FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Jose Maria Miranda
The Covid situation in Goa is extremely grave and alarming and perhaps we need to discuss what can be done now rather than what ought to have been done.
True that this level of unpreparedness is unforgivable, but let us see what can still be done to undo a situation that has surely gone out of control. For this, firstly the CM should be prepared to listen to the voices of reason. These come primarily from the doctors who are the frontline workers and face the reality day and night. They are overworked, desperate to save lives, which they cannot with the limited availability of resources. Sad, that against their conscience, helpless that they are, they need sometimes to prioritize who to save.
Granted that the CM cannot, perhaps, provide assistance by way of additional doctors or nurses but he can surely respond to their call for a complete lockdown. The AIIMS Director too has called for a countrywide lockdown. Our own Health Minister has also asked for it. Many States have done it and brought down the numbers. Our Panchayats and Municipalities have shown more sense in calling for lockdowns and many have voluntarily downed their shutters to break the chain. But our CM is unhappy about it. Surely, he has other priorities.
Perhaps he is under pressure from some hotels or film industries shooting presently in Goa and accommodated in some expensive hotels. All these have enough to dish out at the right time. His Health Minister too, who is now shown in poor light, also has no guts to revolt and quit. He too has much to answer, but let us leave that for later.
The CM ought to have also closed the borders, but has not even imposed negative test reports for those entering the State, which now the High Court has directed to be imposed. Travelers from Goa needed it, in some States, even before this spike.
These steps could have helped in breaking the chain, reduce the numbers, lessened the pressure on hospitals and diminished the panic among the people. Even with numbers galloping, the CM continues to be adamant and our poor people are paying with their lives. The pain and grief in families losing their near and dear ones, sometimes sole breadwinners, and a pall of gloom descending all over Goa, this carnage lying on the head of our CM, will hopefully never be forgotten or forgiven by the people, but meanwhile we are losing dozens of our brothers and sisters. If this horrific scenario does not touch his conscience, I don’t know what will and we surely know the type of man we have at the helm of affairs.
However, what also appalls me is the indifference of our Ministers and BJP MLAs to this grim situation. I ask these ladies and gentlemen: If you have some spine warn your boss or resign. If you do not put your foot down, rest assured that the people of Goa will never forgive your insensitivity to this unprecedented calamity, where a great part of the blame lies at the doors of your Government and which should pierce your conscience, if you have one…
