Lokayukta ‘made weak and redundant’
It is outrageous that armed with its brute majority, the Goa Government has in the just concluded four day Assembly session shot down whatever few powers were vested with the Lokayukta. By bulldozing those controversial amendments to the Goa Lokayukta Act it has rendered the watchdog powerless.
The shield taken by the government that the amendments were required in view of the High Court order was very misleading. All that the High Court has directed is that the vacancy since September last year be filled so that the Institution of the Lokayukta becomes functional in the State. So in this respect amending the Act to allow a retired High Court Judge to qualify for the post was acceptable.
The High Court has not suggested any amendments that would dilute the powers and make the Lokayukta toothless. In fact the government may have to justify before the High Court as to how such highhanded amendments have been moved which now makes the Lokayukta very weak and redundant.
Eroding the powers of the Lokayukta is an irreversible downward spiral to bad Governance giving public officials a jolly free hand to continue indulging in impermissible acts of gross Corruption and maladministration.
As the Goa Lokayukta Act was already weak and had many deficiencies, it was imperative that the Government should have had the spine to usher in the much needed amendments to further arm and empower the Lokayukta with the required powers and teeth to tackle the current rampant corruption and bad governance prevalent in the State.
But with the true intent of the government now exposed, it would be well advised not to waste taxpayer’s money in further running the Institution of the Goa Lokayukta as it would serve no meaningful purpose whatsoever.
The people will sit in judgement and draw their own obvious conclusions as to why an anti-corruption ombudsman set up to investigate cases of corruption of Government officials and to bring transparency in the system is being muzzled and its powers curbed. People understand that with integrity there is nothing to fear as there is nothing to hide. Our politicians seem to have done just the opposite.
Anyway, in the given circumstances not even a worthy retired High Court Judge would want to be the Goa Lokayukta and occupy what will now be just a farcical position.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Goa lost a great footballer
Having read in Herald of Jan 27 – the obituary column, the announcement of death on Jan 26, of Mario Jose Oscar Pinto was shocking.
It is known that Calangute is made famous by its beach. However, during those days Calangute was also made known at least in Goa by its footballers who with their natural flair of exhibiting excellent brand of soccer without even having scientific coaching methods, they created dazzling effect of their soccer prowess. One of them was my colleague on soccer field Oscar Pinto who in spite of being in my opponents’ camp and as a senior always encouraged me to play better.
We encountered each other during those days in the stiff and popular inter-village tournaments, the encounter between Calangute and Candolim was always flooded with innumerable spectators to see not only the excellence in soccer but nonsense in the physical prowess of the players of both the teams where as a pacifier of flaying tempers of some of his colleagues Oscar was the first to stop any untoward incident. He was playing as a goalkeeper of his the then mighty Calangute team comprising such fabulous players of which type are not seen now. The late Oscar Pinto was very dependable in every department of his game, he was very good on the aerial ball jumping higher than his opponents so also in diving and punching and palming away the ball for safety.
He was gifted with very good reflexes because of this he was seen right time at the right spot under his bar. His bad luck was that he could not don the colours of any top team of Goa because of his secured Government job. In his death Goa lost a great footballer. RIP.
A Veronica Fernandes, Candolim
India slides in index of corruption
It is indeed a cause of worry for India where its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has slipped to 86th position for the year 2020 from earlier 80th position in global ranking of 180 countries in latest report published by Transparency International with score of just 40 out of 100.
No improvement is noted in terms of corruption even after change in regime in India in the year 2014 when India even after tough steps like of currency-demonetisation. Goal of Indian government should be to touch ranking of honest countries like Denmark and New-Zealand with score of 87 each with New-Zealand once even getting 95 points earlier.
India is known for conducting luxurious study-tours on public-expense in name of national or public interest. Study-team should be sent to least corrupt nations to study ways to minimise corruption. A high-powered autonomous Commission should be formed to suggest ways to make India compete with most honest countries of the world, with an authority to implement at its own without needing any direction from the government. This is not impossible because corruption-level went sharply down in emergency-era of 1975-76 because of fear psychology developed in minds of corrupt ones at that time. Presently Electoral Bonds have contributed the most in lowering of Honesty-Index for India. These should be made perfectly transparent.
Indian government should follow ideals of former President late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam who considered gifts and tips as polished form of bribe. Rather than banning tips, Indian government encouraged by suggesting voluntary tipping rather than restaurants imposing unethical service-charge in their bills. Festival-gifts used as polished bribes should be altogether banned with only specified relations permitted to present gifts in family-functions.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi
UN hails India’s role in combating Covid
The UN chief Antonio Guterres has applauded India for supplying COVID-19 vaccine to nations around the world to combat the catastrophic global crisis. He asserted that India’s vaccine production capacity is one of the best assets the world has today. Globally, there are 230-odd programmes looking to create Covid-19 vaccines, with 130 companies being in a reasonably advanced stage. Of this, around 10 have already started clinical trials.
In India, over a dozen companies are working on COVID-19 vaccines. India is one of the few developing countries with such a large production capacity. There is a large-scale commitment required for vaccine funding and development and India is showing the way. Availability and affordability of the vaccine is the key. India is at the centre of the effort of the most rapid global deployment of vaccines ever.
India has succeeded in flattening the coronavirus curve after having the second highest number of global cases despite challenges like diversity of its population and geography. Besides contributing to protect its population by vaccination, India will also contribute in protecting 91 other countries by making more than a billion doses of the vaccine available. In this way the country is finely demonstrating domestic and global needs.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
