Shortage of wheelchairs at airports
It is reported that an 80-year-old man and his wife had arrived at Mumbai airport from New York on an Air India flight that landed in the afternoon. Due to a shortage, only one wheelchair was available, which was used by his wife while he preferred to walk instead of waiting in the aircraft for another wheelchair. After walking about 1.5 km to the immigration area, he had a heart attack and passed away. Perhaps this could be due to jet lag, several hours of travel and exhaustion after a long walk under the hot sun. The couple had pre-booked wheelchairs, but 32 passengers also required them while only 15 were available with accompanying staff.
To avoid such situations, the airlines could share their wheelchairs and staff, whenever there is an issue of demand and supply. Alternatively, if there is a shortage of wheelchairs and more passengers have requested for the facility a few wheelchairs could be enough used to bring out the passengers from the aircraft and transfer them into a separate bus. This would be a quicker way to transport the passengers and the staff also need not walk a long distance to the terminal building pushing the passengers in inclement weather.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Treat all Indian languages equally
It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999 that February 21, would be observed as International Mother Language Day every year. The date, February 21 was chosen to honour the language martyrs who were killed on the streets of Dhaka on that day in 1952 when they were demonstrating for the inclusion of Bangla as one of the national languages of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
It is interesting that there is a close connection with those two dates with the life of the Mother (Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator) as February 21 is her birthday (born Mirra Alfassa in Paris in 1878) and November 17 is the day on which she left her body in Pondicherry in 1973.
Sanction of the Divine Force must be behind all the languages of the world. We need to protect them for our own survival. According to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one language dies every 14 days as powerful groups impose their languages on speakers of less common languages. Disappearance of a language means a great loss of cultural and international heritage. It is a loss of a storehouse of information on tropical medicines and herbs available only in these languages. We are going to become almost like aliens from outer space in our own Mother Earth if we lose valuable knowledge about her treasures.
India should not follow the dangerous path of one nation, one language which broke down Pakistan into two countries. The Centre must treat all Indian languages equally and refrain from imposing Hindi on the speakers of regional languages.
Sujit De, Kolkata
Protect businesses of Anjuna locals
The Anjuna-Vagator coastline is a popular tourist destination where thousands of local and foreign tourists visit every day. Several Goans, have over the years, put up shops and business establishments to cater to the needs of the tourists. But now their business activities appear to be in jeopardy. Locals in the popular tourist villages of Anjuna and Vagator closed all their businesses on Monday and held a rally to protest the government’s decision to seal 175 businesses in response to a High Court order which are purportedly under the ‘No Development Zone’. The locals claimed that the State government’s inability to complete the Coastal Zone Management Plan is hurting the local economy. The Bombay High Court at Goa had recently sealed 175 establishments, including hotels, restaurants, and retail stores, on the grounds that they were unlawful.
This will have a cascading effect. Certain establishments were in existence prior to the implementation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ). It is learnt that though the Central notification does not allow business in CRZ, however the State government can allow it by passing a notification or by declaring Anjuna village as CRZ II. Goa’s revenue is mostly dependent on tourism and it also provides an opportunity for the locals to eke a living through various business activities. The Goa government needs to take necessary steps to safeguard the interest of the locals.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Bad roads, stray cattle main cause of accidents
Bad roads and stray cattle are the main cause of accidents on Goan roads. Ironically, neither the PWD nor those responsible for leaving their cattle herd straying on the roads will take it seriously to take measures to make our roads safe and free for vehicular traffic. The sad news of the untimely death of Basilica Sacristan, Ashburn Lyndon Pereira, in Sao Pedro accident made distressed reading this morning. Is this all we have to do feel sad and then forget the deceased? We must demand responsibility from the PWD and the cattle owners that our roads are built to international standards and take the straying cattle owners to task that they not allow the cattle to stray for any reason respecting human life to be more valuable than cattle worship.
Ayres Sequeira, Salvador do Mundo
Protect, promote all languages
Mother tongue remains the most basic identity of an individual or a community. If it does not get its due place under the sun, then the community which speaks it is bound to meet its doom. This is primarily the reason behind UNESCO’s decision of designating February 21 ( a red-letter day of Bengalis fighting against Urdu imperialists in erstwhile East Pakistan) as International Mother Language Day, thereby stressing the importance of mother tongue in one’s life. Just as a child cannot be detached from his/her mother, similarly it would be nothing but a crime if any community gets robbed of its mother tongue just because it does not enjoy any political-economic-numerical-muscular advantage, strength, clout and influence.
In 2010, the last speaker of Aka-Bo language passed away in Great Andaman along with the tradition and culture associated with the language. She was named Boa Sr and this speaker of one of the world’s oldest languages met her end on Republic Day(January 26) which is certainly not a very good advertisement of the Indian Republic — constitutionally based on the noble concept of democracy i.e. equality of all!
However, there lies no utility in crying over spilt milk. But if we try to regard ourselves as civilised, then we should definitely ensure that such scandalous history of literally fatal indifference to marginalised language and its speakers does not get repeated in future. Protection and promotion of each and every language of India should be the urgent need of the hour. So the Union Government should see to it that all funds related to promotion of languages do not get usurped by Hindi only. After all, the right of any other language (be it scheduled or non-scheduled) in India is not a bit lesser than Hindi. Thus if an equitable distribution of Central resources is ensured, it would benefit the cause of all languages and
dialects(specially the endangered ones) of the country to a great extent.
Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata
