Azad Maidan should be free
The decision to prohibit any public protests at Panjim’s Azad Maidan is high-handed and outrageous. A blatant assault on democracy. It is an irony that the move came on a day when the Government commenced a year long celebration of Goa’s 60th year of Liberation. That a Rs 100 crore is needlessly being squandered on this extravaganza is another issue.
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Azad Maidan in the heart of Goa’s capital has always been a venue for public meetings and people’s protests on wrong doings by the government.
The right to peacefully demonstrate is enshrined in our Constitution and is a right that cannot be taken away by any authority.
In 1985, when the then Panjim Municipal Council (now CCP) had leased out Azad Maidan to the Delhi based All India Stall Holders Association to run a sale exhibition for eight months, I was able to successfully move a petition before the Collector that Azad Maidan being one of the few lungs of the city be left free for public use. The Collector directed the exhibitors to immediately vacate Azad Maidan and that decision was also upheld by the High Court whom the exhibitors had moved challenging the order of the Collector.
Azad Maidan has been over the years where aggrieved citizens have congregated to raise their voices against injustice and to demonstrate on various issues concerning Goa.
Azad Maidan must remain truly Azad, free from any repressive tactics by the powers to be. May better sense prevail in the authorities and hopefully they would withdraw this draconian move which absolutely does not augur well in a democracy.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Police action on Dec 19 not fair
Your editorial “Police action on youth not fair” was excellent, timely and expressed very boldly.Herald has got the distinction to stand by the suppressed as you indicated in this editorial.
What has happened in Panjim on Dec 19, especially in the Church Compound which is the private property where the worst brutalities started by the Salazarist type of Police personnel, should not have happened.
The police brutalities of treating rudely especially the females was unwarranted. To see them dragging, pulling and pushing the peacefully sitting the citizens on the ground was reminding of Salazarist days? I think even during those days Portuguese Police in Goa treated the females with due respect to their femininity. They have failed to indicate even a little morality to respect the females whom they were dragging to the Police Bus waiting to take them to an unknown destination.
Is this the way they treat their mothers, wives, sisters at home? How they snatched a mother from her small son playing with her and dragged her to the Bus?Why they hardened their hearts to the crying and screaming of the mother and son when the mother was separated from her son?
What right the police got to encroach on the private property from where the people of Goa were playing and singing songs with Gumott?
It was disgusting to see the Police personnel from the country that is boasting of giving Goans the most cherished liberty from the Portuguese dictatorship but themselves seen suppressing the liberties of Goans whose elders fought to see the light of this day and hence the remembrance of Liberation Day. What we remembered on 19.12.20; same atrocities as seen during Salazarist regime.
A Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim
Youth must know current affairs
In response to the article ‘Goans crumble at, not crack competitive exams’, the Goa Public Service Commission should strongly introspect on the standard and the distribution of the questions asked in these competitive exams. It is all well to nonchalantly say that the youth should be updated with current affairs, but the level of questions sometimes borders on the ridiculous.
Being someone who has recently given and cleared a CBRT exam, I know firsthand of multiple deserving candidates who have missed out on the interview process due to the ridiculous nature of the questions posed in the CBRT. The GPSC needs to introspect as to why 35% of marks are allotted to general knowledge, English and logical reasoning and less weightage to the actual subject matter.
I fail to see the relevance of solo Indian dance forms and how many satellites were launched by ISRO in 1970 to a candidate giving an interview as a lecturer in Goa Medical and Dental College.
This only leads to deserving Goan candidates not getting the call for the interview, while non Goan candidates get postings on the basis that no Goan candidates are present for the interview process.
The GPSC needs to introspect and realise that its priorities should be around generating employment for the local population, not discouraging them with multiple IAS level exams with a 0.1% passing rate.
Neil De Souza, Margao
The harbingers of change
Every cloud has a silver lining. The silver lining of the cloud which is the present Goa Government’s arrogant attitude is the new crop of leaders led by Captain Viriato Fernandes and Fr Bolmax Pereira who are leading the youth of Goa to save the scarce remaining resources of Goa which is our land, forest, rivers, minerals and our environment.
It is the duty of each and every Niz Goyemkar to stand up for our rights and to be counted and not just sit in our balcao and pass comments. If the youth have the courage to stand up to the chamchas of the Government then we too can be part of the movement to protect our land and environment.
Tomorrow when we lose everything our children will question us as to what we were doing and we will not have a answer. Hence it is time to stand up now to the chamchas of Adani and Ambani just as the poor farmers are doing on the cold streets of New Delhi.
Matias Lobo , Tivim
Making Goa an education hub
It is indeed surprising that Goa with a literacy rate of @ 89% has only one functioning university which is focussed more on degree churning than employment ready graduates. The State has strong potential to become an education hub for the whole country as well as students from abroad.
In a welcome development, four private universities have evinced keen interest in setting up campuses here and if permissions come through expeditiously they would be up and running by next year.
To facilitate such endeavour the Goa legislative assembly had passed a Private Universities Bill in February this year, internationally acclaimed tertiary education entities are also looking at Goa as a viable campus option given the infrastructure and relatively peaceful way of life here. Government rules entail that any private institute desirous of setting up shop here has to create an endowment fund of Rs5 crore besides appointing certain minimum faculty and support staff.
Private universities offer more rigorous, vocational courses via good industry-academia interface and visiting faculty which ensures ’employable’ graduates rather than mere degree holders.
Also education is an year round activity unlike seasonal tourism and the State shall earn good revenue from the universities in terms of ground rent and taxes, even dollars shall flow in from foreign student admissions.
The powers that be should focus all their energies in making Goa an educational centre of excellence instead of blindly advancing the cause of Centre imposed linear projects.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
