Lokotsav will win hearts in Amone
We are so fortunate to practically witness, enjoy and learn from what we read about the grass root level stories of Goan tribal culture from the Adivasi civilisation.
The Lokotsav, Amone festival started in the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium and is growing stronger. The tribal culture is showcased on a large scale by the living tribals, proving how they lived this long in good health, prosperity and happiness.
In my past experience, depiction of Adivasi civilisation at Lokotsav helped thousands of local and foreign visitors to understand various aspects of tribal culture and heritage, which puts together a mind blowing festival.
It exhibits folk crafts, artisans, music, dance, sports, colourful exhibition of art, antiques, herbal medicines, authentic cuisine, local produce and marvel of products. The artists are not only from Goa but from different states across India to exhibit their own dance, art and culture.
One will be able to see the amount of work that our own Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar has put into his vision of transforming the three-day Dec 8-10 annual event into throughout-the-year extravaganza with a focus on key areas — ecotourism, agro processing, and adventure activities having plan to have eco-friendly accommodation facilities for tourists not only to relish the event but learn how the tribal communities are attached to land, water, forest, livestock customs, healing prowess and practices of ages not forgetting the performance to chores.
Looking at the on-going preparations, there is no doubt that this 23rd Lokotsav will win thousands of hearts at this beautiful village Amone at Poinguinim, Canacona - Please don’t miss or you will certainly regret!
Gaston Dias, Sarzora
Passengers taken for a ride in Goa
The auto/ taxi drivers and motorcycle pilots never agree to go by the meter and charge according to their whims and fancies. Their fares are sometimes double or even triple of what comes in the meter. The refusal to ply by meters and charging of random exorbitant fares leads to disputes with passengers.
They take undue advantage of the situation and fleece passengers. There seem to be no rules and regulations for them. They have to fix the fare as per the slab fixed by the government and cannot take passengers for a ride. There is widespread indiscipline among pilots, auto/taxi drivers, which is one of the main causes for driving away tourists from Goa. It’s a pity that the RTO/Traffic officials fail to enforce fares and initiating action against drivers charging exorbitant fares.
K G Vilop, Chorao
GSPCB needs to take note of water pollution
A week after a well was found contaminated with traces of petro-product at Matvem-Dabolim, it is learnt that streams and nullahs have been found contaminated with fuel films floating on water surface. The water containing fuel traces will eventually flow into the Zuari River. This can become a health hazard as fish contaminated with fuel will find its way to the market.
The fuel will contaminate the groundwater which will also affect the fields in the locality. It will also lead to the death of marine species present in the river. It is learnt that the oil companies have so far removed as many as 30 tanker loads of water from the well but were unable to find the cause of the contamination. The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) needs to take note of the water contamination and work in tandem with the oil companies to come to the bottom of the problem. Since the pipelines have been closed they should not be opened until the fault is found and rectified. The reason for the leakage also needs to be looked into so that such incidents do not occur in the future. The local governing bodies need to make necessary arrangements to supply water through tankers to the affected people in the area.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Restore earlier progs aired by Akashvani
I am a Senior Citizen aged 72 living my sunset years with my Radio. However for the past 2 months, the usual programs were completely stopped by Akashvanni.
Now I came to know the reason through 2 letters published in your esteemed daily that it was stopped because of the merger of Madei and FM Channels. Previously, I used to enjoy the English as well as Konkani requests programs and I used to often request for songs and chat with the lovely RJs. But suddenly it is all stopped and I don’t know who is behind this. Now I get bored listening to the forced news round the clock.
I humbly request the Station Director to please restore our programs which were earlier aired by Akashvanni especially the FM Channel so that my remaining days in this world will be made musically happy. Please don’t let me down.
Mary Fernandes, Porvorim