Team Herald
VASCO: Vasco locals have come together to condemn the discrimination, stigma which they face as residents of a town, which is a zone which has unfortunately seen a high number of cases and deaths
With regards to the CoVID19 infection and spike in the cases. Vascokars feel they are being neglected, fooled and ill-treated in this pandemic when most of the vital establishments which generate employment and revenue are located in the Vasco area. People feel the government needs to intervene and take this issue seriously to stop further division and discrimination of the Vasco people.
In yet another incident, an anti-coal activist from Maimollem-Vasco, Sanjay Redkar also faced similar humiliation from a well known private hospital nearby the Panjim area, where his father was initially denied a check-up by the doctors as Redkar and his family were from the Vasco-Maimollem area.
Redkar stated that his father had a heart attack three weeks ago was referred to a private hospital where he was initially admitted, given treatment and discharged. Three days later his father had a health issue and later when Redkar and his sister took his father to the same hospital, Redkar was made to stand far from the hospital counter.
What followed was worse. When the staff noticed that his address contained the words “Mangor Hill road”, it was enough for them to deny OPD treatment even though Redkar told the medical staff that they live in Maimollem, which is outside the containment zone.
Redkar did not flinch. He told the doctors that had an appointment and was recording a conversation with the hospital staff where people from the Vasco area are being denied treatment. Since this could become a big issue, the hospital staff attended to Redkar’s father immediately.
Vikram Sarmalkar, Goa Against Coal activist from Vasco came down heavily on the recent incident of discrimination against a Vasco person at GMC. Sarmalkar said, "If Vasco people are being treated as unwanted by the rest of the people then I feel entire Vasco should be totally shut. The MPT port, IOCL, Navy, Coast Guard, airport operations etc, should be closed for some days and only then the rest of the people will realise how important is Vasco for Goa.
Sarmalkar said, “This discrimination and denial of medical service in a Government Hospital is a clear cut Human Rights violation. I highly condemn such incident. Strict action needs to be taken against the doctor.”
One more social activist from Headland Sada, Xencor Polgi, has condemned the discrimination in clear words. Polgi in a video on social media has said that the State government has totally failed in tackling the CoVID 19 pandemic in Vasco area. The responsibility of this failure is on the Government and not on the people.
Polgi further pointed out that all the vital establishments, the port, seaport, railway station, airport, IOCL, etc, are located in Vasco. Goa's important commercial activities and revenue is generated from Vasco and Mormugao. “How fair is it to discriminate the people of Vasco on the basis of their region because of COVID-19 cases. One must understand that CoVID pandemic is worldwide and therefore such kind of discrimination should not happen".
Puja Patil, a college student also feels the same way. She said that any sort of discriminating behaviour by the medical officials or by any government officials is bad and unacceptable. It is surprising to see that we are facing this pandemic for quite a long time now, but enough awareness among people is still not being seen. I feel the government should focus on creating more awareness among the people and should take action against the one who is being discriminative of Vasco people.
Jayesh Shetgaonkar, Headland Sada local said, "Being a Health Minister of Goa Vishwajit Rane should take the responsibility of this incident and the doctor who has reportedly insulted the Vasco local should apologise that person and Mormugao taluka locals, as a doctor cannot deny medical treatment to the patient on his area of residence. I feel Vasco people should come together and unitedly condemn this incident".