People light candles under the Ganeshguri flyover in Guwahati in memory of the serial blast victoms. Picture by Eastern Projections

Remembering the dead

It was heartening to see that people and various organisations across the state remembered the October 30 serial blast victims and paid tributes to them in their own ways.

Such unity among the people to condemn terrorism and violence will go a long way to bring peace in the state. But organising various events to protest against violence should not be confined to a single day.

People’s vigilance plays a vital role in defeating such forces of evil. I have read in your esteemed daily that families of some of the October 30 blast victims are yet to receive compensation as announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It is a very sad development and I feel the government should act immediately to pay the grieving families of the blast victims the compensation they deserve.

Many families lost their sole bread earners in the blasts and the compensation would help them to survive and carry on with their lives.

Rubul Rahman
Lachit Nagar, Guwahati.

A grab of the report that appeared in The Telegraph

Government hypocrisy

This is in response to a disturbing news item published in The Telegraph on October 28 titled Bid to nip Maoist threat in the bud.

It is ironical that the government of Assam has “asked district commissioners to keep a watch on ‘pro- poor’ organisations which they fear may be sowing seeds of Maoism while projecting the state government in poor light”.

This, at a time when people are receiving text messages to lodge complaints with the Central Vigilance Commission against corruption while promising protection of their identity.

Such actions also seem incongruent in the face of constitutional guarantees and lofty laws and “pro-poor” schemes of government.

The implementation of the pro-poor schemes, which aim to ameliorate the plight of the poor in the country, is woefully inadequate as is evident from recent reports about the rural development ministry’s move to hand over work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to non-governmental organisations.

Instead of lauding and encouraging public service-minded NGOs and civil society groups, which are stepping in to raise public awareness and empower the poor, the government has decided to go into paranoiac repression of peaceful protests and democratic actions of civil society.

It would almost seem that the authorities are so inured to the corruption within their systems that they have lost their ability to recognise and appreciate genuineness, honesty and transparency when it stares them in the eye.

Ketaki Bardalai
Uzan Bazar, Guwahati