Callous attitude

Sir, - The drought in north Gujarat has severely affected the milch animals. The toll it has taken is unimaginable. The unofficial figure of cows that have died so far for lack of water and fodder is nearly 30,000. The drought is not a calamity fallen overnight. It was predicted months ago but the Government was callous and careless and did not plan the relief measures responsibly.

One of the many things the Gujarat Government was concerned about is precisely to find ways to protect cows from being killed. The Government is contemplating a new TADA Act that will empower the police to arrest any person suspicious of slaughtering a cow. Now during the drought thousands of cows die because of the carelessness in handling the relief measures in the State.

W. Macwan,

Ahmedabad

Sir, - The natural calamity in the form of water famine and drought (in Gujarat and Rajasthan) has caught the government on the wrong foot as it failed to sense the problem beforehand and plan contingent measures. This brings to the fore the need to set up a disaster management mechanism to identify the problem in advance and plan its prevention.It is apalling that in spite of a planned development of more than five decades we cannot provide such a basic need as drinking water to our people. We have abundance of water as the annual rainfall (400 million hectare metres) is four times of our requirement. What is required is a suitable water management system. It is time to frame a national water policy to have more dams and irrigation projects. This assumes significance because India is warned of an impending water famine by an international agency.

B. L. Tekriwal,

Mumbai

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