Vaccination drive
The Editorial, “The virtue of consistency” (August 31), on India’s vaccination coverage, has justifiably emphasised the point about maintaining consistency rather than going to town with the achievement of a ‘momentous feat’. There is also another issue: scepticism about these numbers, as the ‘cooking up of data’ is well known. My recent experience with a well-publicised house-to-house survey and affixing vaccination-completion stickers — undertaken by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation — shows that the reported vaccination coverage is not completely correct. I was surprised to see one such label on the gate of my house without anyone having made an enquiry with any member of the household. I was shocked to see a sticker on the locked gate of my neighbour, when his mother and him did not receive even a single dose. It is no wonder then that despite claims of more than half the eligible population having been vaccinated, some States continue to record high cases.
K. Vijayaraghavan,
Hyderabad
The vaccination drive may be reaching a certain milestone, but we must not let our guard down. We must understand that while vaccination can reduce the severity of COVID-19, it cannot protect us from being infected. It is getting hard to be patient but venting frustration by neglecting safety measures is only going to extend this pandemic. Let us not forget the deep losses we incurred during the second COVID-19 wave.
Harshitha Gadde,
Hosur, Tamil Nadu
Notes on schooling
It is imperative that schools should open and physical classes are conducted. All parents and guardians do agree that children need school for more than one reason. However, one major question remains: how prepared are schools? And how hygienic and clean are they? Teachers more often than not cannot control children beyond a certain level. As a guardian of young children, I have visited a few of the so-called better schools only to find many amenities in a sorry state. The facilities provided are not in consonance with the fees collected.
From now on, teaching methods, examination patterns and pedagogy skills have to be of a different quality. Just being exam oriented and pushing the idea of getting students to the next grade cannot and should not be the criteria.
Jaya,
Secunderabad
Is this restoration?
The government of the day should not forget that Jallianwala Bagh is a place of mourning and of deep, abiding grief. The starkness of the Bagh itself is a reminder of what happened there. To make structural modifications by calling it a ‘revamp’ is baffling and destroys a very sombre and moving place of memory (Inside pages, “‘This is renovation, not restoration’,” August 31). What a shame.
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,
Faridabad, Haryana
The history and events at Jallianwala Bagh still send shivers down one’s spine. Flawed decisions such as carving murals on the narrow entrance and covering the well into which victims jumped with a transparent barrier sheet, only highlight carelessness and ignorant behaviour. These have only ended up erasing history. A visitor must experience grief, but this will not be the case now.
Sukhjeet Kaur,
Hyderabad
If what historians say is true, then it is unfortunate that the new-look Jallianwala Bagh memorial now presents a distortion of history. A place where innocent Indians were murdered cannot be made to resemble an amusement park. Future generations that visit the historic place will not have the faintest idea now of how the place looked like in 1919.. Jallianwala Bagh is no Eiffel Tower or the Niagara Falls. Every single historic site must be preserved and care taken without the minutest misrepresentation of what it is known for.
Sanath Kumar T.S.,
Thrissur, Kerala
Inclusive travel
The point in the report, “Accessibility in public transport still elusive for disabled persons” (Chennai, September 1), is right; that the focus should be on inclusivity right from the design stages. Does this endeavour have to be a battle though? Senior employees of the transport corporations and political leaders should try to use transport, perhaps in wheelchairs, to understand first hand what the problems are. It is, after all, public transport.
Renu Weiss,
Chennai
