MyVoice: Views of our readers 18th March 2023

Fire safety not a burning issue yet

There have been many instances of fire tragedies apart from the present one at Swapnalok complex in Secunderabad. Many of the domestic, commercial and high rise buildings which are already existing and which have been built recently do not possess "NOC" from the fire department. A check has to be carried out by the civic body and at least extinguishers have to be mandated to be installed at the earliest. Apart from this, electrical installations have also to be checked either by the electricity department or the owners of the premises themselves. The sad thing is despite numerous instances of fire mishaps leading to loss of lives and property, neither the officials (civic body and electricity dept) nor the owners of various premises bother to look into these.

N R Raghuram, Hyderabad

The fire mishap yet again exposes lack of safety measures in commercial complexes, hotels and hospitals etc. It reinforces the fact that civil authorities are not serious in implementing mandatory safety measures to prevent fire accidents. However, the swift rescue operations with better coordination between NDRF teams, fire personnel and police that enabled save many lives of people tapped inside is laudable. High rise buildings are death traps in the absence of preventive measures. Endangering the lives of inmates due to lack of fire safety measures is unacceptable.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

KTR's foul lingo out of frustration

This refers to news that MLC K Kavitha of BRS did not appear before the ED for questioning on March 16, despite getting no relief from the Supreme Court. Instead, she skipped ED summons and sent a letter citing as a woman she cannot attend the questioning that infringed on her fundamental rights. She sent a representative and sought the questioning be conducted through a video conferencing. Above all, Kavitha's brother KTR lambasted the ED and the Centre for targeting their family for no reason. KTR said the ED would not be able to touch his sister; and said he would go to people's court which would give a befitting answer to BJP in the upcoming elections. The language used by KTR was most foul, the anger and frustration were quite evident in his body language and tongue lashing.

S Lakshmi, Hyderabad

No party wants to bell 'freebies' cat

This has reference to Hans editorial "Spending tax-payers' money to pull votes" (March 17) which has dealt with in detail how the ruling government in Andhra Pradesh is making plans to retain its poor majority voters in the fast approaching elections by continuing the existing freebie culture from taxpayers' money with additional benefits and threatened that these might be stopped by the rivals if voted to power. Nara Lokesh in his padayatra promises that TDP would continue the schemes. Neither CNB of TDP nor PK of JSP did not say a word so far on retention of this ongoing freebie culture.

N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad

Welfare OK, AP must raise resources, too

AP Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranadh Reddy presented his 5th budget consecutively on Thursday to the Assembly. Even such uncertain times post the pandemic, it is really a dare step to put total budget at Rs 2,72,79,279.27 crore. The budget truly reflects its basic principle of welfare orientation. The budget allocated 27% for Community Welfare (SC, ST, BC and Minorities) 19% to the DBT Schemes, 16.87% for education, 11.4% for women welfare and 9.9% rural development. The government thinks that elimination of poverty will make the society strong. However, without development only the welfare schemes cannot drive the state to shore where all the sections are happy. Thus, the government must maintain the tempo that it had at GIS Vishakapatnam.

Pratapa Reddy Yaramala, Tiruvuru, NTR district

TDP turns unruly on Budget Day

At the start of presentation of the budget by BugganaRajendranath Reddy, Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh, in the Assembly on March 16, Telugu Desam members disrupting the proceedings is a grave error. Speaker and also CM Jagan Mohan Reddy advised them several times to be silent till budget session is over and later members can put their questions or doubts if any. But all 14 TDP MLAs did not squelch their truculence and that resulted in suspension of all members. This attitude of TDP created depress, distress and irritated the viewers on TV sets. It is a total violation of discipline in the house and democratic norms. TDP is wishing to come to power in the ensuing election, but it secured a minus mark in this particular event.

NSK Prasad, Hyderabad