This is with reference to ‘Massive blaze guts Mantralaya, 2 killed’, (PM, June 22). It was heartening to know that 10 ministers were supervising the fire fighting operation at the Mantralaya on Thursday.
 
But their going out of the way needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Were they ensuring that all the crucial files related to various cases against them and their esteemed colleagues were duly destroyed? That’s the question that needs to be asked by all concerned citizens.
 
-  Ram Mohan Sridharan

Several areas in Pune were in the dark about the fire at Mantralaya till 5.30 pm due to power cut. Finally, when the power supply resumed, people were shocked to know that crucial files kept on the fourth, fifth and sixth floor of the Secretariat were gutted.
 
In the evening senior citizens, who gathered at kattas for their daily chat, were discussing as to how it took years to get petty work done at the Mantralaya. They rued the fact that now many people will have to go through the same endless red-tape to prepare fresh documents.
 
-  Gopal D Sant
 
  Same old story

This refers to ‘4-year-old slips into 70-ft well; Army, NSG join rescue operation’, (PM, June 22). Being an adult, I know how it feels to be in a claustrophobic situation. I can imagine how insecure and frightening little Maahi must have felt.

This is not the first time when such an incident has taken place in the country. While the person responsible for digging the borewell needs to be taken to task for negligence, the entire episode raises a pertinent question: When are we going to learn from our mistakes?

-  N Jayaram
 
  Indeed smart kids

This is with reference to your article ‘Street smart kids’, (PM, June 21). Initially, when I saw two or three girls running around and handing out pamphlets to commuters near Good Luck Chowk on Thursday, I thought it was yet another sales promotion.

Later when I reached home and read the story, I realised that the youths were there for a cause. They were very swift in their task. I congratulate Akash Shah, Achal Agarwal and the entire team of 40 teenagers who took the initiative.
 
-  C V Narayanan
 
I am happy and surprised. This bunch of 40 teenagers is doing an extraordinary job. Such matured thinking is quite unusual at their age. May their tribe grow.

-  K K Shastri
 
  Rot in the system 

I thank Pune Mirror for highlighting the brutality of our criminal-justice system in the article ‘Notes from a prison cell’, (PM, June 18). More horrifying than the methods used in the jail is the fact that no one was held responsible for falsely implicating an innocent man and subjecting him to four years of cruelty behind bars.

Why are the police officers who cooked up cases against Arun Ferreira and thousands like him not behind bars? Why is the public so apathetic to police excesses? Can we call our nation democratic when such unspeakable acts are being committed by the State?
 
-  Sherna Gandhy