Remembrance of attack on Parliament
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a grand remembrance day of Pakistan attack on our Parliament, with everyone from the President to all the big wigs in the BJP in attendance paying homage to the heroes and martyrs on that day.
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Irony of ironies, the security of our sitting Parliament was breached on that very day and luckily it was amateurish and there were no casualties! However this is a very serious matter showing intelligence failure, stringent security breach and the person spraying gas from a canister smuggled in undetected by the elaborate high security supposed to be in place could have had dangerous consequences! The Opposition has rightly called for a detailed transparent investigation and the TMC seeks expulsion of BJP Karnataka MP Pratap Simha for putting the entire Parliament at risk by issuing a visitors pass to the intruders drawing a parallel with the hasty expelling of Mahua Moitra from the House without due process and proper investigation with brute force majority and entire Opposition walkout! Interesting to see how the investigation goes and equitable justice will be meted out.
John Eric Gomes, Porvorim
Heart-breaking to read about fatal accidents
This has reference to the report “We did not raise our daughter to be killed due to someone’s rash and negligent driving” (Herald December 14, 2023).
It is always heart-breaking to read of such incidents where lives are lost due to the negligence and careless attitude of others. This recent accident which killed a young girl is yet another instance. The culprit should be brought to book but of course, it is not going to bring the dead back to life.
The words uttered by the girl’s father still ring in my ears – ‘we did not raise our daughter to be killed due to someone’s rash and negligent driving’. These words should resonate across each and every one of us. People need to understand that every life out there is precious, that he or she is someone’s daughter or a son. The same applies to the authorities as well, when somebody gets killed due to the collapse of a bridge or other infrastructure or motorists getting killed on account of potholes. We all need to accept responsibility for our actions.
Melville X. D’Souza, Mumbai
Make EC fair and transparent
Over the last years, the Election Commission of India has faced multiple accusations regarding its independence and impartiality in electoral governance and the process of appointment of its members. The existing system of appointment of the Election Commissioners is based on the Executive considering a panel of candidates and selecting one considered acceptable from its point of view, for approval by the President of India. The Election Commission of India has a pivotal role to play in maintaining India as a true democracy. Recent, the Apex Court had directed the Central government to consider introducing a more transparent system of appointment of the Election Commissioners to maintain the neutrality and independence of the office of the Election Commission to hold free and fair elections.
The Election Commission should be outside the control of the executive government. Deficiencies in the present system of appointment of Election Commissioners needs to be removed and adequate safeguards must be put into place to ensure that ethical and capable people head the concerned positions. The spirit of the Apex court verdict has to maintain the Election Commission as an independent mechanism as it deals with the democratic process of the country.
K G Vilop, Chorao
Pension for poor parents of fatal accident victims
Expressing concern over the number of accidents taking place in the State, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday reportedly said that Goa has become the accident capital of the country. It is true that the number of road accidents have increased drastically in the past several months and many of them have resulted in fatality. There could be several reasons why road accidents take place at such a disturbing frequency in the state. In several of the cases like over-speeding, drunken driving, not following traffic rules, not wearing the helmet or seat-belt, reckless driving and the like, the driver/rider of the vehicle must be considered to be at fault.
But it needs to be noted that accidents, many of them fatal, also happen which can be attributed to poor road conditions. This could be due to roads with pot-holes, bad road-engineering, poor street-lighting, non-functioning traffic signals, stray cattle on the roads, etc. for which the government is partly responsible.
Many fatalities that take place due to road accidents could involve the lone bread earner in the family. The poor and aged parents may have no one to take care of their needs if their only bread-earner dies in a road accident. It would be in the fitness of things for the government to introduce a lifetime pension scheme for the old and poor parents who have lost their only bread earner in a road accident.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Stop digging of roads during festive season
The government departments seem to like doing things at the wrong time. It is known to all that mid-December to mid-January is the peak time when tourists come to Goa not only because of pleasant weather but also because of Christmas and new year festivals, Sunburn and other shows, funky and nye fests.
Disregarding this fact, a government department has started digging the roads in Mapusa city and diverted the traffic to a roundabout route. As it is, some roads in the city which were dug up several months ago, have not been asphalted so for but just filled with mud and rubble due to which motorists, scooterists and pedestrians have a tough time. Add to this, the scores of tourists who come to Goa to make merry and their crazy driving and zooming, any way and anyhow, and you can imagine the hell of a situation we are facing. People do understand and bear temporary inconvenience when roads are dug up for repairs and maintenance but to expect them to accept such situation as normal for months together is simply not tolerable.
Will the Minister concerned therefore get the work completed soon and restore normalcy on the city roads so that people can move safely and live a normal life?
Rodney de Souza, Assagao
