WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024
Don’t cry, change your attitude!
Indians love to play the racist card to their undue advantage. They are bridling with anger over the UK’s rejection of the vax certificate. Let’s face it: India is teeming with fake certificates, and we accept the same as inevitable, and want other countries to do so too. During the lockdowns, Hong Kong twice banned Air India flights as the passengers tested positive despite producing the -ve RT PCR certificates. A PDF editor is all that is required to edit someone else’s certificate. We know what is happening at Patradevi; just recently a bus just sped through to avoid checking. Are these cheaters punished? Was the hotel that hosted a marriage for two days with 500 plus guests punished when the permission was for a day with 50 guests? India has declared internationally and in the Lok Sabha that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortages: you believe this? Instead, our attitude is to criticise the officials charged with checking and ‘allowing’ the cheaters to go free! Well, now the UK authorities doing the checking are still faulted?
NIO study showed micro plastics in tap water in Goa. Then, NIO themselves shot down the study! What is sacrosanct in India? Not our attitude for sure. The JEE Mains 2021 exam in India saw some centres being compromised. What all this shows is that cheating is part of our culture and acceptable? That is why lawmakers came out with the Bhumiputra Act and that the coconut is a grass! Still we cry. Goan lives are most compromised because our government allows cheating to proliferate. And we cry for international infra! Cry for an attitude change.
R Fernandes, Margao
Check rented vehicles
A local MLA has claimed that tourists visiting the State, who take cars and bikes on rent, are being harassed by the traffic police for no reason. It must be said the traffic police are only doing their duty. The one riding a rented vehicle may not be a tourist but an anti-social element from another State who has escaped to Goa. Hence, it is the duty of the police to check on each and every one driving/riding a rented vehicle. It is claimed that one tourist is stopped at least five times in a day. A tourist who has been fined for the first time can always show the receipt of the fine collected if stopped multiple times on the way. Tourists tend to ride the rented scooter in a rough manner as the vehicle does not belong to them. One also sees a number of lady tourists riding rented scooters. They need to be checked for the driving licence. These tourists may not be used to riding on Goan roads. Hence, helmets play a vital role in preventing fatalities due to head injuries as a result of road accidents. Tourists coming to the State do not carry along with them a helmet. And buying a helmet in the State by the tourists for temporary use is not a viable option. It must be mandatory for those renting the bike to tourists to provide the rider and the pillion rider with ISI-mark helmets after charging a nominal fee for the helmets.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Honesty deserves to be rewarded
Honesty among people is rare nowadays. Dishonest men and women are ruling the roost and are believed to be the main reason behind the decadence of moral, social and ethical culture and values of the society. The absence of honesty has lead to the decline of trust, betrayal and lack of respect among the members of the society, in public administration and particularly amongst many politicians and political parties. Of late, it's very heartening to note of some occasional incidents of display of great acts of honesty and sincerity by certain responsible individuals by resorting to publicly acknowledging their intentions to return lost and found property to the rightful owners who had lost his/her possession in kind or coin. Several times and unknowingly, travellers tend to leave behind on the seats their bags or others carelessly drop on the roadside their purses containing several valuables like cash, gold, important documents, keys etc.
Lucky are those, whose items are returned by some good Samaritans. The latest incident of such honest and commendable behaviour came from the conductor and driver of Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) who found a lost purse belonging to a woman traveller containing gold jewellery and cash. The duo comprising Mangesh and Rajesh were felicitated by Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida in the presence of KTC officials for their sincerity and honesty. This public appreciation also sends a positive message to all members of public that "honesty is the best policy" and worth practicing it.
Antonio Diniz, Fatorda
Tourist Police for beaches
A dedicated tourist police cadre, initially comprising 100 personnel trained in soft skills (no danda for now) has been raised to patrol the State's beaches. This force shall enable immediate rescue and evacuation of tourists, clamp down on the lamani/beggar menace and help control overcrowding. Shack licensees who put up deck beds and umbrellas in excess of what is stipulated in the contract as also restaurants which lay out tables close to the water's edge encroaching and blocking access to beach users will be dealt with. Similarly, water sports operators who park their jet skis, banana boats and ferries in non-designated areas would be in for a tough time; dealing with other issues such as public drinking, hawking, driving of vehicles on beaches, etc, too shall come within the ambit of the Tourist Police. The government should also have regular law enforcement personnel with the powers of arrest working in close coordination with the Tourist Police to check illegal activity on our beaches. Additionally there is a need to post ambulances manned by paramedics on the more popular and crowded beaches to deal with medical emergencies, further secluded stretches should be well lit to deter criminal activity.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Provide Goans with basic facilities
Keeping an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is seen glorifying and patting the so-called 'achievements' of his government.
Has the government really gone to turn our tiny State into another Los Angeles by giving 100% jobs for all our Goan youth and raising their standard of living since the last four-and-a-half years in Goa? Has the government done anything to bring down the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG cylinders, etc and to control inflation to give a major relief for all the "aam-Goans" (who have lost their jobs and are sitting idle since the beginning of the pandemic) in Goa?
Today, our once peaceful Goa has been practically turned into a lawless State. Our teenage girls are being raped and murdered and there is no action taken against the real culprits. Outsiders are daringly entering our State with guns, firing at innocents in public. Talks of development may sound good but look at the condition of all major roads in Goa which are full of potholes and have turned into accident-prone zones or death traps.
The government has crores of rupees to waste on unwanted things like the construction of a samadhi in memory of late Manohar Parrikar at Miramar beach, Goa's 60th Liberation year celebrations, on huge advertisements glorifying its own so-called "achievements", etc, but has no money to repair these roads.
We want the government to provide us with the basic facilities and not to make fake announcements at the time of fast approaching Assembly elections with the sole intention of eyeing the migrant vote bank.
It's time to liberate Goa from an unfit government in the upcoming assembly elections for our future generations. It's now or never. Viva Goa, Viva Goenkar.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
