17 Jun 2019 | 06:07am IST
Letters to the editor
A few days back a Goa-Mumbai Air India flight was stranded for logistics reasons and a MGP leader phoned to the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant who immediately intervened and the flight took off amidst great fanfare in which the stranded passengers profusely thanked the Chief Minister for his immediate intervention. This was a good deed done by the Chief Minister.
However, the Chief Minister does not do anything to ensure that commuters travelling by bus reach their destinations on time. Thousands of bus passengers all over Goa are delayed and have to reach their offices late as private buses in particular as also Kadamba bus services do not keep their appointed timings. The CM should immediately intervene and set this anomaly to rest.
Also recently the CM while on his entourage tour along the Mandovi noticed a man throwing flowers after completion of his pooja and he stopped and asked him not to pollute the river Mandovi. However, the CM has never acted on the fact that the six off-shore casinos have been polluting the river Mandovi with discharge of garbage and sewage that has led to the Mandovi becoming starkly toxic.
The CM should ensure that the six off-shore casinos are immediately shifted out to sea or brought on land as this is a measure long overdue. Also keeping a round-the-clock track to observe any sewage or dirt thrown by casino staff/passengers on the river Mandovi will be a difficult task.
The God of Small Things should keep his eyes wide open to those who are being discriminated against and set things right. Double standards are morally demeaning and in the long run and will hurt. Probity in public life should benefit everyone, big and small.
Doctors are in the news for all the wrong reasons. The "Kolkata brutality" heaped upon doctors was condemnable and unnecessary. Doctors are no Gods; on the same lines not all doctors are benevolent. There are black sheep, as in every profession, in the doctors' community too. Similar to professions termed "noble”, medical profession has certainly ceased to be a virtuous one. Money-mindedness, selfishness and rudeness have become unfortunate pars of the health field. However, if there is one section of professionals, who people trust to a large extent, they are doctors.
The danger lies in the fact that the sanguine layers of the society may be swayed by emotions, and follow in the footsteps of the unscrupulous. The problem stems, intriguingly, from the advancements made in medicine. Today's medicine is no longer the primitive one where major illnesses were left undiagnosed much to the patient's detriment.
Doctors need time while the patient's kin are impatient. They want instant results leading to heartburn. There is, sadly, no correct communication between the doctors and the patients' relatives. What can be conveyed in two sentences is often missed due to the busy schedule of doctors, lack of understanding of visibly perturbed relatives, and the tendency of senior doctors to burden their juniors with all the work in the world. Overworked doctors may tick off the patients' attenders. Blood runs in the bodies of the human beings, not water. So, fracas breaks out on and off. Governments have taken the doctors for granted because authorities believe white collared community is incapable of striking work for a long time. The "essential services" shield is often used by the governments to browbeat the doctors.
Citizens often complain of the nuisance caused by stray dogs and the danger they pose. It must be said that pet dogs also form a major part of the dog population. Many households have one or more dogs. In the past it was mandatory for the owners of pet dogs to register the pet with the civic body by paying a nominal fee. A metal badge would then be provided with the dog licence number on it which had to be displayed on the collar of the pet dog at all time. However, it seems that now this step is not followed by the civic bodies.
In this context it is reassuring to note that soon residents of Mapusa will have to pay tax of Rs 100 per annum to the municipality for keeping a pet dog/dogs in their house.
Incidentally there is direction from the Director of Municipal Administration to all municipalities to do likewise. Owners of pet dogs also need to maintain a record of the immunisation programme of their pet dogs which needs to be disclosed at the time of paying the tax. They also need to make it a point not to take the pet on the pavement for it to answer nature’s call as it dirties the surrounding. Pet dogs need to be let out in the owner’s backyard to answer nature’s call.
