TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
Increase patrolling to curb rise in burglaries
In a daring burglary miscreants reportedly looted a house at Bali, fleeing with gold ornaments and cash amounting to over Rs four lakh. Gold ornaments worth over Rs 30 lakh were burgled from one house and items worth
Rs 2.5 lakh were damaged in another house at Loliem.
Another house in the locality was ransacked. However it was not clear what was stolen. An attempt to burgle a closed bungalow at Betalbatim by two unknown culprits has sent shock waves across Salcete.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV camera and the footage was shared on social media. There has been a rise in the number of house-breaking incidents reported in the State in the past several days. Burglars target houses that are closed with the owners being out of station for various reasons.
It is now vacation time, with people heading to various holiday destinations. Police patrolling needs to be intensified. Anyone found to be moving in a suspicious manner near residential areas needs to be rounded up by the police for questioning. A watch needs to be kept on the movement of history-sheeters from the locality.
Proper outdoor lighting can deter burglary. Burglars strike when much of the police force is deployed for other duties. With elections round the corner, obviously police will be deployed for election duty. Better coordination between the police and people can go a long way in reducing house-breaking incidents.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Digital payment scam in police force shocking
The recent publication on O Heraldo edition on April 16, 2024, highlighting 'Another rogue GPay cop from Tiracol has to pay with his arrest', shows that crime and corruptions rate are increasing in Goa and suggests how these emanate from organisational practices that have continued unchanged for over 100 years. Collecting bribes using a digital payments app is Digital India Initiative. The Goa Police are high tech. In the past, O Heraldo had exposed the case of alleged harassment, extortion and accepting bribes through GPay, which has become the standard or even 'official' mode of payment of bribes to the men in khaki. The image of Goa is getting murkier day by day and it has become a new trend.
Nevertheless, the old system continues and the police are still not accountable to the citizens. It is an alarming situation in Goa and needs to be corrected immediately.
The police are a security force whose job is to ensure that the laws are basically enforced.
K G Vilop, Chorao
'Baby bust' across Asia
Many Asian countries are reportedly experiencing low fertility rates. They seem to be facing a ‘baby bust’, where there are insufficient children to maintain the population size, and it is feared that the ongoing decline in fertility rate will have grim economic consequences.
Factors driving the fall in fertility levels include rapid urbanisation and migration from rural areas to cities, which contribute to higher costs of raising children and the lack of affordable housing for family building.
Also the shift in focus from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’, where a greater emphasis is placed on raising fewer children with a better quality of life as opposed to having as many children as possible. There is an urgent need for Asian countries to address the issue of a low TFR and foster a supportive environment for childbirth and child-raising.
Governments need to act fast and prioritise how they can make their countries as family-friendly as possible. Parenthood should be supported and celebrated, and families need to know that their governments are on their side very much.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
Prioritise maintenance of KTC buses
A Kadamba bus reportedly lost control and veered off in a nearby field on the Saligao-Parra road on Monday. Around eight passengers on board had a lucky escape during the said freak accident .
Well, the one thing I know about this particular Kadamba bus is that it is ill-maintained with no proper head-lights, non-functional screen wipers, no brakes, water leakage inside during the monsoons as it is not even fit to transport cattle/other animals in Goa.
Unfortunately, despite these problems, the said unfit bus is treated like a big World Cup trophy and allowed to ply on our Saligao route. This particular bus provides the most horrible service for office-goers/senior citizens travelling to Mapusa, Panjim, Calangute, etc, for the past several years.
The KTCL officials should press into service at least one well-maintained bus along this particular Saligao route instead of allowing the above unfit kadamba bus (which actually needs to be scrapped immediately) to still ply on the above route and to create havoc/cause more of such freak self accidents in Goa.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
Underwood revelled on uncovered pitches
The death of England's left-arm spinner Derek Underwood has taken away one of the game's most outstanding practitioners of the craft.
'Deadly' Underwood bagged 297 scalps in 86 Tests, the highest ever for an English spinner.
He revelled on uncovered pitches commonly used for much of a 24-year First Class career from 1963 to 1987. Cricket lovers will recall his magnificent spell of 7-50 over arch-rivals Australia in the 1968 Oval Test when the match was heading for a draw.
He and wicketkeeper Alan Knott forged a lethal combination for Kent and England. Unfortunately, their involvement in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket and the rebel tour of South Africa cut short their Test careers.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
Uphold ethics of medical profession
India has the best hospitals with very good facilities, world class equipment and enviable infrastructure; however, these are some of the essential requirements.
An inescapable requirement is humanisation of the care - concern-cure process. Most hospitals in India treat disease not the patients. Hospitals need to exhibit sincere concern for patients.
Constant counselling and discussions on choice of treatment is of utmost importance, and deficiency could lead to legal hassles.
Most hospitals start with the good intention of service to the society, but over a period of time the hospitals turn into a money- making establishments that are run like business enterprise where patients' concern takes a back seat and when investor pumps in money, least concern is shown towards medical ethics.
Diomedes Romano Pereira, Corlim
