Apropos of the news story “Repair of all roads unlikely till rains end” (THT, July 20, Page 2), by ordering all potholes to be filled in within two weeks, the prime minister has shown serious lack of understanding of the current road situation.

Many potholes have survived his predecessors and many of them will survive him too, notwithstanding his command. What he should order KVDA to do is not to dig an inch of new road projects without completing all the broken roads in the valley.

This would effectively stymie the proposed 72-km outer ring road which KVDA seems to be impatient to begin, leaving the Chinese gift, the inner ring road, in a continual mess. KVDA should also be asked to explain the sheer anomalies in road widening campaign.

Half an hour’s tour through the widened roads will bring us face to face with glaring anomalies. The prime minister who has straddled both sides of the political divide must tell KVDA that all pending works on the roads must be completed during his short tenure.

Our planners, regulators, bankers, builders et al should also take a cue from another news story “India builders pledge green homes to meet climate goals” (THT July 20, Page 9), while supporting and building new sustainable, affordable green homes in the valley and elsewhere.

The building process must start right from selection of sites rather than putting up homes whereever the developers fancy.

It is also important to entrust the job of building to those who are highly sophisticated, extremely well-heeled and of proven business background.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Identity

What is the real identity of a person? His/her name, residential address, phone number, physical appearance, academic degree, post, salary, bank balance, number of flats/cars, religion, race, nationality? Can these identities enable us to recognise the person embedded within him/her?

The other day, I reached the railway station on my way to the office. The trains were not running on schedule. After much delay a train entered the station. As the train was about to stop, I saw a blind beggar tripping over some hurdle, his bowl falling down and his coins scattering on the platform.

The poor sightless man knelt down on the platform and was searching for the coins frantically. What a sorry pathetic sight! My heart urges me: “Rush to the spot, pick up the coins and hand it to him”.

But my head cautions me: “If you do so, your train will depart within 30 seconds and you would get marked absent in office”! Amidst that dilemma, I noticed a man running to the spot, picking up the coins and depositing it in the beggar’s bowl!

That man was also on the platform to board the very same train just like me to reach his destination, yet didn’t hesitate a bit to respond to the call of humanity! I do not know whether he had managed to board the train after assisting the beggar or not.

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata