FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Saude Cardozo
We are on the brink of taking decisions to vote for the legislative assembly of our State. As I browsed myself to look for a party to vote, a few thoughts came to my mind about the time when the second wave of the pandemic swept our State. It was chaos all over. Everyone had someone or the other relative or self infected and about to be hospitalised. People going to hospital were more likely to get exposed to virus than at home. Hospitals capacity had exploded, shortage of oxygen, lack of care in hospitals.
It was said those days anyone lends up in govt hospital is dead person. Lack of oxygen led to illegal purchase of oxygen bottles by rich people whereas the poor were on the mercy of the few volunteers who risked their lives to help the needy. Some of the people, who got themselves involved in helping, were exposed to the virus themselves, some even lost their dear ones during this call of their selfless duty. At that time there was immense grudge among the people against the government that could not manage the situation. Such was the time when these politicians who are now canvassing for elections were nowhere to be seen. The selfless volunteers who once served the people are today forgotten.
One phrase was circulating on the social media stating, ‘The Health Care system of the State has collapsed’ and then someone had rightly counter phrased the statement ‘The health care system did not collapse, rather it was exposed.’
Goa being a tourist State and the politicians boasting about State having happiness index highest grading, still do not have the infrastructure to give a decent treatment to its citizens. The only Govt run Medical centre in the state the GMC, was gasping for oxygen. The oxygen supply was still having the age old storage of bottle system rather than bulk tank system. On top of this we could hear ghost running in the early hours of the day wherein the oxygen supply in the pipeline was fluctuating only for a reason that a truck trolley could not manoeuvre itself while connecting the oxygen bottles to the system. The sad part was that the govt was not ready to accept blame of the pathetic state of affairs and solely blaming its citizen for coming late to the hospital leading to deaths.
This election let our vote be the tool to decide over whether we want the exposed system to renovate or give it in the hands of the same guys who mishandled it. The choice is ours.
Like they always say, in Goa it’s more of ‘face’ politics rather than party politics. People look at face while voting rather than party, no matter whichever party the face goes. It’s high time we Goans give away this face politics and give rise to good governance party .Think before we vote, about the time when we had a thought in our mind “let these politicians come to our door we will show them.” I hope we Goans have not forgotten about it.
