Public transport service should live up to certain acceptable standards of quality, comfort and safety before it could gain public patronage. There are of course costs involved, but the people and their quality of life must come first if we destroy public transport we shall be condemned to re-invent it-but at a huge price in terms of environmental degradation, loss of time, traffic jams and the denial of the joys of urban living.

Ratan Tata's offer to help find funds to remove the toxic waste in UCC's Bhopal plant is inconsistent with the `polluter pays' principle.

Public discourse on the Singur imbroglio by and large revolves around how many landholders have handed over, or not handed over, their land to the government for the proposed Tata motorcar factory. It is as if the number of landowners is the sole indicator of the extent of

The Hindu of December 13, 2006 published a write-up on Singur on its op-ed page: "Some facts, please' by cpi(m) politburo member and leading intellectual Brinda Karat. She was countering what she called a smear campaign against the cpim) over the acquisition of land for the proposed Tata Motors project at Singur. There are some more facts, however, that I would like to bring to her notice. But before that I would also like to thank her for having brought some key issues to the fore.