Declare Tiger Reserve at Mhadei
The Government of Goa is hosting a number of festivals and National Games 2023 and many other events by spending crores of taxpayers money. On the other hand the salaries of the MNREGA employees have not been paid for over one year. There is also news of the Goa Government desiring to rebuild temples allegedly destroyed during the Portuguese rule. The Goa Government has failed to notify Madhei forest as a Tiger Reserve.
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Goa is getting all spruced up to welcome PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate the National Games. Can the Prime Minister of India shed some light on the above issues and why we should vote for the double engine sarkar which has no difference?
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Reduce shack license fees due to delay
The tourist season in the state has already started. The first international chartered flight for the season 2023-24 arrived several days back. But the beach shacks which were to begin operations in September may start functioning around mid-November. The last date to apply for the beach shack licences ends on October 27.
The delay occurred due to resolving of certain issues with the Directorate of Tourism. It must be said that beach shack business is an integral part of Goa’s tourism. A lot of expenditure goes into setting up a beach shack. With the two and half month delay in starting the business this year, the operators will have lost much of the business. Since the operators have to pay a hefty license fee after the shacks are allotted, it would be in the fitness of things that this year the license fee be reduced as the operators will be getting fewer months to run the business.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Assembly elections will test INDIA’s mettle
The elections to the five states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will pose a huge challenge to the 28-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance(INDIA) because it is certain that the combine will go the whole hog against the BJP.
It goes without saying that the BJP’s eyes are firmly set on wresting Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress and retaining Madhya Pradesh though the odds seems to be stacked heavily against it. In Telangana, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is sitting pretty. Since the general elections are slated for April-May, performance of INDIA will be keenly watched. Besides, how well the constituent parties gel with each other will be a point of interest because the chances of the coalition outwitting the ruling NDA at the Centre largely depends on the unity of the constituent party leaders. Public perception plays a huge role in electoral politics; the INDIA leaders should display a sense of purpose in the assembly elections.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Bedi loved Indian classical music
I was extremely sad to hear about the demise of Bishen Singh Bedi. He was one of the greatest spinners of his time. A man who would call a spade a spade. He was extremely fond of music and especially Indian Classical. During a Test Match in Kanpur, my Late father invited the whole team for dinner at our residence.
The late Begum Akhtar a great Ghazal singer was there. The team listened to her till 10 pm and wanted to go back, but Bedi and Pataudi stayed back. They stayed back until the early hours. In the end, Begum Akhtar stopped as she had to go back to Lucknow. This was Bedi who could have stayed all night, as the following day was a rest day. Last time we met when he was leading Delhi Veterans team against UP veterans, who I was leading. It is a sad day for Indian Cricket. May his soul rest in peace.
Masood Halim, Ex Ranji captain, by email
Waste left behind after Volleyball event
The Goa government and sports fans are celebrating the successful holding of the volleyball tournament at Varca beach but lot of waste has been left behind post the event. Beer bottles, plastic glasses, cutlery and paper plates are scattered across the sands and the shoreline. Also diesel from the portable generators used for floodlighting is seen spilt at many places as also are loose wires and connectors left over from the music fest which was organised alongside the event. Food and beverage stalls set up at the venue have generated humongous amounts of trash which is inviting rodents and dogs. The agency appointed by the Goa Tourism Department for beach cleaning states that they were instructed by the event organisers not to clear the waste as it would require issuing of identity cards for disposal teams.
Similar situations are seen when film crews/advertising agencies from Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata do film shoots, in Goa and they sneak away leaving the panchayats/municipalities to deal with the mountains of garbage.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Give peace a chance
I have read with great interest a thought-provoking article ‘When Muslims and Jews collaborated to build Old Goa’, written by Prof Sushila Sawant Mendes in O Heraldo. She expresses, “If the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs ends and they both decide to live in peace in the Middle East, what will happen to the armament industry?” I have also had the same thoughts on my mind for a very long time. This is sure.
The giant arms industry does not want Israelis and Arabs to live in peace.
Lino Baptista Dourado – Utorda
The nation wants to know!
The Indian sources have come out with a very serious allegation that there are credible reasons to believe that Canada is complicit in the blowing up of Air India flight (AI-182) in 1989 in which 329 passengers were killed. They recalled there was complete failure to detect explosives at Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto airport ahead of bombing of AI 182 and accused that Ottawa refused to extradite Talwinder Singh Parmar, the brain behind this attack and also that Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat were under surveillance of the Canadian authorities, but the surveillance was removed a fortnight before the bombing.
All of them are very serious allegations against a sovereign state like Canada, once a very friendly nations which welcomed Indians in thousands.
It is more than 34 years now, since the tragic bombing of the aircraft. If the Indian government had credible evidence to the complicity of the Canadian government, one is at a loss to understand why none of the governments that ruled India in the past 34 years has initiated any serious action against the Canadian government and approached the international Court to seek justice?
Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai
