MyVoice: Views of our readers 21st June 2022

Revisit Agnipath, invite views

It is the duty of the government to explain the Agnipath scheme to the career aspirants and suggestions may be invited for improving it further. Arson is condemned always. The apprehensions of the youth cannot be ignored. The people in the hierarchy are aged. And the career aspirants are young. There is a generation gap and communication gap too.

Government should publish the scheme in detail in all the leading news papers. Suggestions feasible may be implemented to improve the scheme further. Government should not be in haste to recruit till the target group is satisfied with the scheme and the measures taken up by government to explain them. After all, youth is the future of this country and Defence career is given utmost importance by the youth. I would like to pinpoint that government should play the role of a parent here in this context.

KLRao, Visakhapatnam

II

Now-a-days India has been witnessing violent protests and stirs everywhere over Agnipath recruitment in the defence sector by repealing the old system of recruitment in the forces. This short tenure in the new scheme is causing anguish among the aspirants hoping for a permanent career in the defence. They are worried over what would happen to them after the completion of 4 years tenure.

Though the Centre has come up with quotas in the defense ministry, paramilitary and 16 defence PSUs, it has failed to assuage the agitated youths. From my standpoint, it's better to carry out a referendum before implementing the new scheme.

Subbaiah Vankaraju, Kadapa

Silence on Kashmir killings shocking

Apropos 'Kashmir and the sin of silence' by Deepika Bhan. The writer has elucidated a new trend of terror unfolding in the Valley. The unmissable fact is that the Kashmiris have been reduced into silence of lambs to be unwitting entity in the jihadi designs that are carrying out targeted killings at the behest of Pakistan.

This calculated silence by the majority is against the very concept of humanity that amounts to colluding with terror perpetrators. Even if their acts are justified as sheer animal fear of self-preservation, they cannot be pardoned under any stretch of justification as it is akin to the stoic tolerance of Afghans under the Taliban rule. Why is the Kashmiri population dancing to the tune of jihadis and Pak proxies that are working overtly and covertly to wreck peace and religious harmony in the Valley?

K R Parvathy, Mysuru

Kudos to Election Commission

This refers to "EC wants people fighting from two seats banned" (THI, 18 June). Indeed, it is a very much welcome decision by the EC, because the idea of contesting from two seats by one individual is unbecoming. It will undoubtedly ruin the prosperity of other aspirants, who would want to render their service to the people by taking part in the process of election. And moreover, the major detrimental thing is that if the one who wins from the two seats, then he/ she shall have to disown one of the seats which will ultimately lead to a by-election.

Then, it would become a big burden to conduct by-elections not only for the government but also for the people. In fact, this age-old practice should have been banned long back, but it did not happen because of some technical and political reasons. At last, now the EC has realised the impact of this dual contesting method as a waste of time, money, and waste of human resources and natural resources.

Dr Venkat Avula, Hyderabad

An effective substitute for plastic

Environmental awareness is increasing in the society. Now, most of the people understand that we have consumed our natural resources ruthlessly and polluted our environment. Also understand, protecting environment is more of a moral obligation for humans. Thus, a study that used India's specific data and Life Cycle Assessment Tool has revealed that aluminum beverage cans have superior environmental performance over glass, PET and multi- layer drink containers and more easy to recycle. We know that plastic is harmful for the environment.

Plastic bottles take 450-1000 years to break down into microplastic, difficult to recycle and can be used only for 5-6 months and after that it start releasing harmful chemicals which is dangerous for health. Also, glass bottles are for a single use and way more difficult to recycle. Thus, using aluminum bottles are the best solution to protect our environment from disaster and ourselves from various diseases.

Swati Pandey, Ujjain