Readers’ comments: Covid deaths evident, why sensationalise by using ‘millions’ instead of ‘lakh’?

This is a true story which was evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, so no debate there (“What excess death data shows: Bihar, Gujarat undercounted Covid-19 toll by 30 times”). But why are you trying to obfuscate or misdirect people by using lakhs and millions in the same article? Instead of three million just say 30 lakh – it is just as valid and easily understood by the general public who live in India and not in the US. This attempt at sensationalising data erodes your credibility in the same manner that it does the governments that did it. Secondly, why is it that you couldn’t provide a link to this data if it is available publicly? – Rakesh Haridas

Editor’s note: It isn’t clear how this inconsistency constitutes sensationalism but it has been rectified.

Bengaluru infrastructure

The problem with Bengaluru infrastructure development, compared to Navi Mumbai, Noida, Gurgaon or even Amravati, is that the government of the day is not concerned about the road layout, acquisition of old, unplanned properties and moving dislocated people to better facilities, or even removing illegal properties (“Bengaluru: Foxconn factory turns rural town into real estate goldmine”). They allow unplanned structures to come up randomly – and after everything becomes crowded, they scratch their heads and...

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