Help persons with disabilities
It must be said that all necessary aid should be given by the government to persons with physical disabilities so that they can move about in society with little or no assistance from another person. One way of going about in this regard is to provide motorised special vehicles at an affordable price to persons with disability who would want to own such a three wheeler.
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As per the Census of India 2011, Goa’s population of persons with disabilities stood at 2% of the state population. Incidentally as per the census, among persons with disabilities, Goa has the second highest literacy rate at 70%. It seems absolutely necessary for them to move about without any assistance in order to make a living. The Directorate of Social Welfare is the concerned authority for the welfare of Persons with Disability in Goa.
It is learnt that the Goa government provides 50% subsidy for motorised vehicles on petrol/diesel to persons with disability. Such vehicles are necessary in order to assist the disabled to go to the place of work and back. The government should also provide necessary assistance in buying these special vehicles by providing enhanced subsidies and interest-free loans for those persons with disability who wish to own a motorized three-wheeler. Awareness should also be created about the various government schemes available for persons with disabilities.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Pitch darkness on beaches
The recent mysterious disappearance of a youth, whether it is his fault or no, on the Mandovi bridge should be an eye awakener for the government of Goa. The BJP I quote, before the recently concluded Assembly elections were praising themselves for all round development in Goa. But if one goes in depth, the videos and photos we saw of the development that was projected were all clicked during the day. Had the same been recorded during the night, we would only be seeing pitch darkness.
The people of Goa are very calm loving people and whatever is fed into them, they swallow with good taste. The government of Goa imposed a cess on electricity bills, called street light cess. Where is this cess amount going? Our bridges in Goa are in pitch darkness, our roads in Goa are in pitch darkness. Can the government use the resources of Rs 20 crores to install street lights in all roads and bridges in Goa? Families, who’s only bread earners travel from late night duty, need to return home safely to be with their loved ones. And roads in pitch darkness can be an accident trap.
In the night, you have vehicles parked on the road, without parking lights on, you have cows sitting on the road or you could even have a breakdown. Street lighting is a must. I request the government of Goa, if power is expensive, the street lights in other States can be solar generated. We have excellent infrastructure on the Atal Sethu and the New Zuari bridge, for fitting of solar panels, that can not only light up the bridge but adjacent bridges and roads too.
Allen Noronha, Porvorim
Any accountability in Indian politics?
This has reference to the report ‘Portugal Health Minister resigns after pregnant Indian tourist dies in Lisbon’ (Herald September 2, 2022).
It felt so good to read this news report of the Portugal Health minister resigning after the death of an Indian pregnant woman, owning moral responsibility. Even the secretaries of the department are leaving the health ministry. This is what we call morality, ethics, accountability in politics, in the western countries.
Compare this to the incidents in our own country. Does anyone own responsibility for the large number of deaths that occur due to negligence of the administration or officials?
Patients in hospitals have lost their lives on account of fires and other mishaps in hospitals and nobody is held responsible. Look at the number of bikers getting killed on the potholed roads in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, due to the negligence of the civic authorities. Here, we play the blame game while the culprits go scot free. Can we learn something good from the western world. But, at the end of the day, it seems human life in our country has no value after all!
Melville X D’Souza, Mumbai
Criminal targeting of activists
The Supreme Court has expressed serious displeasure over the Gujarat HC listing the hearing of activist Teesta Setalvad’s bail petition after 6 weeks. It observed that the State government was making “this lady an exception” even when she had not been booked under any stringent law like UAPA. Unlike UAPA or POTA there is no offence under the IPC that comes with a rider that bail should not be granted, and the alleged offences are offences of documents, they are not bodily offences.
In such matters the normal procedure is that after the initial period of police custody, there is nothing which stops investigating species from conducting a probe without custody. It is pertinent to note that the petitioner has been in custody for over two months now but as yet no charge-sheet has been filed.
It is as clear as day that this tactic of harassment adopted by the ruling dispensation to extend incarceration of the activist is nothing but to set an example for others to not speak up against the government. Muzzling would be too mild a word a word to describe this throttling of democracy by the state and the Centre, we have been thrust too far deep down the rabbit hole.
If citizens are jailed for such alleged offences then the day is not too far when we would be requiring more prisons than houses in India.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Gorbachev redefined relations with West
Mikhail Gorbachev was the last head of State of the Soviet Union and helped to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Gorbachev remained active in global and humanitarian affairs, notably through his leadership of the Gorbachev Foundation. He was also the founder of the Green Cross International, an environmentalist organisation headquartered in Geneva, whose mission is to respond to the challenges of security, poverty, and environmental degradation.
He redefined the Soviet Union’s relations with the West by lifting the Iron Curtain, marking a pivotal turning point in world history. Gorbachev’s passing comes at a time when the open, democratic values he championed have been stripped from Russian political life and his life’s work on nuclear disarmament almost wholly undone.
On the flip side, he will also be remembered for the collapse of his own country, ripped apart by the socio-economic strains during his six years in power.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
GST collections surge
India’s goods and services tax (GST) collections surged 28% year-on-year to Rs.1.43 lakh crore on economic recovery, inflationary impact, and rate corrections. This is the sixth month on the trot that the GST revenue has stayed above Rs.1.4 lakh crore. While the NREGA data indicated better job opportunities, fuel demand and car sales remained firm. But although the GST revenues could swell the tax coffers the August collection is a tad lower than July’s.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
