A reader comments on efforts to install air-conditioned bus shelters

Letters to the editor consider approaches to the mortgage market, the coverage of the Armenian "massacre", online shopping and restrictions on young drivers.

A reader has detailed the ambitious plans of the Department of Transport to increase the number of air-conditioned bus shelters in Abu Dhabi. Rich-Joseph Facun / The National

In reference to the front page business article Mortgage defaulters flee rather than risk jail (June 14), It is time the authorities understand that the cheque bounce law which once they thought was a boon to the economy in the UAE is now the bane. No society has such antiquated statutes.

There is a cheque bounce law In India but post-dated cheques are outside the purview of this law. Criminality has to be proved that it was a deliberate act of cheque bouncing and the circumstances are reviewed, unlike here.

Why should a bank have a cheque as security apart from the house? This is illogical and shows the intention to misuse the cheque against the client by threatening to use the cheque bounce law.

The sooner the banks and the relevant authorities realise that the cheque bounce law is acting as a retrograde statute, the better for the UAE economy.

Dr KB Vijayakumar, Dubai

Genocide claims need investigation

This is in reference to the news article Israel to mark Armenian Massacre (June 2). As Vita Bekker reports from Tel Aviv and not from Istanbul, the ideas expressed in this article are most probably one-sided and highly subjective,

Reuven Rivlin, a member of the ruling Likud Party, is quoted as saying: "It is my duty as a Jew and as an Israeli to recognize the tragedies of other nations." He surprisingly forgets the tragedies of millions of Palestinians but follows closely the new flotilla to depart soon from Turkey in order to deliver help to Palestinians,

Claims such as 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 and it is to be recognised as genocide must be investigated in detail.

The Ottoman Empire which consisted of many ethnic groups was highly fair and lawful and respectful of the rights of these ethnic groups as it could not survive otherwise for 624 years in Europe, Asia and Africa, from 1299 to 1923.

Every country, whether it is a huge empire or a small republic, has the right to protect its land and what happened in 1915 was simply the protection of the Ottoman Turks' rights against the Armenians who were a happy ethnic group within the Empire once upon a time but later turned unhappy and hostile through the provocation of outsiders.

It is better to work on that issue objectively, to listen both sides and to put forth acceptable proofs for the sake of reasonable generations to come.

People die of many causes during wartime and there is a big difference between genocide and the bitter realities of wartime.

Gaye Caglayan, Dubai

A secure future for bus shelters

In light of the article entitled While the car is king, public transport is missing the bus (June 6) regarding the current condition of bus shelters in Abu Dhabi, the Department of Transport highlights the following:

In its aim to provide safe and comfortable transportation for the public, the Department of Transport (DoT) in Abu Dhabi has installed 70 modern air-conditioned bus-stop shelters throughout the city of Abu Dhabi to serve bus commuters during the hot summer months. Old bus shelters will be removed and replaced with new modern ones and an additional 480 air-conditioned bus shelters will be installed by 2013 throughout the Emirate, including Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain and the Western Region.

Furthermore, the DoT has currently placed instructional stickers inside the bus shelters advising commuters to adhere to rules such as refraining from eating, drinking, smoking and sleeping inside the bus shelters and prohibiting the use of bus shelter walls as notice boards. Maintenance teams will carry out daily cleaning of the bus shelters to alleviate bad odours and improve overall hygiene levels in bus-stop shelters.

Zainab al Zubaidi, PR and Communications Division, Department of Transport, Abu Dhabi

Advantages to online shopping

I refer to the business article Web fails to lure big sales rises (June 14). The costs of operating online stores are staggeringly cheaper than running a regular storefront. Online shopping in the UAE won't be successful until you find a way to make online prices consistently cheaper than in-store prices and develop a logistics system that makes delivery free and fast. Successful online shopping models have proven this.

Donald Glass, Abu Dhabi

New driving curbs are not fair

The article Plan for curbs on 'novice' drivers (June 14) reported that teenagers would be allowed to take the driver's test when they turn 18 but restrictions would be imposed on them for three years afterward. I hope this rule doesn't go through because other countries allow driving by the age of 16 and a full licence at 18. So it's not fair.

Ahmed Ramadan, Dubai