Rerailing rail safety
That upended priorities ail the Indian Railways is no more a secret thing. The introduction of superfast express trains sans commensurate upgradation of track and signalling technology is a serious safety imbalance. The segregation of the corridors of freight and passenger services must be explored. Passenger service corridors must be equipped with ‘automatic block signalling’, which involves ‘track circuiting’ the entire length of the route. Restoration of the discontinued separate Railway Budget constitutes another area of correction.
N. Sadasivan Pillai,
Guntakal, Andhra Pradesh
Stray dog control
We have reached the limits of tolerance in suffering unnecessary death and injury from attacks by feral or rabid dogs, which animal birth control can never prevent. The protectors of stray dogs do not seem to face the hazard of being on foot among dangerous dogs. As a boy, I witnessed the dying stages of a victim of rabies — a grown man who was tied down on a cot. No one who has seen the horror of this will ever want another person to suffer such a fate.
Mano Daniel,
Chennai
‘Quiet’ news on TV
The passing of Gitanjali Aiyar, one of the country’s leading English news readers, has evoked memories of the halcyon days of the 1970s and 1980s when the 9 p.m. news was prime time in its true sense. Gitanjali Aiyar, along with her illustrious colleagues, brought sobriety and grace to news reading with their impeccable diction, modulated voices, crisp attire, and studied restraint. In today’s age where articulating leading rhetorical questions in deafening decibels takes centre stage on television news channels, the legacy of news reading, that was graceful and pleasing because of news readers like Ms. Aiyar, will be missed.
M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu
