Azossim has no water
supply since last five days
I’d like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned, through your esteemed daily, to the water supply woes we are facing in our area since the last five days. I am a resident of Azossim village in Tiswadi taluka, and since the last five days, we have had no proper water supply to our houses in our area. In spite of bringing this issue to the notice of the local lineman, he has failed to act in this regard. Today, we complained to the lineman regarding the water leakage due to a fault in the pipeline in my area, to which the lineman says he will start the repair work only tomorrow due to unavailability of the parts required for repairs. During such previous water cuts, water supply has never been restored before three days.
Senon S De Souza, Azossim
More than e-buses, Goa needs ambulances
Several e-buses are proposed to be added to the existing fleet of e-buses in the State. It is a fact that the State-owned Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited (KTCL) is running short of buses. However, more buses running on diesel, can be introduced instead of e-buses, which are quite expensive. Be that as it may, what Goa needs urgently is an adequate number of ambulances to shift the road accidents victims and other patients.
It is pertinent to note that delay in shifting a pedestrian who met with an accident to the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, from South Goa District Hospital led to the death of a senior citizen. Shockingly, the accident victim was shifted by a 108 ambulance which arrived from Shiroda. When it comes to healthcare services, there are few things as critical as ambulance services. In times of medical emergencies, ambulance services play a pivotal role in saving lives by providing timely medical care and transportation to hospitals. Ambulance service should be available in remote villages in a quick time.
However, ambulances are not just vehicles that shift the patients. These have to provide primary emergency medical care. Hence, these ambulances need to be well equipped with latest medical equipment like defibrillator, blood pressure monitoring equipment, suction machine, pulse oximeter and oxygen delivery services combined with competent nurses to assist patients who are not physically and emotionally stable. There seems to be a wide gap between demand and supply as far as ambulance service in the State is concerned.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Ferry ramps in Goa
should be manned
I have noticed that our ferry ramps in Goa are unmanned, no gates, dangerously open to some fatal accidents. I request COP & River Navigation Department to install gates and CCTV, and deploy security personnel to man the gates round-the-clock.
The ramps at Betim and Panjim must have a queue system to strictly monitor vehicles and pedestrians getting in and out of the ferry boats. There’s a mad rush to get in and out of ferry boats especially during peak hours. I request the authority concerned to consider my views expressed here before a fatal accident takes place.
Benny Pereira, Guirim
Living in fear
No lesser person than President Droupadi Murmu laments perpetrators roam around freely, even after committing rapes/molestation and women who suffer from their crimes live in fear as if they have committed some crime!
Cattle still roam freely on roads/beaches and stray dogs attack sometimes with fatal consequences. People are scared of public traffic hazards/potholes that maim and kill, flooding in cities year after year during monsoons despite municipalities spending astronomical sums to clear drains and be monsoon ready! Now, political parties, especially the opposition, live in fear of enforcement and all other available agencies and means with draconian laws meant for terrorists applied to relentlessly bring them down, deny bail when due necessitating Supreme Court intervention! After more than a year behind bars, the AAP media in charge is released on bail. The average citizen/poor are afraid as courts are out of their means to get justice. These are all facts in our democracy. If it’s really nation first I feel the President, PM personally and those not living in fear must take the responsibility to urgently address these issues now (plenty of sanctimonious statements and orders on paper) and people must demand accountability so women and those not privileged do not have to confront these fears year after year and law and order and justice ‘be you how high or low’ prevails?
John Eric Gomes, Porvorim
Reality of rape in India
President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi need to understand that words expressing shock and consternation about cases of rape across India are not enough. They must be reading the national newspapers every day and will find a rape case listed everyday with the victim’s ages spanning from a few months to old women.
The Central Government’s position against Mamata Banerjee’s letter that existing laws are enough and that enough Fast Track & POCSO Courts have to be opened is not the solution to the problem. We should also stop politicising the rape issue which is a national problem. It is an issue in the mind of the rapists that needs to be corrected. Though speedy justice and its implementation may help in reducing rapes, but one feels that the sentences need to be more severe and maybe even the death penalty for rape of minors, which could act as a deterrent for rapists.
This has to be done on a war footing since otherwise we will have rape victims looking up at our faces and asking us - Is this what we deserve? Is this all that India can give us? The Nirbhaya case in 2012 was a wake-up call, but the somnolent slumber of our lawmakers does not seem to have been broken and day in day out we have rape cases dotting the country which we prefer to ignore until a brutal case of the rape and killing of the young woman doctor at R G Kar Medical College wakes us up to the reality.
Srinivas Kamat, Mysore
Save humans from ‘strays’
The harrowing incident of the death of a retired teacher in north Bengaluru when a spate of deadly stray dogs attacked her during her morning walk a few days ago, yet again prompts calls for authorities to address the country’s growing stray problem. In India, stray dog bites have gained attention ever since a four-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs in Amberpet, Hyderabad in February, last year.
Our Constitution says that every human and animal living in the country has the Right to Live. But, is it not a sin to put human lives in danger at the cost of dogs? The main reason behind the problem of stray dogs in India is open garbage. Reportedly there are 65 million stray dogs living in India, the most in the world. But reprehensibly, municipal bodies across the country have failed to control the population of these free-ranging dogs by way of implementing sterilisation programmes.
Therefore, the Central government has to view stray dog menace very seriously and come up with large-scale preventive measures to save human lives from these vagabond animals.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai