The article on the extension of the runway at Begumpet has scratched the surface of a subject that has Hyderabadis seething in anger ("Cyberabad's Flights of Fancy", January 21). While an enlightened administration would do its utmost to shift airports situated in the midst of cities to locations well beyond city limits for minimising danger to its inhabitants, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister insists on expanding the runway. Apart from the horrors of an accident involving a fuel-loaded plane in the midst of a thickly populated city, the administration has overlooked the fact that the Nuclear Fuel Complex is in the flight funnel of big planes. How can a Government claiming to be far-sighted make such a dangerous plan flouting all pollution norms and disregarding public opinion?

Nihilesh Prasad, Secunderabad

Objection Sustained

An aspect that is not highlighted in Tavleen Singh's column on the judicial system is the kind of law graduates produced in India ("Justice Denied", January 14). Most of the people who wear the black coat are those for whom a law course is a means to craft out a career in the civil services while enjoying the benefits of university hostels. The huge time lag of recruitment in the lower judiciary is also a debilitating factor.

Nalin K. Rai, New Shimla

Cosmetic Change

The officials of Tihar jail should be commended for introducing the female inmates to an honourable trade ("Beautiful Idea", January 7). Prisons are places where the wrongdoer is encouraged to repent, rectify and learn to rejoin the mainstream population. During this difficult phase of life, the jail authorities should help and guide them to proper activities and trades which they can continue even after their release because more often than not it is poverty which forces them to take up crime. To this end, Tihar can be exemplary for other prisons in India.

Reshmi Mitra, on e-mail

Blinkered Vision

It boggles the mind to read the perverse logic of Tunku Varadarajan ("Unsentimental State", December 31). One wonders by which "reasonable forms of calculation" it follows that the most powerful country in the world is automatically the "guardian of our universal civilisation". In fact, a dispassionate perusal of the evidence and its past track record points to just the opposite conclusion. "I live in America and I see the change," Varadarajan proclaims. Let him see the truth as well.

Devdatt Dubhashi, on e-mail

Wrong ID

In the list of terrorists living in Pakistan and demanded by the Indian Government, the picture of my brother Ranjit Singh Gill has been wrongly identified as that of Ranjeet Singh Neeta ("India's Most Wanted", January 14). Gill served a long sentence in New York and was extradited to India where he has been lodged in Tihar jail for the past 20 months. He is not a wanted criminal in any of the cases mentioned in the article.

Devinder Kaur, Ludhiana

The error is regretted. -Editor

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