Who is responsible for hearing fiasco?
What public hearing GCZMA was aiming for without participation of the public? GCZMA was supposed to prepare the CZMP. OK, it took the help of NSCSM. Five years of actual work and lot of public money spent. Now who is taking responsibility for this? Member secretary (also being the director of environment) was totally lost and was sitting like a statue during the entire time. He has to justify the CZMP which GCZMA prepared during the public hearing.
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NSCSM has washed its hands off the plan saying it has given only the HTL and LTL. Khazan data was given by WRD. But WRD does not have the complete khazan data, which is evident from the draft CZMP for many villages. Complete khazan data is with the Agriculture Dept which was given to NSCSM around 5 yrs back. Why was this data not used? Why was the WRD C/E not present for the hearing? Looks like WRD and GCZMA really do not understand the khazan system. Even the definition of khazan system is incomplete in the khazan management plan. In plain words, khazans are floodplains below sea/river/estuary level protected by a bund. All khazans need not have sluice gates. Small cantor khazans have mus (birla madd trunk with a wooden non return flap). Still smaller khazans have a nullah at suitable height calculated by our ancestors which will allow the water to come in and go out having a single plank used by the cultivator as an when required.
Fisheries data was given by fisheries dept. Why was the director of fisheries not present for the hearing? Evidently fisheries dept does not riverine data and insufficient data at other places.
As per CZMP preparation guidelines, fishing zones must be shown as CRZ was meant for the sustainable livelihood of the fishermen. We had clearly marked the fishing zones of the local fishermen on our plan. Why were they not shown?
CRZ line for some survey numbers reduced, HTL remaining same as compared to the earlier draft, under whose recommendation?
NIO data on sand dunes was ignored, under whose recommendation?
Nowhere in the CZMP preparation guidelines, it says to include port limits. How port limits crept into the CZMP of Goa only? You’ll are keeping the fishermen out of the public hearing, then whose hearing is this?
Responsibility must be fixed, people need answers for all this, do not rush the process. Give people some time to study the plans and file objections.
Mateus Saldanha, by email
India must scrap sedition
The Supreme Court’s recent observations that ‘Dissent is not Sedition’ in which it refused to take stern action regarding politician Farooq Abdullah due to a comment by him is a welcome step. This incident underlines the need to scrap the Sedition Laws which are a relic of the Colonial British Raj. It is by now clear to everyone except, perhaps, the government and its supporters, that there is no place in a modern democracy for a colonial-era legal provision such as sedition. The Sedition Law must go!
Anish Esteves, Mumbai
China’s obstruction in Covid-19 origin study
To disown responsibility for Wuhan being the origin of the corona virus, the Chinese authorities indulged in a devious strategy of delay, clean up, cover up and obstruct. But the world will not be drawn into China’s attitude towards not accepting that the corona virus originated in Wuhan. China delayed allowing WHO delegation into Wuhan, so that they would clean up the evidence in the wet markets of Wuhan where the virus is almost certainly have originated from the bats, snakes and pangolins.
A thorough clean up of all evidence from the wet markets of Wuhan was done, then also, it may be construed that if evidence of an experiment gone wrong happened at the Wuhan Virology Institute, then it is possible that China covered up by fortifying and securing the laboratory so that the WHO fact finding team could give them the verdict that it was ‘very unlikely’ there.
However, a devious ruse that China was using a fourth generation warfare cannot be ruled out considering that it obstructed the WHO investigation. Another, important aspect is if the countries in the world could reveal if the genome sequencing of the virus first detected in passengers that arrived in the respective countries from Wuhan between December 23 and 27, 2019 of especially Chinese travellers could be co-related without doubt with the genome sequencing of the first virus in Wuhan, so as to trace beyond doubt that the virus was imported from China into the respective countries. Considering the obstruction that the Chinese authorities are indulging in, it would be fair to point an accusing finger to China as the country of origin of the deadly Corona virus, since they are not co-operating in a fair and responsible manner, and thus they have definitely something to hide, which means that their bluff has been exposed.
Elvidio Miranda, Panjim
Revival of youth power needed
It is heartening to note that a youth leader was elected unopposed in Ward 2 at the by-poll of the Chicalim Panchayat. It must be said that the Chicalim youth has been in the forefront and taken up several social issues under the guidance of the parish priest of St Francis Xavier church at Chicalim.
Youth leaders getting into the mainstream of governance is a welcome sign. The youth have a vision and a strong love for Goa. They have a strong bonding with the home State and are very much aware of the problems Goa is facing. Children of today are the future leaders of the country. It is therefore heartening to see a young girl being elected to the Chicalim Panchayat, that too unopposed.
More young people should come forward and contest the elections at the panchayat level and the municipal level. This will prepare them to contest for the elections to the state assembly and even the Lok Sabha elections. People need to give their full support to young leaders as the youth of today gives us hope of a better future for coming generations. Several youth leaders of the past have risen to high levels in politics. But in recent times there has been a lull in activities of the youth in politics. The victory of the youth leader at the panchayat level should give hope of revival of youth power.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Corrupt politicians keep winning
The corrupt politician is aware of the fallacies in our public service delivery system and what makes the voter tick. Before every election he goes into an overdrive, doling out freebies. He offers rice, alcohol, money to those who struggle to earn two meals a day and electricity to those who sleep in the dark. He gives them access to a system that is out of their reach. Corruption in India is like oxygen. It’s integral to our lives. corruption is as rampant as potholes on Indian roads.
Every election result presents a bleak statistic about the percentage of elected political representatives that have criminal records, and the number keeps escalating much like pollution levels in Delhi. Our collective failure to break the cycle is why corrupt politicians keep winning. It’s the people who are irresponsible and apathetic, else why would they vote for corrupt and dishonest candidates?
Being a citizen of the world’s biggest democracy it’s not only our right but a responsibility to elect the right set of people to administer. Only those who perform their duty towards the nation have the right to raise their voices against the system. People fail to understand that to run the country they need to elect, relatively good candidate to run the country. Democracy in our country will be effective only when people will vote wisely.
KG Vilop, Chorao
