This refers to T N Ninan’s column “Greek tragedy”(Weekend Ruminations, October 1). If we wish to avoid a Greek tragedy in India, we need to ensure that the economic interests of the lower middle class are protected and their income rises to a reasonable level. To this end a number of remedial measures need to be taken. First, we need to substantially reduce the expenditure on subsidies that do not help the poor, but are used by the bureaucracy to make money at the cost of exchequer. We need to examine how a system of cash transfers to the poor can be used to ensure that targeted groups receive subsidies. Second, we need to review duty structures on all automobiles and re-fix prices of petrol, diesel and other petro-goods with the single aim of controlling the increasing expenditure on crude oil imports. Finally, all these years we have ignored our public transport system. We need to pay urgent attention to upgrade our public transport and improve its management. The Indian Railways is the strength of our economy. During the last decade it became a tool of political management rather than an efficient vehicle of public transport. We need to use the railways network to improve the lot of the poor by investing in improving it and making it more efficient.
Narendra M Apte, Pune
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