Government should get its priorities right
As taxpayers money cannot be poured down the drain, any new project or proposal the Government plans to introduce should be well thought over and planned in keeping with the available infrastructure and feasibility. This is what should happen. The reality is different.
Over the last few years the Tourism Department amidst much euphoria introduced Hot air balloon, amphibian’s vehicle, helicopter ride, Hop on buses, Women taxis and other fantasies which all soon came a cropper. Those responsible for ushering in such projects should have been brought to book.
At Bambolim that very ill designed underpass near Goa Medical College is another casualty where the taxpayers have had to foot the bill. That the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) lacked technical experts is very evident as they have failed to work out that there would be flooding during the monsoon in absence of a proper drainage system and installation of hydraulic pumps. As a result the underpass turns into a swimming pool during the monsoons with neither the St Andre nor St Cruz MLAs having cared to speak out on the subject of this ill conceived underpass which is on the border of their assembly constituencies. Nobody knows why all those shops were built which have remained unused for years since the opening of that underpass.
The state of the roads across Goa also doesn’t seem to be the concern of the authorities. In the peak of this Tourism season, the roads across Anjuna and Vagator are very accident prone especially for two wheelers as driving on those potholed roads would land you in hospital with serious injuries. Driving along those roads makes you feel like passing through a mining zone with dust pollution galore. All this while those in Power are merrily snoozing and snoring in chauffeur driven vehicles.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Clean up Old Goa church approach
In preparation of the ensuing feast of St Francis Xavier the nine days Novenas are attended by huge number of people irrespective of caste and creed. The church precincts are beautifully decorated and peoples' hearts are prepared for the great feast of Goencho Saib by the clergy with numerous Masses and homilies delivered by various priests. All arrangements regarding the services, safety, security, etc. are well attended to.
But what is conspicuously lacking is the cleanliness outside the church premises. Huge amounts of garbage is daily gathering outside the gates and all the way to the vehicle parking area. Pilgrims have to wade through filth and dust to reach the church and back again to the vehicle parking area.
The Church authorities need to look into the aspect of cleanliness in all areas connected with the Church services. They need to liaise with the Panchayat for maintaining cleanliness all around. If no cooperation is received from them it should not be unaffordable for the Church administration to maintain cleanliness by placing sweepers throughout the day all the way to the parking area. There are huge number of tourists, local and foreign who visit the site and what impression these filthy surroundings leave on their minds should be our concern. After all cleanliness is also Godliness and this becomes a moral duty.
If the Sikh community, may God bless them, has been so magnanimous by offering their Langar service and offering refreshments to the pilgrims, our own Catholic community needs to do more to maintain the sanctity of the place in all aspects which includes clean surroundings. This is a clarion call to the Church authorities to look around on their own how shabby the whole Church approach appears and take immediate corrective measures.
Alwyn M D'Sa, Miramar
‘Langar’ at Old Goa
'Langar' is a Sikh's community kitchen. It is found at various Gurudwaras in India. They provide free meals/food to all who come to visit Gurudwara irrespective of caste, creed, class and gender. We see these community kitchens all over India.
From last Sunday (November 27) Sikh Community put up a 'Langar' at Old Goa where novenas and devotion of Saint Francis Xavier are going on these days. One of the members serving the food said that they have establish it to promote and enhance equality, brotherhood and oneness which is already prevalent in Goa.
It is heartening to see that a Sikh Community has gone beyond their region and religion and come to Goa to serve the pilgrims of St. Francis Xavier and other visitors at Old Goa. Earlier the same community rendered wonderful service in providing meals to many people during pandemic in Goa. One needs to appreciate and encourage such a venture as in reality it promotes oneness, equality, fraternity among people irrespective of caste, creed, class and gender.
Rui Pereira, Navelim
China zero tolerance
to Covid-19 ironical
It’s been a torrid two years and just over 11 months that countries around the world had to contend with the deadly Covid-19 pandemic with a wide range of variants that claimed totally 6.63 million lives worldwide and infected 64.2 crore people. Amongst the most affected were USA with 1.09 million deaths, Brazil with 6.89 lakh fatalities, Russia had 3.84 lakh casualties, India with 5.31 lakh succumbing to the virus and China only accounted for 5,232 deaths. However, with the advent of vaccines produced by several multinational companies as well as governments of countries, at present the disease is under control in most of the world. China was the first to report cases of Covid-19 and that country managed though a zero-tolerance strategy to rein in fatalities, but it is an irony of sorts that though the rest of the world did not resort very strict lock downs, still China two days back reported 40,000 cases of infection.
Under normal circumstances, the zero degree of tolerance should have resulted in complete eradication of the virus, but surprisingly China has now turned out to be the victim of the highest number of infections. Does this indicate that over emphasis on controlling the pandemic might not have been the right thing to do as is evident from the Chinese model? Will relaxation of lock downs reduce cases in China?
Elvidio Miranda, Panjim
Protect our women from male homicidal perverts
The Maharashtra Police pursuing the complaint filed by Shradha Walkar with the Vashi police in Nov 2020 against Poonawala which claimed that he was physical assaulting her and had threatened to kill and cut her into pieces, could have saved a young life curtailed so cruelly in its prime. Though Shradha had withdrawn the complaint later, the police could have still organised a joint meeting of the two and given both some sane advice from the experience of the police in such cases. This hopefully would have drilled some caution into Poonawala.
The problem with the police in our country is that they are overworked and they rarely look beyond what is obviously apparent. Going the extra mile is never done unless there is a pecuniary self interest involved. However, in such cases further enquiries should have been undertaken.
Hopefully, the woman police would go into the matter more exhaustively. This is of utmost necessity since on the heels of the Shradha Walkar killing we have had a series of horrifying murders of women and unless quick exemplary punishment is not given, we will continue to see our women getting killed in most brutal circumstances.
The Nirbhaya rape case and in its aftermath, has not seen the rape cases against women particularly north of the Narmada reduce, thus we need an attitudinal and cultural shift of mindset in our society of protecting our women from unbalanced and perverted men with homicidal tendencies.
Srinivas Kamat, Alto St Cruz