Don’t punish the people

Don’t punish the people
The Supreme Court has found Vilasrao Deshmukh, the then CM, guilty of shielding legislator Dilipkumar Sananada (‘Apex court finds Vilasrao guilty of protecting money-lender from law’, DNA, December 15). Even the state government has been fined Rs10 lakh.

Though action against Deshmukh is laudable, the fine to be paid by the State is troubling. The state, to be precise, the people of the state, will have to pay for the misdeeds of a chief minister. Would it not have been more appropriate if Deshmukh was asked to pay the fine himself?
—Anil P Bagarka, via email
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This is with reference to ‘Apex court finds Vilasrao guilty of protecting money lender from law’. Even the Supreme Court judge was shocked to find former chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh deliberately brushing aside all legal norms by ordering the district collector to ignore complaints against a particular family.

This is not only abuse of power but also a serious crime. Many poor farmers committed suicide in the past because they could not pay back loans taken from greedy, private moneylenders. A fine of Rs10 lakh to the state government is no punishment for Deshmukh.
—Jitendra G Kothari, via email 
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Fighting inflation
The layman is ‘delighted’ on learning from the aam aadmi’s saviour, the  government, that there is a decline in inflation and it is going go down further in the days to come (‘Inflation falls to 11-month low at 7.48%, RBI may halt rate hikes’, DNA, December 14).

While the layman is burdened with steep rise in the cost of foodgrains, vegetables and other daily necessities the government is patting its back due to fall in inflation. Is the latest ‘nominal’ increase of Rs3 per litre of petrol to ensure that rate of inflation does not go down steeply?
—KRP Gupta, via email
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The union government has once again increased the price of petrol by almost Rs3 per litre, as crude oil price touched $90 per barrel in the international market.

The rise in price of petrol, however, is going to affect the common man badly. This will add to the already soaring prices of essential commodities and vegetables. Besides the fares of local transport, the state road transport and private transport will go up considerably as the price of diesel is also likely to be increased.
—Anil R Torne, Talegaon Dabhade