Selling parts of rath unacceptable

Sir —The decision of the Sri Jagannath Temple administration to sell parts of the divine Trinity’s chariots is completely unacceptable. Behind their so-called efforts to popularise Jagannath culture all over the world, lies a desperate attempt to generate revenue.

But how can one even think of putting a price tag on Lord Jagannath’s chariot? Is our Lord so poor that we must resort to such cheap commercialisation? These new tricks will never find favour with devotees because something like religion and tradition should not be tampered with.

Having said that, I would like to clarify that I do not subscribe to the views of the religious outfits such as Jagannath Sena, who believe that the sold parts would be misused by non-Hindus. The bottomline is that the holy chariot wood should not be used for any purpose other than as fuel in the temple kitchen or as due to the artisans involved in chariot-making. It should not be misused at all by anyone, Hindu or non-Hindu. Further, the news that the government is trying to sell temple land has also hurt our religious sentiments. I hope some wisdom dawns on the Naveen Patnaik government and soon.

S.C. Mohapatra, Puri

Eye opener

Sir — The report “Best or naught, seats for all” published on July 14 was truly an eye-opener. Though the deteriorating standards of engineering education in Odisha is a well established fact now — given the increasing number of vacancies over the last few years — it was shocking to know that engineering seats are available even to bad scorers. Quoting from the report: “Students, who appeared for the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE)-2012 and didn’t attempt a single question or scored negative marks, would not find it difficult to grab engineering seats. For, the peculiarity of the joint entrance test is that there is no minimum cut-off score.” It is terrifying to imagine that these are the would-be engineers who will build roads, bridges and design cars. I won’t be surprised if, some day, our bridges collapse or cars catch fire. But the lurking possibility scares the living daylights out of me.

Samar Mohanty,Balasore (via e-mail)

Rapid development

Sir — The capital city is developing at a fast pace. Roads are being expanded and highrises are coming up all over, resulting in severe loss of green cover. And to add salt to injury, the state government is planning to construct a road through the horticulture nursery and orchard in the Nayapalli area to connect Kalinga Studio-Rental Colony with CRPF-Ekamra Kanan (“Axe to fall on 2000 trees for new road” published on July 30). The article mentions that around 500 trees, which are 20 to 25 years old, will be lost in the process.

Every year, on Vanmahotsav, the government makes a song and dance about plantation drive but after the day passes, taking care of new saplings and compensatory afforestation measures go for a toss.

Ashok Raj,Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar

OJEE vacancy

Sir — Bhubaneswar seems to be becoming more unsafe by the day. With snatchers on the prowl, it has become difficult for one to move around in the city.

Recently, a friend of mine was waiting near the busy Master Canteen Road for an autorickshaw when a youth brushed against her, stealing a glance at her bare neck.

He kept loitering in the vicinity and when she took out her mobile phone to answer a call, the youth snatching it away from her started running. Though my friend was too shocked to raise an alarm, she began chasing the snatcher and, with the help of some passers-by, was able to pin him on to the ground.

Later, she handed him over to the police. But I shudder to think what would have happened had it been a deserted street and the youth armed. My advice to all women and girls would be to avoid wearing expensive jewellery and flaunting flashy things when out on the road. It is also important that one stays alert and not distracted in terms of answering and messaging on mobile phone.

Rashmita Dash,Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar