Lifts in govt buildings need to be maintained
It is learnt that smoke coming out from one of the lifts of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) building in Panaji city created panic among its occupants on Friday.
Most of the staff working in the building reportedly used the stairway to run out to safety as the alarm bell rang. It is understood that some of the staff in the EDC building recalled that a similar incident was reported in 1997 wherein six persons got stranded for almost half-an-hour in the elevator when it developed a snag. They were later rescued by the fire personnel.
There have been several instances when the elevators in government buildings have developed technical snags and the lift with occupants stopping mid-way. As a result of this, the general public are put to great inconvenience.
Getting stuck in a lift can be a very scary experience. If there is a cardiac patient in the lift which has stopped mid-way the consequences can be disastrous. Elevators in government buildings need to be properly maintained by the company that has installed it. There needs to be a standby power generator for the elevator in case there is a power failure.
In case the lift stops midway due to a technical snag there needs to be a system by which the elevator can be mechanically moved by hand-operated device and the door opened so that the occupants of the lift can escape.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Should name change be a priority?
The current debate over calling our nation Bharat rather than India would buttress the argument made by Pakistani leaders in 1947 that India should be called either Hindustan or Bharat instead of India.
According to their argument, Pakistan and Hindustan, or Bharat, were the two “successor’ domains that resulted from the fall of the British Indian empire. India asserted that, according to international law, it was the successor state to British India, and Pakistan only seceded from India.
When the issue was ultimately determined in India’s favour, India preserved its international personality, including its membership in the United Nations (UN), while Pakistan, a newly formed state founded by secession, was forced to take action to establish its international identity, including applying for membership in the UN, which, incidentally, Afghanistan opposed.
By changing the country’s name to Bharat from India, it would be tantamount to caving in to the demand made by Pakistani leaders in 1947. Under these circumstances, should its change be a priority now?
K V Chandra Mouli, Mysuru
Politicians building castles in the air
The foundation stone for the multi level parking facility at the old fish market near the municipality building was laid way back in the year 2015, but due to bureaucratic hurdles and red tapism is yet to see the light of day but proposals are galore with one of them is to have a restaurant on the top proposed by the Margao MLA and ex CM.
Nitin Gadkari had also mooted the idea of having two revolving towers with restaurants on the new Zuari bridge.
Our netas are well known for building castles in the air without studying the ground realities of the roads and parking spaces. First of all, the road the leading to this facility is one way and narrow with no scope for widening. Finally motorists will start parking by the roadside creating a jam when the parking facility gets saturated.
The foundation stone which was laid with great pomp and fanfare is being decorated with bird droppings and stray dogs urinating on it.
Hopefully better sense prevails and this idea of having the restaurant on top or within the complex is shelved or confined to the dustbin.
Lucas D’Souza, Verna
IDS System saves lives of tuskers
The North East Frontier Railways installation of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) using AI introduced in 11 elephant corridors in its region has turned highly fruitful as trains colliding with the pachyderms has lessened after initiating this project some months ago. As the Northeast Frontier Railway is now getting ready to introduce it across the zone, it is high time the Indian Railways introduce this in the other rail zones too where elephant- train collision is very high. According to Government data, an average of 20 -25 elephants die due to train collisions in the country every year.
This hi-tech system powered by AI generates an alert to the train controller, station master, train drivers and other stakeholders when elephants step onto the tracks.
That is, the device, fitted in the OFC network, captures the vibration when an elephant comes on the track and sends out a real-time alert to the division control room from where alert signals are passed immediately to avoid collisions.
M Pradyu, Kannur
Cong unruffled by Karnataka alliance
Finally, the cat is out of the bag. BJP’s tallest leader in Karnataka B S Yediyurappa has confirmed the BJP-JD(S) alliance in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP party high command has agreed to give four out of the 28 seats to the JD(S).
In 2019, the BJP had contested on its own and bagged 25 seats, while the JD(S), that fought the election with the Congress, won only one seat. It is assumed that Hassan, where the JD(S) win last time will be allocated to the party whereas Tumakur, Kolar and Mandya, that have a considerable Vokkaliga population, the power base of the party, will be the other three.
For former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, this election is a question of survival because the party is on the verge of being decimated by Congress that has made significant inroads into the Vokkaliga votes through caste politics. For the BJP, every seat counts, and after being humiliated in the May assembly elections, the party appears to be in no mood to take chances.
Therefore, it is a win-win situation for both the parties. Although the Congress seems unruffled by the alliance going by the statements of its top state leaders, it should be doing a lot of homework to tackle the alliance because the coming together of the and JD(S) can influence the voting pattern in other constituencies too and may last long.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
