Municipal ordinance and traders protest
It has been reported that traders across Goa are to down shutters on January 7, in protest against, and to demand the scrapping of the Ordinance on Municipal shops and premises.
The business men and their leaders opined that the new ordinance will have adverse impact on local traders who have been trading for generations.
While there may be some substance in what genuine legitimate traders are claiming, have they conveniently chosen to forget that many of the traders currently occupying the Municipal market premises and shops have been indulging in a variety of unauthorised activities? Is it not a fact that probably a large chunk of the current occupants of the Municipal premises are irregular unauthorised squatters?
Further, they have conveniently forgotten to highlight the fact that for the last 20 years, almost 1000 occupants of the Municipal market of the CCP in Panjim, have not paid the dues, lease rentals, electricity bills, water charges, which they owe to the CCP, to the tune of Rs 20 crores. This apparently has put the CCP in very difficult financial condition rendering it unable to undertake any developmental activities for the benefit of the citizens of the capital city.
In other words, has the public at large been subsidising the 1000 odd freeloaders in illegal occupation of the Municipal market, this despite three years having passed since the High Court of Goa having issued directives to the CCP to clamp down on the illegal occupants of the Municipal market in Panjim and recover all the dues?
Have the traders chosen to close their minds to the fact that these premises have probably illegally changed hands many times over, without the authorisation or the approval of the respective municipal authorities?
Is it possible that all this has come about with political patronage?
While paying heed to to the needs of the genuine honest traders, should not the government be very firm in dealing with all illegal, unauthorised squatters in the municipal market premises?
Rosario Menezes, Vasco
Let us pray for peace and unity
Hundreds gathered for prayer at old church in Sancoale to pray for peace and unity in a world which is increasingly getting divided by religion, caste, race, ethnicity, nationality, food and dressing habits and many other things.
In these troubled times we have to pray for all those who are in power like our CM, PM, our MLAs (including the Catholic ones) to use their power to do good for the society and not to divide the society. That they may have pity on the poor farmers and all the weak and suffering people of our country.
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Replenish river bed at the same spot
Several raids on illegal sand extraction have been conducted in Goa recently and vehicles and machinery have also been seized. Sand is collected mainly from rivers Mandovi, Zuari, Terekhol, Chapora and its tributaries. Upstream the sand is collected manually, screened and supplied directly.
Where the water column is more the sand extraction is done with the help of canoes and buckets attached to bamboos. This extracted sand is used in construction activity and obviously there is a huge demand for it. Raids are being conducted on illegal sand mining regularly, however, what is equally important is what is being done with the confiscated sand.
It is understood that the illegally extracted sand was dumped below the Amona Bridge on Sunday. It would be in the fitness of things to replenish the river bed from where the sand was extracted by dumping the confiscated sand at the spot from where it was extracted. The exact place along the river bed from where the sand was illegally extracted can be found out by questioning the truck driver who was transporting the sand.
Dumping the confiscated sand at any other place on dry land could defeat the purpose as the same sand could be again transported illegally on another day.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
US in tenterhooks until Jan 6
The joint sitting of the House of Representatives and the Senate on January 6, is headed for an interesting crescendo. The convening of both these Houses will have to ratify the count of the electoral college votes which until now is 306 to 232 in favour of Joe Biden. But, the Republicans have cried foul of the electoral process especially the mail-in voting much before the presidential elections on November 3 last year. Mike Pence, the Vice President will chair the joint sitting of the two Houses and is invested with the absolute power to determine the contention as per the Constitution of America.
Pence has the power of interpretation as well as discretion to resolve the matter in a fair and equitable manner. Donald Trump and the Republicans have not conceded defeat and have set up a task force of Republican Senators termed as `The Dirty Dozen’ to spearhead their quest for overturning the result. The Republicans are also insistent that several disputed States have gone in favour of Joe Biden and if the tally of the disputed States amounts to more than 74 electoral college votes then a deadlock could force Mike Pence to uphold the Republican contention and to annul the results.
Although unprecedented, the atmosphere of a vertical split between the Republicans and the Democrats could end in an eventuality that has until now in American history has no precedence.
Elvidio Miranda, Panjim
Poor roads & design, bane of Goa traffic
Traffic flow in Goa has been hindered due to poor design of medians and poor roads. Majority of the traffic jams in the city are the result of bad engineering at traffic junctions which have become a hurdle for the smooth flow of traffic. There are no zebra crossings or pedestrian signals. Lack of forethought and engineering are the main causes for the chaos at the traffic junctions. There should not be any restrictions on taking a free left turn at the traffic junctions. Moreover the potholes developed has contributed to the pathetic situations.
In old city, traffic issues are still addressable as people understand that they cannot drive bigger vehicles on narrow lanes. They prefer riding a two-wheeler instead as the older design permits them only to drive scooters or bikes. It is already a huge challenge for the Indian government to provide world-class roads, due to the sheer magnitude. However, it is alleged to be full of corruption and malpractices when it comes to the construction of roads. Fraudulent contracts and agreements are said to be made with some favoured contractors. Many times, the contractors are allegedly thought to be using bad quality materials, old technologies and outdated specifications for the building of roads.
KG Vilop, Chorao
Poor refereeing in ISL
This year’s edition of ISL is providing exhilarating football of high standard with some young Indian players matching their foreign counterparts in footballing skills and temperament. However, it is sad to see that the standard of refereeing is still at an abysmally low level with no improvement in sight.
It is high time the organisers take necessary steps to tackle this problem immediately when so much is at stake and glaring mistakes by the referees/linesmen is evident far too often. The team that has gained the most from wrong decisions of supervising officials so far, is Mumbai City FC while the team to suffer the most is SC East Bengal.
No wonder MCFC is sitting pretty at the top while SCEB is second from bottom!
Angelo Alvares, Margao
