You are currently checking vehicular traffic in Goa  --  two-wheelers, cars and heavy vehicles. Traffic accidents in Kolkotta should really make all drivers and riders very much aware of the dangers of not obeying traffic rules. I now drive my own car in Goa since January 2016 after almost sixty years of driving in the city of Bombay with trips by car to Delhi, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad and Goa. Unfortunately I find that in Goa observance of traffic rules or rules of the road is almost absent  --  when I signal a right turn, I have vehicles mostly two-wheelers overtake me from the right  --  similarly when I have signaled a left turn, there will be two-wheelers that overtake from the left.  In the few places you have traffic signals, four-wheelers and two-wheelers tend to accelerate when approaching the signal in the hope of getting across before the signal changes and often resulting in head-on collisions or near misses  with vehicles which have anticipated the change and have started crossing from the opposite cross road.  From personal observance I find that your Traffic Policemen on point duty seem to be only occupied with apprehending those two-wheeler riders without helmets (excluding foreign tourists).  What about two-wheelers carrying three and sometimes even more passengers?  I find trucks and other heavy vehicles (sometimes cars also) stay on the inner lane forcing everyone to overtake them from the left since they do not give way in response to flashing of my headlights. May I suggest that you introduce an immediate re-test of traffic rules of those riders / drivers found to violate traffic rules and maybe insist that they do a re-test before re-issuing their driver's licence (if they have one)? 

Looking forward to more relaxed driving in future.

Aloysius D'Souza, by email

The previous Government had promised that major areas of Salcete and Tiswadi including Panjim would be supplied with 24 hrs. water, but as is  usual the promise was not kept by the then BJP Goverment.

 I therefore challenge PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar to keep his promise of supplying 24-hour potable water to the entire state of Goa by 2019.

 The fact is that the task is possible but rain water harvesting has to be implemented in a very large scale which has not been done. Rain water harvesting is the key to be able to then supply through a system of pipelines water to the entire state of Goa for 24 hours. Unless large reservoirs are made available, the promise of Dhavalikar is going to remain a pipe dream as we are well aware that prior to the monsoon, in the heat of summer  most of our water supplying reservoirs run out of water.

Stephen Dias, Dona Paula

Elephant in the room!

I am absolutely amazed at Parrikar’s response to the growing carnage on our roads. He has attacked the symptom rather than the cause. He has ignored the elephant in the room.

The RTO issues licences to people who are unfit to ride 2-wheelers & drive 4-wheelers & multi-axle vehicles. The traffic police, for various reasons, cannot enforce discipline or penalise people who are incompetent drivers / riders.

 The PWD’s intrinsic corruption ensures we have roads of the lowest possible standards. Whether it is design, construction quality or maintenance, the PWD is riddled with corrupt practices. End result is roads that lower safety standards & raises the incidence of accidents by design & dereliction of duty.

 Both departments (Transport & PWD) are headed by the same minister for the last 5 years of the previous government & that is the elephant in the room. 

Anthony J. Simoes, Dona Paula

Digvijay Singh’s recent tweet dubbing the Congress decision not to go for a pre- poll alliance with Vijai Sardesai’s GFP as a mistake, is perplexing. What does Mr Singh base his conclusion upon, when the election results clearly vindicated the decision by giving the Congress Party 17 seats on its own (without any alliance) against 13 of the BJP? 

 I would think that one would not go in for a pre-poll alliance unless one is in a desperate position. It would surely make more sense to weld together a post-poll alliance, to fill in the shortfall, rather than whistle in the dark and let someone like Vijai, who openly displayed his predatory pre-disposition way before the polls, to decimate the Party in the process of a pre-poll alliance. And the results proved that the local Congress leadership’s idea of its strength was not too far off the mark when it took this decision.

Now, it is amazing that Digvijay Singh is making the victim shoulder the blame, while presenting the culprit as the injured innocent. But even more amazing is the reason why the Congress Party is keeping such a wolf in its fold. After this latest incredible tweet, it is quite clear that the Congress Party in its own interests, should get rid of Digvijay Singh forthwith.

 Diana Pinto, Nagoa