Assam health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurates the intensive therapy unit at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. A Telegraph picture

Sarma’s slew of initiatives

I appreciate health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s slew of initiatives to bring about changes in the public health system of Assam. The recent one is really interesting.

Sarma announced that doctors seeking voluntary retirement would have to agree not to flaunt their last government hospital designations when working in private hospitals or for private practice.

There are several instances where doctors join private hospitals after completing super-speciality courses with government money.

But the question is whether such conditions will really change the mindset of the doctors. Or will such conditions ensure that private hospitals do not poach doctors from the government hospitals? I can only hope such initiative would put some psychological pressure on the doctors to restrain themselves from private practice.

Rubul Rahman
Guwahati

Survey to widen roads

The state government has taken the right decision of conducting a survey to widen the lanes of a fast-growing city like Guwahati. There has been haphazard and unplanned construction in the city that has led to civic chaos.

I was witness to the inconvenience a fire tender had to face while trying to enter a narrow lane to douse a blaze in a building. There are hundreds of such narrow lanes in the city.

The public works department must immediately conduct a survey and look for ways to widen the roads. The government must give adequate compensation in case there is a problem of land acquisition. We must also remember that Guwahati is placed in a highly earthquake vulnerability zone.

Niharika Saikia
Gandhibasti, Guwahati

Violence not the solution

The spate of killings and violence by DHD (J) militants targeting innocent labourers and officials working at the railway’s gauge conversion and National Highway Authorities’ East-West corridor project is unacceptable and should be condemned by all.

By killing innocent people and disrupting development activities, nothing but misery can be achieved.

The completion of the twin projects is imperative for the economic growth of the backward North Cachar Hills district.

If violence and killings stall the twin projects, the people of the district will be the ultimate loser. Therefore, the people should now put pressure on the rebels to eschew violence.

The state government must take its share of blame too for the inappropriate handling of the situation. It is neither able to provide security to the lives and property of innocent people, nor does it have any definite policy to find a political solution to the problems of militancy confronting the state.

Dilip Neog
Dispur