more than what a three column report can do. One is reminded of the saying, “Poverty is dreadful, but even more dreadful is poverty during youth”. The pandemic has only widened the disparities in India’s society. The affected children must be given every chance to occupy their rightful place in our society.
S. Vasudevan,
Srirangam, Tamil Nadu