Calangute VP needs to be commended
This is in reference to your news item in O Heraldo dated 6 April regarding “Calangute Panchayat starts drive to seize abandoned vehicles on roads and open spaces”, this is very timely intervention on the part of the civic body to clean the spaces unnecessarily kept occupied by the scrap vehicles. I call all those vehicles as scrap because they are not going to fetch their owners anything monetarily. Hence they abandoned their vehicles on the roads and on other available spaces and thus proved how irresponsible they are that put so many people into inconvenience. At so many places, these abandoned vehicles are creating hindrance for the people.
I must praise the Calangute Panchayat boday for this action they have initiated. I hope others will initiate similar actions in their panchayats to keep their respective villages clean and tidy.
Calangute is a world renowned place that added prestige and glamour to Goa and as such it should be maintained.
A Veronica Fernandes, Candolim
Supply free water if pipeline is damaged
It is learnt that a 250 mm water pipeline got damaged at Dattawadi-Mapusa while underground cabling work was in progress. This led to water supply to several parts of Mapusa being disrupted. Damage to underground water pipelines due to various works being undertaken, including sewerage works, is of common occurrence in various parts of the state.
The general public is put to hardships due to non-availability of water for no fault of theirs. Water is then supplied by private water-tanker owners to the citizens at a price till such time that the damaged pipeline is repaired.
It is pertinent to note that the authorities are quick to cut the water supply to homes if there is a delay in payment of the water bill. Why should the common man be made to suffer due to non-availability of water due to damage to the underground water pipeline?
It would be prudent for the civic bodies and village panchayats to have one or two water-tankers as stand-by in order to supply potable water to homes that are affected due to damage to the water pipeline just like they maintain garbage trucks and water tankers to water the plants. This potable water should be supplied free of cost and continued till the damaged pipeline is repaired and water supply is restored.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
A new life for Hospicio
The state government should accede to the demand of the Holy Spirit church which in collaboration with Caritas wants to set up medical facilities for the poor at the old Hospicio. One only has to take a walk around the city of Margao to see the increase in the number of poor and homeless. If this request is granted, it will also enable the preservation of an old structure that needs to be preserved (as also the old Communidade building right in the heart of Margao that is going to seed)
We should learn from the West and our erstwhile colonial rulers to repurpose buildings and perhaps even allow the private sector to collaborate with the public to keep old structures alive. Perhaps, this initiative can come under the ambit of CSR activities which may attract corporate money.
The beauty of the city of Margao is being eroded by ugly modern structures that King Charles, (to paraphrase what he said once) are carbuncles on the face of a city that has an aesthetic of its own.
Let’s save and preserve these buildings, starting with the Hospicio, and lead the way for other cities in the country to not just throw out the baby with the bathwater. Culture is also about preserving old buildings.
Brian de Souza, Margao
Custodial deaths, cause for concern
Going by reports of custodial tortures emanating from different states it is clear that despite so many court directives, sentences and attempts at sensitisation, Indian police remain oblivious to treating those in custody with dignity. Minimal accountability is a huge factor that emboldens them; inquiries are held routinely, some heads roll, and policemen return to their jobs sooner than later because public memory is excruciatingly short. The Supreme Court has laid down each ‘requirement’, fixing responsibility to every member of the investigation hierarchy, so that there is no scope for the investigative chain to loosen. A careful analysis of the number of custodial deaths unequivocally proves that the court directions are flagrantly flouted. In 2019, there were, on an average, five custodial deaths per month in India.
That more than one hundred deaths have been reported every year from 2019 to 2022 should ring alarm bells.
The ‘powerful mentality’ and ‘privilege status’ flaunted by the police cannot be overlooked.
Also, superiors hardly monitor the lower rung. Those in the know about police methods and madness, have pointed out as to how the police systematically prepare for custodial beating: CCTV cameras are rendered inoperative or switched off before the mayhem begins because courts expect ‘unequivocal evidence’ to convict the policemen. No state, barring a few, has put the ‘Police Complaint Authority’, as ordered by the top court, in place. There have been little takers to the requirement that all custodial deaths need to be reported to the National Human Rights Commission in 24 hours. Augmenting investigative techniques, providing better facilities in rural police stations, refresher courses in wide ranging subjects, psychological counselling—all these possible ways to reform the police are still confined to papers.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Unclaimed bank deposits
Banks are duty bound not to open accounts without nomination and directions were issued subsequently requiring to the financial institutions to do the needful.
All opening account forms have addresses of the customer if not phones as at present.
It is possible that customer might have died or shifted residences and compulsorily the customer must be informed in writing.
The auditors of the Banks must take serious note where nominations are not available. It is a lame and convenient excuse to presume that there are no relatives; successors and that all are dead along with the depositor
What steps Banks take to trace the depositors? They can advertise or prepare the lists of all inoperative account holders and make available at the bank premises. Banks owe some responsibility and service towards their depositors.
Nelson Lopes, Chinchinim
Hampi is paradise for historians
India is a land of not just geographical and ethnic, but also cultural diversity. The country has been home to many kings and their kingdoms, lands and their lords, and governments and their heads. But, not all of them have survived to speak of their saga as before like the historical illustriousness of the place like Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagara empire in the 14th century.
It is really unfortunate that the historical significance linked with each structure of this ruined city, has been completely forgotten and hidden from the text books for our kids to study in schools. Medieval India stands out for its magnificent amalgamation of the diverse streams of architecture, sculpture, and art. Hampi is a popular temple town, which sadly is a “heritage in ruins” today, yet breathes on to offer tourists an enchanting display of its history and traditions.
Hampi is a historian’s paradise, a poetry in stone which tells some captivating stories in silence to remember for ages.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
