Fair
fine
Sir — Argentina has come up with an unusual way of cracking down on errant parents. Working with the United States of America, the government will stop citizens with unpaid child support from entering football stadiums to watch the football World Cup. The logic is fairly simple: if there is enough money for international flights and eye-wateringly expensive match tickets, there is enough money to support one’s children. If more countries adopted the same approach, plenty of absentee parents might find that the toughest opponent at the World Cup is not the team on the pitch, but the child support office.
Rita Sen,
Hooghly
Fatal lapse
Sir — At least 15 workers were killed and many others injured after tonnes of wet concrete collapsed at an under-construction warehouse in Calcutta’s Garden Reach (“5 die in warehouse roof cave-in”, Jun 25). The site, leased from the port authorities, had apparently received sanction from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation despite preliminary findings pointing to flaws in the building plan. Developers and lessees cannot treat safety as optional. Mandatory third-party structural audits, real-time site monitoring, and the public display of statutory approvals are long overdue. Authorities must hold engineers and other responsible officials criminally accountable while ensuring greater protection for daily wage labourers.
K. Chidanand Kumar,
Bengaluru
Sir — The warehouse collapse in Garden Reach claimed several lives and left many others injured. The chief minister of West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, has ordered a halt to construction work on projects approved by the Trinamool Congress-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation. This was a preventable tragedy, much like the recent bridge collapse in Gujarat. The competence and track record of contractors must be thoroughly assessed before tenders are awarded. Going forward, their technical capability and safety record should be rigorously verified to prevent such disasters.
Ananda Ghosh,
Howrah
Sir — No words can adequately express the grief over the loss of lives and the severe injuries suffered by workers in the tragic collapse of an under-construction warehouse in Garden Reach. A massive rescue operation involving cranes, hydraulic ladders, and other heavy equipment was launched immediately after the incident. However, the tragedy has, once again, exposed widespread violations of construction norms in densely-populated urban areas. Serious questions are being raised about repeated regulatory lapses in construction.
Deba P. Bhattacharya,
Calcutta
Sir — The collapse of
the under-construction godown is shocking. It remains uncertain how many completed or ongoing construction projects may be similarly unsafe given the alleged nexus among those responsible for approving building plans and supervising construction. The chief minister’s decision to suspend work at such construction sites until July 31 is justified. A thorough inquiry must identify those responsible and ensure that they are prosecuted and punished in accordance with the law.
Tanuj Pramanick,
Howrah
Flooded cities
Sir — The delayed monsoon has exposed the poor drainage infrastructure in Mumbai where roads, especially in low-lying areas, have been inundated. Successive governments have allocated crores of rupees for improving drainage systems, yet little has changed. Similar conditions prevail in cities like New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Calcutta. Urban flooding has become a recurring crisis, highlighting the urgent need for accountable planning and infrastructure development.
N. Mahadevan,
Chennai