Determine carrying
capacity of locality
A mass protest by Goans against mega projects is scheduled to be held outside the Town and Country Planning (TCP) office at Patto in Panaji today. It won’t be wrong to say that there has been a sort of “people’s uprising” against mega projects.
There is the Bhutani project in Sancoale village, the DLF project at Reis Magos, the Lodha projects at various locations, to name a few. Massive hill-cutting is underway allegedly without necessary permissions.
Former Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu recently stressed the importance of determining Goa's carrying capacity to identify where development is appropriate. Carrying capacity is at best defined as the maximum number of people that can be supported by the environment of a particular area through optimum utilization of the available resources. Carrying capacity based approach to planning is a concept towards sustainable development.
This is important in the wake of severe environmental degradation of water and land. Water supply, sanitation, power requirement, health and educational facilities, security, waste management, waste water discharge, solid waste disposal are the aspects to be looked into while determining the carrying capacity of a particular locality. However in Goa, it appears that mega projects are being sanctioned without giving a thought to the carrying capacity of the locality. This has resulted in protests by Goans across the state. This anomaly needs to be rectified otherwise the local population will be the ultimate sufferers due to stress on the various infrastructures and change in demography.
Adelmo Fernandes,
Vasco
Furlough for convicts
totally unjustified
Rape-murder convict Ram Rahim has again applied for 20 days parole less than a month after he returned to Rohtak jail ostensibly to oversee some works at his UP Ashram. It is not surprising to know that so far he has been out of jail 10 times on furlough and each of his release dates has coincided with either state polls, bypolls, Parliamentary polls or panchayat polls.
It is as clear as the day that the BJP is using him to deliver votes of his followers whose number runs into crores. Many from the saffron party including the Haryana ex-CM continue to hob nob with Ram Rahim, the criminal-neta nexus is a well known fact of Indian politics but this brazen relationship of the ruling party with a heinous criminal for ensuring poll victories is truly shocking.
Tens of thousands of undertrials are rotting in jail sans legal recourse or judicial hearings but a rapist traipses in and out of prison at will. To top it all, everytime he is granted furlough, he is escorted out in a 20 car cavalcade from the jail premises by his acolytes with the blessings of the jail authorities.
The Indian Penal Code should be amended so that once a person is convicted of murder or rape he should not be let out of prison for a certain minimum stipulated time. The saffron party's feting of rapists on their release from jail in the Bilkis Bano case recently also comes to mind. It is thanks to the Supreme Court that the criminals are back behind bars. Of what use is the law if criminals call the shots and can walk in and out of jails at will. Shame!!
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Give jobs to
youth on merit
The quality and relevance of education is often considered to be the root cause of youth unemployment. Yet, high education and merit students does not guarantee a decent job in Goa. Merit and genuine youths are deprived of opportunities and jobs due to plenty of reasons. People say that jobs are being sold to undeserved candidates.
But the government failed to address the rising unemployment rate in the state, which is highest compared to the national average as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey. Last year, NITI Aayog, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, exposed in its report that the unemployment rate in Goa was highest in the country.
Although many politicians make promises of the employment to Goan youth, the fact remains that youth are still unemployed. In the past, Opposition parties have levelled allegations of cash-for-job scams and other cases. This shows that the government jobs for meritorious and deserving candidates are being snatched. The youngsters are pushing for fairness in the allocation of government job positions.
They may have been well-connected to the local politician and were therefore being rewarded for their loyalty with these coveted placements. But government should transform the jobs into merit without any bias in order to safeguard the youth’s self-respect. It is a high time the educated and unemployed youths lot realises that better people, when elected, can reduce the level of such malpractices in the system.
K G Vilop, Chorao
Law and order
and accountability
We are a democracy of, by and for some people if we cannot demand accountability and we are responsible if the politician-bureaucrat-criminal nexus operates with impunity. There are so many pothole deaths, people falling into manholes, accidents, flooding due blocked drainage, criminal activities like land grab etc. and no authority can be held accountable/responsible and punished! At the most some compensation is paid. Vital police reforms are not forthcoming. Robberies, crimes, gangs from other states operate freely.
In our colony, there have been around 20 thefts reported and not one of them has items stolen returned or culprits caught! There are bouncers and vigilantes operating with state patronage. It is the duty of the state to maintain law and order and many a time permission is not given on the excuse fearing law and order problem!
Recently permission for Julus (procession) was denied to Muslims on EID due objection from a Hindu outfit. Movies passed by relevant authorities as per law are prevented from screening due someone’s sentiment hurt, food stalls have to display owners name in some states and so on!
The medical students are reportedly going back on strike as the government has failed to keep up to its word. It is high time, we the people demand responsibility and accountability and not have to depend on hard pressed NGOs and overburdened courts? Alone we are powerless, but with unity for justice, we can prevail!
John Eric Gomes,
Porvorim