Anonymous hotline for illegalities needed
Illegalities and crime can be tackled in Goa if the government has really a serious intention to address the same. For instance, many residents do not report various illegalities like for example, land/field filling, hill cutting, illegal settlements, sound, air, water pollution etc or for that matter criminal activities like prostitution, drug menace, gang fights etc as the complainants need to give their names and the fear of being harassed, threatened and so hence many just keep quiet!
In foreign (progressive) countries including democratic ones where there is a hotline for anonymous reporting and status of the action of these complaints is made transparent to the public after a period of time (all the time the complainant kept anonymous and the complainant can even follow up on the Hotline using a code for reference!)
Can the Goa Government look at setting up this Anonymous Hotline which will go a long way to address the illegalities and crime in the State!
Arwin Mesquita, Colva
Why brand all Goans as habitual offenders?
A lot has been said on social media and newspapers with regards to the recent street fights indulged in by a group of young Goan boys around a pub in the UK.
Well, I personally feel that the guy who had posted that video on social media (which unfortunately had gone viral) of this one single isolated incident at Hounslow without giving any proper information must had done it with the sole intention of somehow showing all Goans (especially those who are currently working in the UK) as habitual drunkards and trouble-makers.
Don’t youngsters coming from other Indian states get drunk, fight and indulge in some of the worse horrible acts in the UK? Don’t they start rioting and destroying public property even during some cricket matches in the UK? Then why some blind people are selectively trying to target our entire Goan community living in the UK due to the acts of a few bad apples and this one single isolated incident at Hounslow?
And why should our Goans who were born and brought up in Goa but who now have surrendered their Indian passports in favour of Portuguese passports and have gone in the UK and other European countries for employment purpose be blacklisted? Have they committed any crime by doing so?
When our Goa government cannot provide them with some good job opportunities in the state, then what are they supposed to do?
I therefore say that a Goan who simply sits back here by putting a thumb in his mouth and calls himself a Niz-Goenkaar but goes renting and selling everything of his ancestors to all neighbouring outsiders for the greed of money and does nothing to stop the ongoing open destruction is not a Niz-Goenkaar but a Fotting-Goenkaar.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
Train police in cyber crime prevention
More than 52000 cyber crime cases were registered in 2021 in India, a rise of more than 10 percent as compared to the previous year.
Cyber bullying, cyber stalking, child pornography, cyber grooming, different types of financial frauds including extortion, blackmail, sexual exploitation and of course, cyber terror: people have seen them all. Cyber crimes are tricky because there is huge under-reporting as the victims seldom go to the police. There are also the jurisdictional issues that eat the valuable time of the law enforcers because cyber criminals are swift to strike and scoot. “Indian cyber crime coordination centre” established by the Centre in January 2020 is an innovative step in tackling crimes. It broadly encompasses provisions pertaining to threat analysis, reporting, training and research.
Among these, training of the police is quite vital because it is important to educate the people about the lurking danger of crimes on the internet. People are gullible, but the police need to up their knowledge on cyber crime prevention. They should also be conversant with the large, though confusing, volume of laws governing cyber crimes in the country. India has had a digital revolution; internet users are increasing manifold. The Information Technology Act, 2000 needs more teeth.
The Act was amended in 2008 but more needs to be done. There also are crucial sections of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) like sections 292, 354 C and 354 D related to child and women sexual exploitation that need highlight; people have to be made aware that there are laws that can guide them in times of distress. Also, special courts to tackle cyber crimes is not a bad idea.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Disconcerting decline in education standards
In the Union Education ministry’s annual performance index to evaluate the quality of school education in the country, Goa has slumped from 800 points to 580 points in the most recent assessment for 2021-22. In the crucial ‘learning outcome and quality’ parameter the state scored a measly 62 points out of a possible 240, overall Goa scraped to a bare 556 points on a scale of 1000. Worryingly the survey found the state’s students’ performance wanting in mathematics and science. There’s a disconcerting dichotomy here because under the ‘teacher training and education’ head, Goa maxed at 74/100. Logically the best trained teachers should produce the brightest students, but there is obviously a lot lacking in the teaching methodology, knowledge is not being disseminated down the line. Considering that the assessed literacy rate in Goa at @89% puts it among the top 5 states/ UTs, the inexorable slide is shocking to say the least, or is it that the rate itself is fudged? With the biased, partisan and ‘nationalism’ heavy New Education Policy set to kick in in 2023-24, things could get more bleak on the education front for Goa and India. Instead of Maths and Science students might have to learn more about Matrubhoomi, vedic maths, Savarkar and pseudoscience. Goa needs to pull up it’s socks.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Students back to school in Manipur
Students in Manipur can finally breathe a sigh of relief as schools reopened after two months. Among 4,617 schools, 96 remained closed due to relief measures and other reasons. Displaced students residing in the relief camps had the highest attendance rate. The government offered free admission to students affected by the recent violence in the nearest school. The State government extended the summer vacation from May 4 to July 4 because of the prevailing violence in the hill state.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
