FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
Skewed ordinance
The skewed ordinance issued by the Goa Government suddenly abolishing the 1988 House Building Advance (HBA) Scheme is most foul and a crude joke on the Government employees.
Acting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari should have applied his mind and analysed the repercussions before approving that ordinance which brings untold financial misery to government servants who have over the years availed of the scheme. The ordinance further very outrageously prevents the government employees from approaching the Courts on this issue. If Satya Pal Malik was still the Governor of Goa he would never have given his nod to such a draconian step.
The government employees were paying 2% interest on their home loan and the monthly instalment was computed in keeping with their monthly salary. Now suddenly by having to pay around 10% interest, the instalment would shoot up putting the financial lives of the government employees in a mess especially during the current stringent COVID-19 pandemic.
By this uncalled for and high-handed ordinance the government is to be solely blamed for the mental stress that is being inflicted on the government servants who to add to their misery are currently also not being paid their Dearness Allowance (DA).
Incidentally the Central Government was also planning to scrap their House Building Advance Scheme but the move has been kept on hold.
In view of the current pandemic and the troubled economic times, the Goa government could have stopped accepting new applications under the HBA scheme but should not have unsettled the current existing beneficiaries. Government’s austerity measures cannot be putting the lives of its employees in jeopardy. There should infact be a total embargo on needless grandiose projects. Crores cannot be squandered on pointless Memorials and Statues as it is public money down the drain.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
MV Act revised fines
We have an alarming number of traffic violations everyday reflected by the challans issued per day in Goa. This mirrors the casual mentality of citizens on roads of not following the rules enacted for their own safety. If levying hefty fines coupled with heavy punishments is seen by the government as deterrence to violation of traffic rules, then be it. The Government of Goa has already postponed the implementation of modified fines by months and had promised to do it in October 2020.
In the pretext of 'pandemic' the Goa government has again shirked the responsibility. The reason is purportedly 'due to pandemic, and people are already facing hardships'. But how is 'obeying traffic rules' related to 'hardships by the pandemic'? It is so simple "Obey traffic rules, be safe in the pandemic".
Raghav Gadgil, Khandola
Unruly behaviour in Parliament
It is the duty of the elected representatives of the Government to behave in a non-partisan manner so that the opposition parties as well as the people will have faith in them and their conduct.
The present Government led by PM Modi does not inspire much trust of the Opposition as well as the people as can be seen in the Parliament where the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is acting as a representative of the political party and not allowing time to enact legislation which can be detrimental to the farmers and common man. This in turn forces the Opposition leaders to come on the floor of the house to make themselves heard.
So who is responsible for the chaos in parliament; the Government or the Opposition?
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Leave it to the experts
The experts on all aspects of Covid are from Wuhan. They saw it first hand and overcame it. The WHO empanelled by expert scientists from across the world has been in touch with them and other experts across countries. The data gathered is researched and guidelines established for all to follow and benefit.
In the media address of August 3, the DG of WHO voiced world concerns. We want to see children returning to school and people returning to the workplace – but we want to see it done safely.
If countries are serious about opening up, they must be serious about suppressing transmission and saving lives. The more control countries have over the virus, the more they can open up. Opening up without having control is a recipe for disaster. It’s not one size fits all, it’s not all or nothing. Do we re-start schools just because students want to meet up with classmates? Are our cases going down? Is this a reason? We can innovate, yes. With online classes, students miss out on crucial vitamin D. After the first class at 8:15 am there must be a break of 15 minutes and students must be forced to go out in the sun. If not, we may soon see cases of rickets. India claims it has the second highest rate of cured patients. WHO even has a software to track patients. Many of the cured patients still have to use oxygen months after being cured.
Another study conducted by the Chongxing Shen and others published in the ‘International Journal of Infectious Disease put forward the Nocturnal Oxygen Therapy as an option for early Covid 19. The GMC Dean now admits their failure to save co-morbid patients and have come out with a ‘pouch’ used in UP! How does it save co-morbid people? WHO is the expert but we like to believe Indians are the smartest!
R Fernandes, Margao
Men of straw
The current situation of our State has really put me in a spot to seriously say that we and only we, each and every Goan is responsible for what is happening right now.
The Mollem meeting with the locals, panchayat members the local MLA, Power Minister and PWD Minister to discuss the negative impact on our environment is an example of uncivilized behaviour of the PWD minister Pauskar. The body language and aggressive reaction towards the public passes a very clear message that they are the law and we cannot talk against the harm that is planned to be caused to our environment and our lives.
My dear ‘Goemkaranno’, is this the calibre of leadership that we dreamed of where we are one the largest democracy to the world and in reality we cannot even discuss our views with the Leaders we have chosen? Are these the leaders we hoped would bring us the better days? I seriously think not, we have chosen men of straw to lead us only to be exploited and destroy what our ancestors saved for us.
The time to act is now or never, our forests are being destroyed in the name of development, what is the use of that development when our lungs will be craving for a fresh breath of air and life will gradually get eliminated?
Where UN has declared coal as poisonous and the major cause of destruction of the environment, our CM Pramod Sawant is welcoming monsters like Adani, Jindal to convert Goa into a massive coal hub, I don't need to emphasize more on the issue as rest is self-explanatory.
Now to get to the core of this write up let me start by saying are we doing anything about all this? No we are not and that is the reason I said we are the ones responsible for what is happening. It's never too late, get out there to protect our heritage and identity from these greedy vultures because it will be too late once the coal that will kill us comes to our Goem.
Let's do our part to save the environment and our heritage from getting eroded for the benefit of our children and our future generations.
Savio D'Costa, Chandor
