Now, take up issue of rotting food grains

Now, take up issue of rotting food grains
Now that Anna has shown our government what he, and those who support him, can achieve, I request Anna to take up other issues that have been dogging our country. As he has rightly said: “This is only the beginning...” The one pressing and immediate issue all Indians want to be taken up on war footing is the colossal waste of food grains rotting in the rain.

It is ironical that while more than half the population is starving, due to lack of foresight and planning of the food and agricultural ministry, such wastage takes place year after year.

Sharad Pawar has no time for addressing this matter. Anna and team must now force this inept government to take up building of very large and modern storage godowns of excellent quality so that at least in future not a single grain is wasted. The usual blame games between the Centre and the states must be stopped forthwith.
—Shivram Ayyer, via email

Media’s prohibition 
Finally, Anna Hazare's team has to agree to leave the judiciary out of the Jan Lokpal bill on the assurance that the judicial standard bill will adequately deal with corruptions in the judiciary.  Judicial standards bill for the first time allows the common man to complain against corrupt judges. The Parliament standing committee has asked the government to set up a mechanism to scrutinise the assets declaration by judges. It has prohibited media from reporting to the masses, if judges against whom inquires would be initiated under the new bill, till the time the probe is completed. I hope Anna and his team have agreed to this after a very careful study and discussion
—V. Venkitasubramanian, Thane

Hazare’s agenda  
After having made a breakthrough in the Jan Lokpal bill, Anna Hazare will do well to draft a new agenda and keep as priority allowing India to spring back to normalcy without any more of combative postures and disruptive agitations. Fighting the cancer of corruption is the foremost in the minds of all citizens and so it is not necessary to claim monopoly over it.  An awakening has been made and the rest should be left to the government. The Supreme Court, itself, has been pretty proactive and so stretching things too far needs to be avoided.
—Dr V Subramanyan, Mumbai

Clear your stand, BJP
During the recent debate on the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, the BJP leaders in both houses, delivered the best speeches raising the hopes of millions of Indians who joined hands with Anna Hazare in the war against corruption. They both cleared the way for the Parliament to come up with an amicable resolution prompting Annaji to stop his fast. But within a few days, it is felt that BJP was only playing to the gallery. How could they explain their protest against the appointment of a lokayukta in Gujarat, a BJP-ruled state where the lokpal's position was kept vacant for more than seven years without a plausible reason? Now they are finding fault with the governor who corrected the anomaly. Even in Karnataka, BJP's stand is under cloud. The sacked chief minister, who is under judicial probe, is given full official treatment equal to a functioning CM. Is the BJP afraid of the tainted former chief minister?
The earlier BJP clears their position, it is better for the party and the nation.
—Ravindranthan PV, via email

Corruption in I-T dept
The country has witnessed crusade against corruption with Anna Hazare going on a fast to achieve what the country wanted, through resolution passed in both Upper and the Lower House is still fresh in the minds of multitude. Close on the heels of the commissioner of income tax (appeals), Mumbai, demanding Rs25 lakh from the manufacturing copper wires firm to write off the assessment demand come another shocking revelation that the additional commissioner of I-T based in Chennai accepting a bribe of Rs50 lakh. The amount of ground work done by the income tax officials to pin down the firm evading taxes will go as a sheer waste with the presence of such corrupt officials in the department.  With the hidden camera kept in readiness to capture the action of corrupt officials blow by blow, besides creating a trap it is time they did the job allocated to them with sincerity and be satisfied with the reasonably good salary and perks they get from the government instead of following devious means to shore up their personal wealth on the one hand and incurring loss of revenue to the exchequer on the other.
—HP Murali, via email