While no policing in the world can prevent such acts of terror as witnessed in New Delhi, the events over the past few months seem to suggest that we are being increasingly rendered helpless and vulnerable to such dastardly attacks. Within a span of few months, we have had terror attacks in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and New Delhi. While the political leadership seizes the opportunity to mouth the usual phrases, like condemning the tragedy in the strongest possible terms and appeals for calm and visiting the injured in the hospital, the opposition seizes the opportunity to charge the ruling coalition of being soft on terror, conveniently forgetting their own track record about the same.
In the end, it is the helpless citizen who bears the brunt of the callousness of the government and law-enforcing agencies. What is even more remarkable is that after the blasts, we were informed that the government had been informed of possible attacks.
What is lacking in our intelligence set-up that prevents it from taking pre-emptive action to foil such attempts? Yes, some bombs were detected and diffused in time, but that is not enough. Finally, common citizens have to resign themselves to inefficiencies of political leadership.
Navneet Dhawan, New Delhi
Washed away
I
This refers to “Water down the greed” (September 12). Bihar, considered the “Sorrow of Kosi”, faced the worst floods ever this year. In the past 50 years the state has witnessed floods in 1954, 1974, 2004 and 2007. In spite of such frequency, no proper action was taken to address this problem. Temporary measures like constructing barrages and embankments were taken. The length of embankments, which was 160 km in 1952, was increased to 3,430 km. Moreover, the height of embankments was increased. But these are not permanent solutions. Engineers had given a permanent solution to combat floods by constructing a higher dam in Nepal and other dams downstream. But these were ignored.
Now the pertinent question is whether floods are inevitable. The likely answer is that floods are inevitable but not the misery they cause, if they are managed the right way at the right time. To tackle the problem of floods, we need a strong political, a proactive administration and sound technology coupled with local knowledge and experience.
Sushil Bakliwal, on e-mail
II
This refers to the editorial “Preventing floods” and “Water down the greed” by Sunita Narain (September 12). Our disaster management and India Meteorological Department’s forecasting are abnormally slow in their response. We need an Indo-Nepal authority to de-silt Kosi and also carry out some afforestation work in Nepal. We can de-silt Kosi annually, carry out afforestation and build rafts and wooden boats with the help of the local people who should be duly paid.
We need a Dutch-like independent flood control authority. We can build a series of steel gates between embankments, that can be lowered when required to hold floodwater. The Dutch have earmarked funds to raise the heights of dykes. We need to strengthen our embankments to counter the effects of global warming. In populated cities like Rotterdam, the Dutch have built houses with hollow pontoon foundations that can rise up to 12 feet during floods. We can also rebuild homes for the displaced on 12-feet high wooden stilts, to save occupants and their possessions in the future.
Dinkar Naik, Mumbai
