Thoughtless development

Thoughtless development
This is with reference to ‘Cluster devpt more bang than buck’, (July 12). The basic issue that has not been taken care of is the closure of business establishments like shops and banks branches.   Who will compensate the people for losses in business? It is not a feasible idea — ask any shopkeeper in the Princess Street/Kalbadevi area, where builders want to make moolah by propagating the idea of cluster development. The aim of redevelopment policy of the state government should be to decongest a area, and cluster development is nothing but an increase on the infrastructure load of a particular locality. Those supporting cluster development just harp on the dilapidated conditions of the old buildings; they are silent on whether they have worked out the ratio of open space to be enjoyed per resident of a locality after cluster development. By mindless increase of FSI, the city will have pencil towers which will become dilapidated in due course of time, and what happens then.
—Deendayal M Lulla, via email

No more talks with Pak
 This is with reference to ‘Talks with Pak and US will go on’, (July 15). Due to these policies, India which has already witnessed so many terror attacks will never be able to stop such attacks. Which bilateral peace process progress the finance minister is referring to? By the time the final report on that comes, we never know how many more incidents like this the nation will witness. There should be zero tolerance towards acts of terrorism. We have been indulging into talks for a long period of time and the result is more terrorist attacks.
—Sankalp Shukla, via email

Unseen fear
We have the won the series against West Indies (‘Fear of losing overcomes Dhoni & Co’, July 12). Fans feel that India could have easily won the test series 2-0, but Dhoni’s astute leadership was put to test. Both the coach and Dhoni played it safe. With  the challenging series ahead with England, Dhoni should played those 15overs, which would provided a much needed batting practice but also could have lessened the margin needed to win the Test match.
—Shekhar Natarajan, Mumbai

Loyal party workers
Apropos ‘Kalmadi and Chavan are innocent’, (July 12), I would like to praise Congress senior leader Digvijay Singh’s loyalty for the party. His comments about former CM Ashok Chavan and former CWG committee chief Suresh Kalmadi might go against him in the court of law where investigation is underway against both the leaders. Singh also appears to believe in  fantasies; after all he received some imaginative information from the murdered police officer Hemant Karkare.
—Achyut Railkar, Mumbai,

Election surprise
The MCA elections have lost their sheen with Sharad Pawar withdrawing his candidature as the results are a foregone conclusion with the politicians having the last laugh (‘MCA elections: Vengsarkar panel springs surprise’, July 13). It is common in  politics to divide the opposition votes as has been done in this election where Pravin Barve, a tainted person, who was under the CBI scanner for wrong doings is contesting to divide the votes of the playing fraternity, thus paving a  easy victory for Vilasrao Deshmukh.
—Sudhakar Shenoy, Mumbai

PM’s game
Apropos ‘Well, his best hand’, (July 13), it was amusing to read the apt subheading - ‘Eight who got the fax’, ‘Three who made max’ and ‘Seven who got the axe’ — that say it all comprehensively. Even MS Dhoni, the ‘captain courageous’, played safe for a draw in the final test, and so it would have been futile to have expected anything more  drastic from our ‘captain complacent’, the PM. Nevertheless, some changes need to be welcomed: the induction of the ever-loyal spokeswoman, Jayanthi Natarajan and the young Milind Deora into the cabinet, and the choice of Dinesh Trivedi for the post of railway minister.  Here is hoping that the new team will help the soft-spoken Sardar to steer his ship safely for another three years.
—V Subramanyan, via email