Church should back demand for Old Goa master plan
Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte on Tuesday said that the proposed Amenity Facilitation Centre at Old Goa is not a mall or a commercial project and that the work will not proceed until the ASI grants clearance and Church authorities approve of it. This is probably the most appropriate time for the Church to demand a Master Plan from the government to be put in place before any activities are carried out at this sacred place.
There is a lot of confusion regarding the proposed project. It appears that the government is shifting the responsibility regarding permission for the project and issuing of No Objection Certificates (NOCs). There could be several illegal constructions coming up within the protected area. The citizens need to be vigilant. There is the illegal bungalow built by a national politician which has attracted the wrath of the people. The Save Old Goa Action Committee (SOGAC) has reportedly stood firm on its demand for a comprehensive Master Plan for the Old Goa world heritage site and also pressed for the return of the material that has been carted off from the excavated site last week which appears more like a daylight robbery. Our heritage sites need to be conserved. No construction activities of any sort should be allowed within the protected site. Citizens cannot come out on the streets every time an illegal construction comes up. A Master Plan for the heritage zone will bring all such illegal activities to a halt.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
What's happening in Goa?
Is our golden Goa still the Rome of the East? Absolutely no. There is no law and order in the State with too much interference from politicians in the functioning of the police.
The Siddhi Naik’s case is in cold storage. Houses of Goans are being demolished with the help of bouncers. Hills, fields, forests, sand dunes, khazans etc are being blindly sold out to outsiders for a price.
Doctors are molesting not only young girls but young boys as well, police constables helping prisoners run away, professors are robbing question papers, excise inspectors smuggling liquor from Goa to Karnataka, some teachers are beating students mercilessly, murders on the rise,
holy places are being shifted without proper protocol, activists are being arrested, beef being exported to Iran and jobs sold for cash are some glaring examples of crime and corruption haunting the State.
Goans are puzzled not knowing what exactly is happening around.
Natividade Fernandes, Cavelossim
Road to 10 bn: World
population projections
Scientists have recently predicted that by 2050, world population may cross the 10-billion mark and frighteningly enough the world will face severe shortage of food.
They have also predicted that in the next 27 years, the demand for food will have increased by 70 percent.
In such a scary foreboding scenario, the United Nations Environment Programme’s The Food Waste Index Report 2024 says that in 2022, the world has wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food, and that India ranks among the top contributors to this global issue.
There must also be coordination among food supply chain actors – farmers, handlers, processors and traders in collaboration with the public and private sectors and the civil society to prevent food wastage.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
Political dominance
and rising intolerance
That Indians are peculiarly thin-skinned has been proved on a number of occasions. But the dubious honour of possessing the prickliest of skins must go to the Indian politician. Politicians love humour when they are holding the mike in hand. However, when somebody cracks jokes on them, they pull out the defamation lawsuits, threatening to take legal action. The violent reaction to comedian Kunal Kamra’s humorous remarks about Maharashtra Dy CM Eknath Shinde is not merely a sign of rising intolerance, it also highlights how such intolerance can escalate beyond police cases into acts of vandalism and open intimidation, aimed at asserting political dominance.
It is an alarming situation where the State acts arbitrarily and sends bulldozers to level a location where a joke was made and the man who delivered the lines is chased, harassed and persecuted. The invocation of ‘hurt sentiments’ to justify violent loyalty has gone too far and these claims are being used to legitimise mob attacks, undermining the free and open space essential for democratic discourse.
Gregory Fernandes,
Mumbai