Sir,

I read with interest and overwhelmning joy the tribute paid by V Sundaram to his mentor Shri R Natarajan - A truly civil and capable servant in News Today  issue dated 9 June, 2009.  

The article comes at a time when a business survey of 12 Asian countries ranks Indian babus as the worst. Gone, yes indeed, gore are the days when the civil servants of yore commanded respect not only from those in power but from the public too by their sheer conduct.

In the real sense of the word, they were public servants as they read the pulse of the people.
Yes; we have to day civil, nay uncivil servants, who, serve the interest of their polital masters, and get themselves elevated to higher posts.

Technically, although they are called civil servants, they are not in real terms. While majority of civil servants these days worship their masters, a very few have guts to stand upto the pressure.

Having stated this, we cannot fault the pleasing tone adopted by the present day officials, for, they need to survive. Mind you, they are after all human beings. All said and done, we must salute the likes of RN whose way of doing things will ever be remembered and cherished.The least that we can do is to brood over the past and worry about the present.

V S Jayaraman, T Nagar

Deserves appreciation

Sir,

The recent announcement of the DMK government that the television sets as freebies would be given to all sections of the society, provided, the beneficiaries must have ration cards to prove their identities.

The ruling DMK government has to be appreciated for taking such a bold step when the Election Commission was vehemently opposing the ration cards to use as identities to exercise franchise during the election held on 13 May, 2009.

Hearts of many went in pitter-patter when some of the voters were not allowed to exercise their franchises in many booths by refusing the ration card’s identity. There is one more reason why the people had panicked at that time was, that on many occasions the ration-card holders returned homes from various PDS shops, as there was no enough stock of provisions that were sold.

Now giving away freebies with the authority (evidence) of ration cards has instilled faith in many that the value for the PDS shops’ cards has again catapulted. The EC is now aware about the value of the ration cards.

N Thyagarajan, Saidapet