Apropos the report “Doctor accused of hitting woman”, May 12, motor training vehicles have become a menace on the road.

There are many motor training schools in the city that guarantee a licence for anyone who can fork out Rs 500 more than the regular training fee. The licence-holder doesn’t even need to know how to change gears.

In this case, it appears that the car from Vidyarthi Motor Training school was moving down the middle of Prince Anwar Shah Road close to noon. When the driver of a doctor’s car started honking from behind demanding passage, the trainer should have taken over if the manoeuvre was beyond the student. Obviously that did not happen. On top of that, when the middle-aged doctor, who was in a rush to attend to a patient, was giving the trainer a piece of his mind, the lady, in her 20s, shouted back in filthy language.

Does anybody care for road rules these days or for etiquette, for that matter? The young, it appears, are also a lawless lot.

S.K. Basu,
Sevak Baidya Street.

The conductors and the driver who harassed school girl Sujata Sinha on a private bus need to be punished (School girl harassed in bus, May 1). Ideally, their licence should be cancelled. But will police be able to bring them to book in the face of political pressure?

Buses plying on routes D16, 13C and 204/1 often do not stop at the designated bus stops on the western side of Hazra Road, near the Ballygunge Circular Road crossing, despite protests by passengers, who are forced to walk back. This happens under the nose of traffic cops but no action is taken.

Md Moinuddin,
Ballygunge.

Kudos for bringing to light the ordeal of a school girl at the hands of bus conductors and drivers. Every single day, passengers face such an ordeal on private buses. The time has come for the bus operators to clean up their act. Sujata should be lauded for the courage she showed. Most passengers who face bad behaviour by conductors fear to protest. I have had experiences like Sujata’s and protested, but found no one at my side.

Madhabi D. Ghosh,
Salt Lake.

The harassment of a school girl on a private bus is distressing and must be condemned. It is unfortunate that not a single person on the bus protested when the conductors and the driver taunted her and did not allow her to get off at Ultadanga and carried her to Lake Town.

Passengers are often harassed by conductors on private buses. The conductors get away scot-free as they are united and enjoy the support of powerful unions. Most people, on the other hand, are too self-centred to speak out for a fellow-passenger.

Sunil Banerjee,
VIP Road.

In a civilised society, people protest any kind of illegal activity. It was cowardly on the part of Sujata’s co-passengers not to have raised their voice against her harassment.

Sachindra Nath Mitra,
Beleghata.

Apropos the report “AIDS care for kids”, May 10, it is heartening that New Light, a Kalighat NGO, has started a community development project” for HIV/AIDS intervention through doctors, peer educators and community outreach workers. Government action is not enough to fight AIDS in India.

Govinda Bakshi,
Budge Budge.

I welcome the initiative by New Light to build centres for HIV patients. Polar Pharma India must also be commended for joining hands in the AIDS fight. State government and other NGOs too should play their part.

Sukumar Ghosh,
Mukundapur.

Thanks for highlighting our efforts to fight AIDS. The name of our company is Polar Pharma India Ltd and not Polar Pharma Industries, as reported.

Rohit Kumar Singh,
company secretary, Polar Pharma India Ltd.

Apropos the report “Device to measure pollution on the go”, May 8, the new mobile gadget promises to be very helpful in checking pollution in the city.

Sourish Misra,
Salt Lake.

Clarification

Apropos the report “Sergeant rescues school girl”, June 6, my daughter comes home by a pool car from school. On the day of the incident, the car left without her. The school authorities had nothing to do with the matter. The sergeant took my daughter home and not to the police station as reported.

Chandranath Chattopadhyay,
Entally.

Apropos the report “Flat-owners in fraud cry”, June 8, we have been regularly corresponding with the flat-owners regarding the allegations of the so-called ad hoc committee. We maintain a register at the site for registering complaints. The defects brought to our notice were rectified.

In the HIG cluster, we provided facilities on payment, as indicated in the general terms and conditions of sale. In the MIG and LIG clusters, we have provided a community centre without asking for any payment. It is also not true that “most of the apartments were bought in September 2003”. The apartments were booked in 2003 and the owners were given possession in September 2005, as promised.

A.K. Guha,
managing director, Bengal DCL Housing Development

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