14 Aug 2018 | 06:05am IST
Letters To The Editor
By Somnath Chatterjee's demise, India has lost a seasoned parliamentarian and a man of high principles. Chatterjee, who was a Barrister, was a stickler to rules. A football fan, he was the Speaker of the XIV Lok Sabha.
As the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Chatterjee upheld the eminence and respect the office deserves. During the 2008 vote of no-confidence in the Lok Sabha against the Ministry headed by Dr Manmohan Singh, Chatterjee displayed an ethical behaviour by rejecting his party's demand that he resign as the Speaker. Although his party expelled him for his conduct, Chatterjee truly exhibited the majesty of the Speaker's Office.
As this stalwart of Indian politics is no more, his conduct as the Speaker should serve as a benchmark to all presiding officers of our legislatures. I pay my homage to Comrade Somnath Chatterjee.
Another bravado bites the dust!
Goods and Service Tax Network CEO P Kumar, has finally come out that the numerous glitches in the GST and e-way Bill was due to lack of time. He says that as such, no one is accountable for the same.
He forgers that the PM refused to listen to anyone, including pioneer Industry leaders, and went ahead with the planned date for GST- Mid-night of July 1, 2017. Further, he did it from the august Central Hall, diminishing the sanctity of the Hall.
At the time, Congress leader Manish Tewari, cautioned all that the hurriedness would show flaws in the following 6 months. It did. And where is the ‘one tax’, one country gone? Or the justification for the use of the Central Hall? Sheer bravado for the sake of the gullible.
The same ‘Don Quixote’ method was used in the e-way Bill, preponing the date from April 1 to February resulting in total chaos. Bravado and brash comes a cropper in front of logic and good sense.
Should voter's ID be linked to Aadhaar?
The Gram Sabha of Sirlim passed an important resolution last Sunday by demanding that all Voters IDs (EPICs) be compulsorily linked to Aadhaar numbers. They put forth a sound argument stating that voters from other states working and residing in Goa manage to obtain Voter's IDs in Goa, besides the voters IDs they already possess from their home states. They also use them to enroll as voters and cast their votes during elections.
Most of these voters being from lower income groups, they can easily fall prey to monetary inducements and freebies offered by the politicians to garner their votes during elections. The number of such voters being quite large, quite often it offsets the margin of votes polled by a candidate, thus resulting an unworthy politician being elected, which is detrimental to interests of the people of that constituency. This practice of enticing and engaging these bogus voters has been going on unchecked for the last many years and nothing or very little is be done so far by the Election Commission to weed out this illicit voting.
Also the ease with which voters are being able to get a second epic with impunity is not seriously tackled and curbed by the authorities. Now that most people have been issued Aadhaar cards and as per the UIDAI, that one individual can have only one Aadhaar number, perhaps by linking the Aadhaar number to Voter's ID may do away or minimise the menace of duplicate Voters IDs and bogus votes. Will the Government and Election Commission look into this matter very seriously and take a final decision on this issue?
Massive traffic congestion
A drive from Vasco to Cortalim normally takes about 12 to 15 minutes. But, because of the massive traffic jam on the Zuari Bridge, it could take anything between half an hour to forty minutes to cross the bridge, specially, during peak hours.
This traffic jam, which affects traffic coming from Margao as well, continues well into the night. The other day I was caught in a traffic jam on the bridge at 11 pm. The traffic congestion is experienced on both sides of the Zuari Bridge and is compounded by the pathetic condition of the road on the Agassaim side of the bridge. Road-users have to go through a nightmarish experience.
One can only imagine the plight of a patient who is being carried by an ambulance to a private or government hospital which is caught in the traffic jam. Not to mention those passengers who have to catch the flights at the Dabolim airport. Some steps need to be taken by the government to mitigate the plight of the travelling public.
One option would be to restart the Agassaim-Cortalim ferry service so that those people who have to reach their destination in quick time can use the ferry service. During peak hours it could take lesser time to cross the Zuari River by ferry than driving along the bridge.
Going through the edition of Herald paper on the voting machines, it is believed that the Election Commissioner is on the BJP pay roll and he is attempting for the BJP to win the parliamentary election of 2019.
The EVM and VVPAT are found to be faulty. They can be manipulated in favour of particular party. It is unbelievable to believe that north eastern states voted for BJP during last assembly election. This did not happen without the manipulation of EVM and VVPAT machines.
In view of this all the political parties should demand to hold the election on ballot papers.
Catastrophic man made blunders in Kerala are the main cause of current massive flooding, destruction and loss of life in Kerala. Can Goans fight its corrupt/destructive Govt to avoid doing the same in Goa?
It is clear that the ruling MLAs and their accomplices in the Opposition, just want to make most of their personal wealth by destroying Goa’s environment!
