Poisonous imports

Apropos of the news report “Imposing ban on Chinese chocolate sale no cakewalk” (THT, Sept 28), the growing number of child fatalities and side-effects from the consumption of

contaminated milk products made in China have attracted worldwide attention. Unless proven safe through food-testing techniques, all Chinese products should be immediately taken off the market and their future imports banned. On the other hand, the government should compensate financial losses borne by importers.

Currently, China is the largest exporter of melamine in the world. The purpose behind adulteration of milk by addition of melamine is to increase the milk’s protein level. This is done to compensate for the addition of water in the milk, the process which lowers the milk protein level. The government should ban all milk products imported from China at once.

Melamine is used to make plastic and also as an insecticide. Though not toxic in low doses, its consumption in high does has been linked with renal damage, renal cancer and reproductive failure.

Dr. Sital Kaji Shrestha, India

Grip of graft

The fact that only 20 per cent of government employees have submitted their property details as per their legal obligation is indicative of the moral degradation and financial corruption rampant in the country.

Disciplining unscrupulous officers would be a child’s play if the government dared to introduce drastic punitive measures like negative marking in the promotion process: with at least two marks reduced for first transgression, one rank on second miss and summary dismissal from service on the third. In addition, the government should make public the names of negligent officials every year.

Ramesh Bdr. Shrestha, Lalitpur

Time for DTH

With the advent of ABC news channel, there are now eight Nepali television channels in the country. Moreover, over 20 channels have reportedly registered for broadcasting. In this context, even though cable operators do not have the capacity to telecast all channels, they telecast beyond their capacity, thereby resulting in unclear transmission and poor-quality pictures.

In Kathmandu Valley, only a third of all telecast channels are clear, with others broadcasting

very fuzzy pictures.

Hence the government should permit DTH (direct to home) services like Dish TV and Tatasky which ensure both quality customer care and high quality images.

Suraj, Kaski

A ploy

It is unfortunate to see the basic human right of Miss Nepal contestants being violated by those hell-bent on hindering the pageant time and again.

Each person has the right to do what he or she pleases, and so long as it harms no one else,

it should be nobody’s business. If wearing “revealing” dress is not in our culture, is wearing a Western suit while attending the United Nations General Assembly a part of our culture? This is just another ploy of political parties to politicise a social event for their partisan interests.

Bibhusan Sharma, via e-mail