FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Road maintenance during monsoons?
As Goa is already into the annual monsoon season, the casual attitude taken by the Goa government in preparedness for this season can be seen in flooding and water logging in various parts of Goa. To point a few and make my point brief: the road cutting work opposite the Head Post Office, for pre monsoon job during the onset of the monsoon is a major lapse, that the CCP allowed.
There is a Collector order wherein no road digging work could take place from June 1. So how did the contractor defy this order? The PWD minister, is on record, and cannot keep his word. He said by Monday night the work should be completed. Every week in the month of the year has a Monday, which one is he referring to?
The maintenance of all the bridges should be the job of the PWD and CPWD. There is water logging on all the bridges, including Atal Sethu. The water logging on bridges causes great inconvenience to the scooterists during the downpour. Couldn’t the drains of all the bridges be cleaned before the monsoons?
The road leading to Calangute from O Coqueiro circle and Panjim to Merces circle are in such a pathetic and dangerous condition, that one wonders whether we are living in the woods or in India’s best State under the best governance. A few metres away you see traffic police, most enthusiastically, even on Sundays and holidays, discharging their duties to fill the government coffers and theirs, but are not interested in reporting the worse road conditions that they can see under their nose.
There is a saying, when you smell mud, the rains are near, and when you smell tar the elections are near. Wake up Goa!
Allen Noronha, Porvorim
Govt schemes to benefit families
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s compensation package of Rs.1 lakh to BPL card-holding families who have lost a breadwinner to Covid-19 is praiseworthy. This is the first such initiative by any Indian state and extends the Rs 1,850 crore economic relief package announced in two parts by the State Government earlier. Yediyurappa also announced a ‘Balaseva Scheme’ under which children who lost both parents will be eligible for monthly monetary support of Rs 3,500.
The government estimates that the scheme would benefit the families of 30,000 adults who died due to Covid-19. Other states would do well to take a cue from Karnataka.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
Women, worst hit during pandemic
The pandemic has translated to an economic crisis that has disproportionately affected the females of the country. A report says about 40% of the working women have lost their jobs after the lockdown was imposed in India. As the majority of the workforce is in the unorganised sector, these women were the worst hit. It has also been observed that only a meagre percentage of women who lost jobs have tried to make a comeback when the situation got near-normal.
Many women have turned homemakers, thus lockdown robbing them of independence and forcing them to be subservient to the 'sanskari' household. Chores done at home are regarded as 'gratuituous' as a token of their love towards their family. 2001 Census categorises homemakers into "non-workers" that also clubs them with "economically non-productive" domain. This is utterly unjust and biased!
Though the Govt of Goa has 'Griha Aadhar Scheme' to boost the morale and dignity of women, it is limited to those having a predetermined annual income. Does that mean, wealthy households value a woman's 'services' by paying them in currency? Or is it an assumption that the affluent class treats women as queens while the others make them desperate?
Raghav Gadgil, Khandola
Electrocution during the rains
Besides roads with pot-holes, falling branches of trees, land-slides, another danger that heavy rains pose and is mostly neglected is snapping of live electrical wires. A 64-year-old person from Benaulim reportedly died after he came in contact with a live electrical wire near his residence. With strong winds accompanying the rains, there is every possibility of snapping of live wires from the electricity poles along the roads.
It is a known fact that water is a good conductor of electricity. If these snapped live-wires land in a puddle full of rainwater, there is every possibility of an electric-shock to anyone who comes in contact with the water which at times could prove fatal. There have been incidents of stray cattle getting electrocuted after coming in contact with such water.
It would be advisable for the public not to touch any snapped electrical wire and to inform the local office of the electricity department of the same so that the power is shut down immediately. The best thing to do would be for the electricity authorities to shut down the power in the locality as soon as there is heavy rain accompanied by gusty winds in order to prevent any eventuality.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
The destructive patriarchal syndrome
The recent kidnapping of a male infant reported in the State has brought into sharp focus the deeply ingrained patriarchal fault lines that exist in Indian society. There is immense pressure on women to bear a male heir mainly for misplaced notions of carrying the family lineage forward.
The woman kidnapper in the aforementioned incident was the mother of four daughters and was constantly nagged by her in-laws to bear a son, exposing the vacuousness of Goan society; of what use is education, literacy and highest per capita income if we allow such abhorrent medieval habits to flourish.
Almost criminal coercive measures were brought upon to bear on this poor woman (victim actually) which led to her irrational decision of stealing a new born. This emotional abuse of women also leads to stress, anxiety, psychotic behaviour and other mental health issues. These male predominant narratives of boys taking forward the family's name or only sons lighting the funeral pyres of parents so that their souls attain nirvana has to be turned on its head.
Families need to take cognisance of the fact that girls today excel in and best the boys in every field of activity be it education, sports, science, engineering, aviation, adventure or artistic pursuits. Gender sensitisation via counselling and curriculum must be fostered right from the kindergarten level.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Where is subsidy on LPG cylinders?
Is the LPG cylinder of Rs 750, now costing Rs 833, cheaper? And delivered without subsidy during the period of May 2020 to May 2021?
People have not received any subsidy on LPG cylinders during last one and half year. Obviously, cooking gas is basic need of the people. However, government needs to be aware of this LPG subsidy which has disappeared from the Bank accounts of the people.
Till today government has not given any justification to the people as why the LPG subsidy has been removed? When I personally enquired with Hindustan Petroleum, it was informed that from May 2020 to May 2021 LPG cylinder rates were reduced and therefore no subsidy was sanctioned. What is the highest and the lowest cost of the LPG cylinder?
Rajesh Banaulikar, Arpora
