Life and death

Sir - Around 15 people in Delhi have succumbed to chikungunya ("Debilitated in Delhi", Sept 16). The Delhi government has cancelled the leaves of doctors and paramedical staff. Door-to-door awareness campaigns have also started. While the city struggled with the disease, the chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, along with several other ministers of the Aam Aadmi Party, remained missing from the capital for a long time. Kejriwal was busy trying to shift the blame onto the lieutenant governor, Najeeb Jung, who, interestingly, was nowhere to be seen either. The administration in Delhi stopped functioning in their absence. The drive to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes was carried out more in the media than on the ground. Chikungunya is not new to Delhi; the government should have been prepared to deal with it.

Yours faithfully,
Shovanlal Chakraborty,
Calcutta

Sir - People across India are dying after contracting chikungunya. The worst part about the illness is that even after the fever abates, patients are immobilized for a long time on account of joint aches. One reason for the rapid spread of the disease is that most Indians live in unhygienic conditions. It is common to see piles of garbage even in metropolitan cities. Merely blaming the authorities will solve nothing. Citizens, too, need to keep their surroundings clean. If they do so, there will be fewer places for mosquitoes to breed.

Yours faithfully,
Mahesh Kapasi,
New Delhi

Remarkable feat

Sir - Athletes such as Devendra Jhajharia, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Deepa Malik and Varun Bhati have created history for India at the Rio Paralympics. Jhajharia and Thangavelu won gold, Malik won a silver and Bhati took home a bronze. Unfortunately, there is little opportunity for any sports apart from cricket to grow in India. The governing bodies of other sports are busy with politics. Budding sportspersons are not groomed well enough to compete internationally, and there is no effort to look for new talent. All this makes the achievements of the paralympians even more worthwhile. Although they are now in the public eye, it is doubtful that they will be able to retain the country's attention, as they do not play cricket.

Yours faithfully,
Rahul Majumder,
Nadia

Sir - India sent its biggest ever contingent to the Paralympics. Only two athletes out of 118 won medals at the Olympics; in contrast, four of the 19 people who participated in the Paralympics won medals. It is saddening that the Paralympic athletes do not enjoy the popularity of those who participate in the Olympics. One wonders why para-athletes face discrimination in spite of their remarkable achievements. They should be sponsored and made brand ambassadors. Indians should change their attitudes towards differently abled people.

Yours faithfully,
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,
Faridabad

Positive trend

Sir - The Congress-backed National Students' Union of India managed to bag a seat on the central panel of the Delhi University students' union ("Left sweeps JNU poll, nationalist card flops", Sept 11). This is a small but significant victory. Ever since 2014, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad - the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party - had been winning all the major posts. Even a minor decrease in their vote share at Delhi University, which is an ABVP bastion, is a sign of hope. In Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Left-backed parties swept the students' union elections and the ABVP won just one seat, in spite of the aggressive campaign carried out by the latter in JNU. One hopes that the ABVP, known for its extremism, will now mend its ways.

Yours faithfully,
S.S. Paul,
Nadia

Parting shot

Sir - Reshma Qureshi, an acid attack survivor, walked the ramp at the New York Fashion Week ("Acid-attack survivor on New York catwalk", Sept 10). Qureshi was attacked by her brother-in-law in 2014. She became the face of the campaign that strives to raise awareness about acid attacks and change opinions about victims. There is a ban on the open sale of acid in the country. Yet, the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau shows that there has been a 9 per cent rise in acid attacks, with 222 cases recorded between 2014-15. In spite of the ban, acid continues to be sold for as little as Rs 25. The government should ensure that sellers of acid maintain records of buyers and the quantities sold. Simply offering compensation to the victims is not enough. Stringent punishment should be meted out to the culprits.

Yours faithfully,
Subhankar Mukherjee,
Calcutta