Ribandar health centre before monsoons?
We are now told that the Health Centre at the Old Ribandar Hospital which was promised to be ready before these monsoons will be inaugurated on August 15 and we assume it’s 2021.
On this longstanding demand we shall wait for these two months while trusting and hoping that what was promised will actually be delivered.
On October 8 last year local MLA Babush Monserrate promised us that our Health Centre would start as a 30-bedded with a 24X7 Casualty cum Trauma unit equipped with all the required facilities while the Health Centre would be expanded in stages to be a full-fledged Hospital.
‘I will make sure it happens by hook or crook’ is what Babush Monserrate had assured us. So the buck now stops at your door, MLA.
We hope we will see this much needed Health Centre which would benefit not only a densely populated Ribandar but also the neighbouring Chimbel, Merces, Old Goa and residents in the Island of Divar. We are awaiting the promised Community Health Centre and will not be fooled with just a cosmetic OPD.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Taking the pandemic lightly?
June 1, and the Govt. wants 100% attendance in offices! Deaths: 24, positivity 20%, both reducing slowly because of less crowding and we now open all offices? Because June 1 is an auspicious day, not June 7? The media has caught the crowded chaos at KTC resulting from this decision. All sacrifices down the drain? Surely, decisions must be made on logic and science?
The Task Force must own responsibility that transmission of the Delta virus and its control is solely theirs; that it is airborne and that the decision for the implementation of proper ventilation in public and Govt offices is theirs. The number of air changes required has already been fixed by the CSIR: they need to ensure the Govt acts. Has this been ensured before starting 100% attendance?
The decision when to open up and in what phased manner is also theirs: they must not compromise.
The GMC Dean has estimated 1 ½ months for the third wave. But the decisions taken seem to be made to pre-pone the 3rd wave. Goans are left to fight not only the delta virus but the administration as well?
Where is the Committee that was entrusted to do the Oxygen audit? They were given three days.
R Fernandes, Margao
Few suggestions to save people’s lives
Unless and until some of the below measures are implemented, more and more Covid cases will resurface and take the precious lives of our dear ones.
Strict monitoring on the borders (roads, airways, railways, etc) and allow only those into Goa be it for employment or enjoyment, with Covid negative certificate. Anyone trying to cheat, should be severely punished or heavily fined. Activists, NGO have a big role to play to cross check our law enforcers too.
At present all the School halls, Indoor wedding halls are closed. So the Government should take over these places and with the assistance of all village ward members, Sarpanch, local MLAs and school management start quarantine centres in each of their village. All those patients who are tested positive and do not have facility to quarantine themselves at home, be admitted at these centres for 10 to 17 days and then return home.
If not, then if one person from a family is affected all others will turn positive.
Finally all the Primary Health centres should be upgraded into Mini Hospitals with at least 20 to 25 beds which should be fully equipped with Ventilators, Oxygen, ICU etc, with couple of doctors and nurses in attendance. Only if the sickness of patients worsens then they should be shifted to GMC and Margao Hospital which at present are already overburden. Paediatric training and ICU units for better preparedness. The above measures should be undertaken at war footing and get ready for the Third Wave where the children are likely to be the victims too.
Anthony Fernandes, Assagao
BJP lecturing on divorce?
The Law Minister has, recently, made a very interesting announcement of compulsory pre-marriage counselling sessions for couples, to avoid the incidence of divorce, which, he feels, is on the rise in Goa. However, it is strange that this move comes from a BJP led Government, which has both in Goa and elsewhere in India been promoting ‘divorce’ of elected people from their parent party. True that every party has been doing it, but BJP has perfected this art and for them, nothing else can have priority over it.
Unfortunately, I cannot be a candidate to check how enlightening the Government proposed lectures will be. But, may I ask, what moral authority BJP has to lecture anyone on divorce, as they have been and continue to be the real champions of divorce, of course of a different kind, but no less important as it involves not lack of loyalty but real betrayal of the people who elected them.
In fact, BJP has no moral authority to lecture anyone on anything, as their own morality on every issue, has reached such rock bottom that we have become a laughing stock for everyone. Please spare Goa of such ridicule.
Jose Maria Miranda, Margao
Rough times for the fishing community
The annual fishing ban kicked in from June 1 but the past season has been as rough for the fishing community as the roiling waters of the Arabian Sea during the recent cyclone. Shortage of crew, adverse weather conditions, skyrocketing diesel prices, lockdowns and the fear of contracting Covid has made this a special kind of Annus Horribilis for the fishermen. Losses to the extent of @ 30% have been clocked by boat operators riding on the back of market closures, suspension on exports and skyrocketing labour costs. Their only hope is the second wave of the contagion tapering off before August when fishing activities are set to resume.
Boat and trawler operators are majorly dependent on migrant workers who chip in with not only fishing operations but also loading/unloading, packing, cleaning and anchorage at jetties. Owners typically incur a cost of @ Rs 15,000 to transport manpower back from their native States, also paucity of labour has jacked up worker’s remuneration to @Rs 12,000 pm from Rs 8,000 earlier.
It was only during last October that fishing in the high seas resumed, but operations again came to a standstill in March due to the onset of Covid 2.0. To add to their woes Cyclone Tauktae sent apprehensive workers scurrying back to their villages in mid May itself instead of the month end.
Fishing probably is the last surviving traditional occupation of Goans and the government should do everything in its power to ensure that it does not die a slow death.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Good decision to cancel XII exams
The Centre’s decision to scrap the Class XII CBSE and CISCE board examinations this year brings the curtains down on weeks of uncertainty that had students and parents on edge. It cited the concern over the health and safety of the students as the primary reason for cancelling the exams. The Prime Minister directed officials to ensure that the results are prepared under the well-defined criteria in a fair and time-bound manner. The move to cancel the board exams came even though all States and Union Territories barring Delhi and Maharashtra had given written consent for conducting the pen-and-paper mode tests.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
