MyVoice: Views of our readers 6th November 2020

Covid is still a threat, beware!

On 27th October, Ministry of Home affairs, Government of India has issued an order directing that the guidelines that were issued on 30.9.2020 will remain in force up to 30th November 2020, exercising the powers conferred under section 10(2)(1) of the Disaster Management Act 2005.

Even though there are clear instructions that every citizen has to follow till 30th November, there are clear violations of the above said directives everywhere. People are under a feeling that Covid-19 has gone. Surprisingly, Media is also not getting involved in giving publicity for these directives.

Governments are also not focusing on the fines as prescribed by the rules, if they strictly impose the directives. The statistical figures reported by the Government sources are providing RED alarm. The total daily cases and the total daily deaths are increasing linearly with a constant slope when the world-wide figures were taken into account.

The total cases on May 1st were 33,67,474 and on Nov 4th they are 484,19,190. The total deaths on March 16th were 22,188 and on Nov 4th 12,30,109. Linear plots of this data clearly indicate that the pandemic is still continuing and the mankind is in danger.

Statistics will never always end as a lie. Keeping this in mind, the citizens should feel the responsibility and strictly follow the Guidelines issued to the Governments. The Government should see that the Guidelines are implemented effectively.

The media should give wide publicity for what-to-do and what-not-to-do activities keeping the Guidelines in the background. Every Government, Department, Society and Citizen should act accordingly in order to protect mankind.

Dr M Venkata Ramana, Khammam

Dharani portal troubles

I would like to share my experiences with Dharani Portal. The efforts of the Telangana State government in developing and operationalising the Dharani portal are commendable.However, in an effort to make it operational with in a short period of about 50 days, the developers simply ignored the basic requirement of user friendly software.

Generally, every software will have a "Help" tab for providing the guidance and clarification on various terms used in the software. But in Dharani portal, one can not find any help.Another requirement is the list of contact numbers for registering any grievance.

While making online payments, sometimes it is possible that though the amount is deducted from the users account the same will not be updated due to technical issues like slow net, server response time and disruption of net connectivity etc.

Encumbrance details tab and Land details tab in the home page are not working. In Buyer details page ,buyers having land in the same village and pattadar passbook, after entering the pattadar passbook number and the pressing the fetch button, the system instead of displaying the buyer details it is throwing the message "There is some discrepancy.

you will be informed with in one week ". If the process is continued , the system is considering that the buyer is not having pass book.

While making payment of stamp duty through Net Banking facility, the amount is deducted from the account but in Dharani portal status is shown as "Payment Pending". I could book a slot until I made payment for second time.

There is no option/ facility of reporting such issues and requesting for refund. In fact , the government should have started a customer care service centre with toll free number for such an important portal for resolving any issues/ problems faced by the users.

I could find the link "Contact Dharani" on Google with mail ids and landline numbers of Chief Secretary & CCLA, Director of Land Administration and Secretary to CCLA. One can imagine the response from the landline number of the offices like office of the Chief Secretary and other state level officers.

Shankaraiah Karnati, Hyderabad

Better water resource management needed

It is really shocking to know that according to a recent survey conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) almost 350 million people living in 100 cities across the world are at immediate risk of a water crisis by 2050 and more shocking it is as many of our Indian cities too come under the ' high risk category cities' list.

The survey is an alarm , a warning bell to the government ,the public and all stakeholders and emphasises on the need for immediate development processes to develop a sustainable water conservation strategy. In recent years we witnessed the severe scenario of many of our towns and metros experiencing severe water scarcity and the citizens running helter skelter for a pot of water .

Having been threatened by one of the worst-ever water crisis in recent years , residents of the South African city of Cape town and our own city Chennai became water-wise, that is they learnt to collect, conserve, preserve and use water in a meticulous manner. These methods and techniques can be followed by the other towns and cities .

Proper studies and use of water conservation techniques, recycling and reuse of effluents, mandatory installation of water harvesting methods, maintenance of groundwater extraction, water collection in lakes and ponds, desalination plants, stopping encroachment of water bodies can to an extent help avoiding severe water scarcity.

The Modi government has to be lauded for setting up a ministry of water power to tackle water conservation and management which can also seriously look into the water scarcity crisis. The centre and the states should work hand in hand to mitigate the woes of the people and take all necessary steps on a war footage to see that such crisis do not happen or at least minimise it in the coming decades

M Pradyu, Kannur