THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Comunidade land grabbing
Bravo to Herald for exposing yet another land grabbing case and this time Comunidade land by Comunidade people only. This type of land grabbing is going on in each and every Comunidade in Goa. It is the duty of respective Comunidade administration to check that no one encroaches their land but they themselves are encroaching Comunidade land and get it registered in the names of their family members. And if one asks them they show ignorance for example Vagator case. Today our Comunidade are run by selfish individuals who are greedy to grab Comunidade land quietly.
It is a shame on us Goans to see Comunidade members only loot and grab Comunidade land besides migrants and politicians. SIT which is investigating other land grabbing cases in Goa should also investigate these Comunidade land grabbing cases too and punish the culprits after exposing them.
Natividade Fernandes, Cavelossim
Do not ‘convert’ downhill slopes
It is an earnest request to Town Planning Minister and NGPDA to restore the hill slopes before finalising the settlement areas, as Goa has thousands of square meters of sloping hills and has many forest areas and fruit trees.
Similarly contour layout (land with more than 25 degree slope) is also not suitable for construction development. So the Parrikar government declared that area as a non-development Zones (NDZ) in Regional plan. So how are those parts, variable in ODP?
Due to frequent tenancy Act amendments, Hill land cases are pending before various courts and tenancy cases are referred to civil and district courts and again to the offices of deputy collectors, and mamlatdars, resulting in delays.
This benefit is being taken to change the orchard areas, mainly the hilly areas into settlement zones. We hope that the government will maintain a balance towards nature.
Smita Satardekar, Nerul
Do we need
IFFI in Goa?
I read your editorial of Wednesday issue and I was very much satisfied with the description given in it.
Well written indeed but you missed important points which we Goans are worried the way IFFI propaganda is prospering in Panjim that we all are disturbed with the mess being created in our city especially the damage of green grass and garden all over the places.
Not only that the amount of good and bad tourists are pouring in Goa coming from neighbouring States is quite worrying us, as our peace of mind and serenity of our living is been jeopardised. I have personally seen that the Goans visiting the stalls and attending IFFI function are a small amount and not satisfying our interest. In fact these bad tourists are creating havoc and more damage to us by drinking on the beaches, breaking bottles and interfering with females who are coming to enjoy the good atmosphere in our lovely beaches and land.
Again I say the percentage of locals attending IFFI function is minuscule, almost negligible. Hence why we need this IFFI in Goa? It looks nice to see our streets at night, very beautiful at those spots where IFFI function is going on having nice electrification of dazzling lights all over the trees and electric poles, including few buildings. These trees especially their branches are seen damaged with nails on the trees. And in the night especially we see number of idle tourists sitting and sleeping on footpaths with few of them drinking and urinating in the lanes. Not leaving certain persons who are roaming in the night in the pretext of asking for rooms to stay but their aim is studying how to enter into the windows or doors for planning robberies.
We Goans are not safe with so many events taking place every now and especially in Panjim in the interest of development and perhaps improving financially.
I think our politicians are the main cause to attract tourism in Goa. We require tourism but not in this unplanned manner creating havoc in our peaceful land.
Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
Football World Cup
is a great leveller
With the stunning defeat of Argentina by Saudi Arabia at the football World Cup, the game is turning to be a great leveller. Reputation and form have this year in football been tossed aside and the best side on the day have won showing the door to the big names across Europe.
In the EPL teams like Brentford, Leeds United and Brighton have shown the door to the giants like Liverpool and Manchester City. Manchester United have been a pushover currently for any team so they do not count.
In Italy, Juventus have been struggling as also teams like AC Milan and Inter against the lesser teams.
In Spain, Real Madrid have had unexpected defeats while Barcelona are a pale shadow of their past greatness and are anybody's to overcome.
In France, PSG are the only team that have maintained their top reputation. Let’s see what more the World Cup brings!
Srinivas Kamat, Alto St Cruz
Is patience
really a virtue?
We all agree that "patience" is considered to be a virtuous behaviour. Problems can be avoided if we all have patience in negotiating or if in a debate or in an argument while at work or at home, driving in a traffic jam, in sports or dealing with facts of all aspects of life.
I am pretty much sure, there are worst things that can be avoided in life having patience, if you have the patience to endure things, or it is a virtual suicide losing to the core. Mind you, most executives who grew from grassroots, have climbed the ladder becoming great individuals having this blessed virtue. I personally put up my hand up to acknowledge and proudly say, yes! How many times we heard or preached to all ages "if slow and study tortoise didn't have enough patience, could it have ever won the race with the over smart hare"?
However, some are equally guilty of wanting things immediately, as they can’t afford to wait for tomorrow, which just few hours away.
In my personal experience, patience is something which must be learnt with cool mind and practised as it does not come naturally by birth. The beauty is, those who master patience become more successful than those who cannot, having short time vision.
Let's revisit this quote: The “old-fashioned” virtues are under stress today cause humility is submerged by arrogance, moderation by excess, modesty by assertiveness and patience by impatience.
Gaston Dias, Sarzora
Enact a law on
curbing freebies
The reckless spending of taxpayers’ money on ‘freebies’ is blatant financial irregularity that amounts to bribing voters using public money, solely to gain electoral advantage. The individual candidate distributing cash or liquor to garner votes is treated as a corrupt practice, and rightly so, but a party bribing voters, that too using public money, gets legitimacy.
That it is for Union government to take the initiative to enact a law on curbing freebies. Freebies being at the foundation on which victory is secured, the parties concerned are prone to promising them election after election.
The freebies culture is changing the mindset of people, making them complacent towards work. The freebies are a recipe for financial bankruptcy of the states and economic disaster. The only way to avoid it is to prohibit parties from making such promises.
KG Vilop, Chorao
