FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
Injustice to postal employees
I read in your newspaper of September 20, 2022 that seven Goan postal employees have been laid off in Ponda and replaced with staff from Maharashtra.
It is really shocking that so many postmen all over Goa are working in post offices on contract/daily basis for more than 16 years. They are thus denied all benefits, increments, pension, etc. This is sheer exploitation of the meek. Why have they not been absorbed as permanent employees?
It is high time Goa has a separate Postal Circle. We shouldn't be clubbed with the Maharashtra Circle any more. We are now a State and should have our own Postal Circle. The Post Offices in Goa are doing good business but they are understaffed and overburdened. There are many good schemes for the public offering attractive rates of interest but not enough staff to attend to the customers.
These are the issues our honourable Members of Parliament should take up. Then there will be employment for the locals and justice for the weaker section.
Jennifer Viegas, Navelim
Politics is become
a big business
The people are fed up and tired of having to listen and see personally the same faces of making promises from glib tongue and varied paper manifestoes to woo the voters.
Our rulers boast that India is a developed nation. Yes, and that we are seeing India on the lighter side shining with our beloved Prime Minister Modi's scheme and on the darker side India is burning in poverty, inflation and unemployment. The seeds sown in every election manifestoes has not taken root in the gardens of rural India.
Needless to say, that there is no free and fair election conducted in the country. Every election is fought with money, inducement and muscle power. The reasons may be many and those who got elected into panchayat, state legislative assemblies are of anti-social background.
Politics has become a big business of changing from one party to another. Crores of rupees are offered on political rumblings. Each political party displays its policies. But nobody wants reforms to put the Indian politics in the right direction.
Let us wait and see who will be able to deliver us the goal of progress.
Babluis Pereira, Pomburpa
Raju’s death has cast
a pall of gloom
The death of popular comedian Raju Srivastava, who believed in the adage “laughter is the best medicine”, has cast a pall of gloom. Raju had a cardiac arrest on August 10 while working out at a Delhi hotel and underwent an angioplasty procedure. He was on the ventilator for over a month and never regained consciousness.
The artiste featured in Hindi films such as “Tezaab”, “Maine Pyar Kiya”, and “Baazigar”, but it was the comedy show “The Great Indian Laughter Challenge” that made him a household name. He also had the uncanny ability to mimic everything from firecrackers to dogs. RIP.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
Goa needs to generate
more solar power
Goa will soon sign an agreement to purchase 50 MW solar power from the Arunachal Pradesh Power Corporation Pvt Ltd. The cost per unit would be Rs 5.10 from this November till October 31, 2026. The agreement is to meet the solar renewable purchase obligation (RPO) as proposed by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC). The JERC mandates that every State has to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources at a defined minimum percentage of the total consumption of all the consumers in each State annually. If the RPO is not implemented then the JERC will penalise the State for Rs.1 lakh per year and Rs.60,000 per day if the default is continued. The estimated cost for 50 MW is Rs.50.10 crore per year and for 2022-23 it will be Rs. 23.37 crore.
Considering the huge sums that to be shelled out and the present financial condition of Goa, the government needs to increase the solar power output by installing solar panels at government offices and establishments and encourage the private sectors to do so.
In June 2022, Tata Power Solar Systems installed India’s largest floating solar power project in the back-waters of Kerala to generate 101.6 MW. It is proposed and work is underway to set up similar photovoltaic cells in the water reservoirs and dams of Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
There are minor disadvantages in setting up floating solar power projects but these are overruled by the several advantages. This revolutionary idea does away with problems of land acquisitions, litigations, large-scale environmental concerns, cutting of trees etc. The maintenance cost is reduced since the water washes off the dirt from the photovoltaic panels and also cools them.
Given the fact that Goa has large tracts of hinterland water bodies (though on a lesser scale than Kerala) and five dams, the government should seriously consider using these sites for solar power projects. Doing so would help Goa to lessen its dependence on other States for its power usage, save its finances from purchasing from other States and may be in a position to sell to them.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Make Velsao
an eco beach
I read with great dismay that government officials and MLAs have descended on Velsao beach the last remaining pristine beaches in the Goa coast line. They must have felt the urge when they came to clean the beaches.
They want to make a parking lot and then will follow the cancerous decline, hordes of tourists, poor facilities, eating out of plastic bags, toileting around the beach, small temporary cold drink stalls overnight land encroachment and politician under hand dealing in the name of God and development overnight metamorphosing into food dabbas, clubs, dance bars drug dens and all night noise and all other pollution. And will not take as long as it took them to destroy Calangute as now they have learnt in the routine well.
Goans, I urge you to visit Velsao beach. Use public transport walk or cycle along the beach road, carry your food and drinks enjoy your day, carry back your waste and then please ask the govt to lock away for good any plans for development. Make Velsao Cansaulim an eco beach.
J K Barbosa, by email
Floods devastation dangerous
In September, floods wreaked havoc across three Indian cities. In Bengaluru, hefty rainfall during the first week of the month resulted in traffic bottlenecks, power outages, and flooded houses and offices that brought the Silicon Valley of India to a standstill.
Some days later, heavy overnight rainfall flooded different low lying areas.
Recent rains in the southern side of India and in Western India caused a lot of loss to human life and property.
Losses are unavoidable when there's very heavy rain. Swift rescue and relief alone are indicators of a good government.
These words are intended to normalise a human-made disaster, and gloss over the pathology of urban development under successive administrations. disaster was not just avoidable; it was a direct consequence of decisions pushed for by vested interests and conceded by town planners, bureaucrats and also by politicians.
C K Subramaniam,
Navi Mumbai
