Faulty Coal
Wagon covers!
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Whilst waiting in my car at railway crossings, I happened to wither trains passing within wagons filled with coal!
Quite a few of these wagons have the covers torn/ loosely fitted with clear exposure to the open environment! It’s a no brainer to understand how much coal is littered into the air and surrounding environment; at the high speeds the trains move!
The negative impact on environment, ecosystems, people, animals, birds, reptiles etc is just so criminal!
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and particularly Environment Minister Aleixo Sequiera are trying their best to assure Goans on the reduction of coal pollution via the improved coal containment hubs at Mormugao (which also I am not convinced about) but coming to my subject; what about all these faulty coal wagons?
Arwin Mesquita, Colva
Hopes and dreams
of Wayanad
The jubilant Sonia Gandhi family will be celebrating the astounding victory of Priyanka Vadra at Wayanad with the record margin of more than four lakh votes in the recently held by-poll.
The sojourn to Wayanad by her for the election campaign with her brother Rahul Gandhi supported her victory by his vacant seat. Congress shouldn’t forget the promise given by them to the homeless Wayanad victims’ family during the disaster a few months back to help them by constructing one hundred houses.
Now that its voters turn to wait for Priyanka Vadra’s next visit to her constituency. It reminds me of those days when sons from the villages joined the army and their parents received letters and poured out their emotions as if their son had arrived.
When will Priyanka’s next visit to Wayand be the questions? There will always be a summer after the winter and so is the case of Priyanka for the people of Wayanad by living in hope and distant dreams. One has to wait and see how the debutant at Parliament can prove to be worth the material to deliver her promises for the large voters of Wayanad in the months to come.
There’s no substitute to visiting one’s consistency rather than operating through remote.
A P Thiruvadi, Chennai
Counter against Cong stand on EVM welcome
It’s good to hear that a few Congress leaders like Karti Chidambaram and Mohan Kumaramangalam have questioned the party’s oft-repeated stand of blaming the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) whenever it badly loses an election. Following the Maharashtra Assembly rout, the Congress has again come up with its familiar excuse for the huge loss: EVM tampering.
The internal security apparatus of an EVM is one time programmable. The “standalone” machine has no wireless access to tools like the Bluetooth, among others, which means changing the internal security of such a system would mean changing the whole machine.
Congress should introspect on what went wrong in one of India’s largest States without finding a convenient scapegoat in the EC and EVM because the fool-proof quotient of the EVMs have been widely hailed by experts.
Elections in India have come a long way from the ballot box to the ballot papers to the EVM voting system keeping in mind the need to check various factors like fake voting, rigging and invalid votes.
Funnily, this is the same party that maintains a stoic silence, without a whimper, when it wins an election hands down. Instead of accepting defeat graciously, the party’s agenda is to digress from the responsibility of soul-searching.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Violence in gram sabha meetings unacceptable
A tough stance against loud music played at the coastal village led to an attack on a member of the gram sabha of the Anjuna-Caisua panchayat on Sunday. The altercation reportedly occurred amidst a heated debate over the impact of a mega music event in the village, forcing the intervention of police personnel to bring the situation under control. The meeting was subsequently adjourned.
It seems that intolerance leading to violent physical reactions have crept into the fundamental governing bodies of Indian democracy. There have been violent reactions reported at the meeting of the village panchayat of Sancoale recently over a controversial mega housing project coming up in the village.
The police should take strict action against those responsible for such violence so that it acts as a deterrent in future. The gram sabha is a democratic institution that represents the general body of people in a village. It is one of the most significant bodies in the Panchayati Raj System.
Gram sabha is a platform at the local or rural level where people can talk and discuss various aspects of local development and administration. The panchayat implements various development programs with the supervision and the mandate of the gram sabha. Every decision is deemed valid or official only with the consent of the Gram Sabha. Hence violent attacks in gram sabha meetings are Unacceptable.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Maha madness
for Mahayuti
It was not a tempest or tsunami but a clean sweep for Mahayuti in Maharashtra elections. It was indeed brand Modi in the landslide win. Good governance of Eknath Shinde helped the saffron party to cause a near miracle in the one-sided contest. The results of the Maharashtra Assembly polls show that the State supports women voters and that was the reason for the landmark win.
The Opposition’s efforts to propagate a fake narrative, and polarise voters based on religion was foiled by the masses. Devendra Fadnavis succeeded in breaking the ‘chakravyuh’ of opposition due to the support of voters, the BJP team and party leaders. The BJP team worked with vigour despite the anti-incumbency factor. Maharashtra, which has India’s financial hub of Mumbai as its capital, is one of the most politically crucial states in the country.
This was the first regional election in Maharashtra since the crucial parliamentary polls earlier this year, in which Modi returned for a historic third term but lost his majority, having to depend on regional allies to form a government.
Maharashtra was one of the states where the BJP suffered a setback and opposition parties won two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. But the roles were reversed this time and showed utmost faith in good governance.
C K Subramaniam,
Navi Mumbai
