Politicians should clean dirty villages, cities
It is amazing to see how our politicians
right from the PM to the lowest panchayat level have suddenly got into the
fervour of temple cleaning and other dramatic acts when there are many places
in our villages and cities which are infested with rodents and full of garbage and filth. Temples, Mosques,
Churches, Gurudwaras and other religious places exist all round the year and we
don’t need politicians to pick up the broom only on one day of the year for a
photo op as rightly pointed out by the people of Ponda.
We
must learn to respect all religions equally and not be blinded to the suffering
of the people who have to even face death on the bad roads which the
politicians cannot see.
Matias Lobo, Tivim
New ‘Hit and Run’ Bill seems harsh
It is learnt that a delegation of
activists staged a protest in Goa against the recent ‘Hit-and-Run’ Bill passed by the Indian government and called
for a rollback. As per the new Bill, if any driver causes the death of a person
by rash and negligent driving and flees from the spot without reporting the
accident to the authorities, he could be jailed for up to 10
years and fined Rs seven lakhs.
Earlier
the jail term for such hit-and-run cases was 2 years under the India Penal
Code. Truck drivers and bus operators across the country took to streets to
protest against the Bill, which they termed as ‘draconian’. Incidentally the
Bill does not differentiate between accidents caused by drivers of a luxury car
or SUV and those caused by truck drivers. These truck drivers are daily wagers
and drive for their livelihood and imposing such harsh punishment does not seem
proper.
According to experts, there is absolute apathy from
the government’s side in terms of providing the necessary infrastructure to
handle an emergency and road crash. Installing vehicle telematics systems in
trucks is crucial to protect drivers from being unjustly blamed in accidents. A
dashboard camera can provide invaluable evidence in case of accidents,
disputes, or other unexpected situations. According to experts if the law comes
into force, then it will be important to have such a mechanism to safeguard the
drivers in these situations.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Political drama has to stop
This has reference to the report ‘Stop
doing drama over temple cleaning; Ponda residents tell politicians’ (Herald, 20
January).
People are frustrated as our beautiful State
stinks of garbage, beautiful beaches are littered with alcohol broken bottles
and rubbish, our villages are turning into concrete jungles and the sewage pipelines
are released in lakes or in fields. Crime rate and accidents keep soaring by
the day leaving one to wonder and whether this is real development.
Our politicians instead of working for the
welfare of the people are cleaning temples which are always clean.
And this is the reason our Ponda brothers and sisters have raised their voices.
My humble request to our politicians is to
work for the welfare of masses and help keep our Goa clean.
Anita Fernandes, Verna
Rinku’s exceptional talent lauded
It is heart warming to see talented
batsman Rinku Singh coming good on international platform in the limited overs
format particularly T20. Past and
present cricket greats have lauded young Rinku’s exceptional talent, perseverance and presence of mind. Indian captain
Rohit Sharma, coach Rahul Dravid and spin ace R Ashwin have sung paean of
praise for the 26-year-old. Ashwin has gone to the extent of calling him “
left–handed Dhoni” though he clarified that it is still early days for Rinku
to be compared with the former Indian captain. However, it cannot be
forgotten that Rinku has modelled his game on the inimitable Dhoni.
He appears
unruffled on the field, seems to have a good head on his shoulders and runs
like a hare between the wickets. By the
look of things, similar to his idol Dhoni, Rinku is a through and through team
man. He has earned his praise by doing
exceptionally well in recent times. Rinku’s bat did the talking both against
Australia and Afghanistan in the T20s. The left hander didn’t perform badly at
all on South African pitches in the recent away series. By all accounts, he
seems destined to play in the Indian T20 team for a long time. At this rate,
the day may not be far away when Rinku earns the sobriquet “ left– handed Dhoni”.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Cong trying to score browny points
It is really surprising that the
Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharghe, has expressed that his party does
oppose the idea of simultaneous elections and also the setting up of the
Committee headed by former President, Ram Nath Kovind.
As a common man, who is paying income tax without fail and
which is being used to conduct periodical elections and the salaries of elected
representatives, definitely we wish to reduce the expenses of crores of rupees,
incurred for conduct of elections after elections in the country. If at all the
Congress President feels that this idea is undemocratic, he and the INDIA bloc
leaders should have approached the Supreme Court to stall the formation of the
Committee and not after four months, when the Committee is ready to submit its
report. We feel the proposal of “One
Nation, One Election” is not detrimental to India’s federalism. We feel, this
is nothing but another gimmick of Congress
Party to gain some political mileage and confuse the common man.
N Viswanathan, Coimbatore
Politicians should be open to criticism
The political environment in the
country needs to be corrected as looks like from recent happenings in politics,
it has vitiated from ethics and social graces. One point of winning elections
has disrupted the peaceful environment and morality in the country. We need to
take stock of areas where our politics is dysfunctional. All our programmes and
economic development will get diluted if there is lack of social harmony.
I agree with Mani Shankar views that demonstration and not
discussions is the only way to power. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Rajya
Sabha Chairperson looks to be partisan as a look at the recent proceedings of
the Parliament and reluctant to listen to the opposition voices is not a good
sign of healthy democracy values. If the Prime minister and Home minister
cannot take criticism with democratic spirit, then the saffron party should
learn from Atal Bihari Vajpayee , who was open to opposition criticism and
answered them with poetries as he was poet par excellence and also was liberal
at heart, Vajpayee could soften or harden his Hindutva to suit his politics.
Diomedes Pereira, Corlim
Determine cause of cheetah deaths
The spate of cheetah deaths at the
Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh is unsettling. Another cheetah died at the
park on Tuesday, bringing the total number of fatalities to ten. The
authorities will determine the reason for the death through a post-mortem
examination and various tests. After the most recent loss, only sixteen big
cats, including thirteen adults and three cubs, are left in the park.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
