Correct imperfectness of legal systems
School teachers' plight in AP
Itis to be noted that teachers working in government schools in AP are in a miserable state as far as office furniture is concerned. There are no tables, no canteen and no scope for refreshments. Teaching is a professional job and teachers need a separate table with chests individually as their work is both physically and psychologically demanding. The funds specified for teachers’ furniture and English lab are not utilised even to the barest by any single school. This is a strange situation.The officials who pay visits for inspection or otherwise to schools lay emphasis only on writing lesson-plans & period plans by teachers but surprisingly never bother about the inconvenience of writing anything without tables and insufficient chairs. The teacher unions are strangely oblivious to these basic needs of the employees they are representing.
Mere buildings and uniform won’t help. Salaries should also be judicious. The previous government has made all teachers of the state scapegoats by reducing the salaries instead of increasing in pay review process. Many Dearness allowances are pending for two years, salary payments are delayed by several days every month. This ill-treatment is not acceptable.
M Chandrasekhar,Kadapa
Thetask of rescuing Priya, the nurse from Kerala, who is convicted for murder and facing death sentence in Yemen, should open the eyes of one and all, all over the world, to rethink on the system of justice in vogue. It is said she has been harassed for none of her faults by her business companion, who is said to have indulged in various fraudulent activities besides torturing her for quiet sometime beyond her level of endurance. The sedative she had given seems to be overdosed ending his life.
The cause of action is now sidelined and she is awarded death sentence. The Indian government has the responsibility of securing her. While allowing any country to recruit our citizens as employees the re-cruiting country should be insisted on observing certain norms to be observed on service and living con-ditions, besides allowing the accused Indian citizen working in that country to be tried under Indian legal system. It is not anything new as the Government of Portugal has agreed to extradite Abu with an as-surance that he will not be awarded death sentence.
It is also time to rethink on the relevance of death sentence, though it is awarded only in the rarest of the rare case. A person killing someone is a crime but the government killing a person in the name of punishment is not a crime. A person killing one or a few persons is a crime making him eligible for death sentence. Think of the recent violent incidents in Manipur, where around 250 persons are murdered. Who is going to be punished for this mass killing? Those who had indulged in killing or those who had motivated and given moral courage or the muted administration? Punishment should not take the form of revenge or avenge. But it should be on rather a corrective mode. Those convicted for rapes and hei-nous murders in Gujarat were released on remission and received with honour.
A Baba convicted and imprisoned goes around freely on parole to garner votes during election. Convict-ed criminals go out on remission on one hand and aged person is lodged in prison for months even without charges framed and dies in the prison on the other hand. All these developments pose a natural question. Whether our legal system is designed to correct the culprit or should it avenge for crimes or be lenient to criminals to leave them free on remission?