Vasco Saptah
After a gap of two years, on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Damodar Bhajani Saptah will reportedly be held in the port town of Vasco on a grand scale with religious tradition and rituals on August 3. It is learnt that the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) has decided to have the traditional fair with various stalls coming up for a period of seven days.
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However, some aspects need to be kept in mind. There has been a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the State. The Saptah fair is visited by people from across the State and the neighbouring states. Hence it will be absolutely necessary to maintain all the COVID-19 related protocols. There has been a ban on the use of plastic bags which came into force from July 1.
This ban needs to be strictly implemented during the days of the fair. The vendors and citizens need to have an alternative to plastic bags. Cloth bags, paper bags and bags made from eco-friendly material should be made available at the fair. Various social groups and social clubs could help in this respect by distributing paper bags made from old newspapers to the vendors.
Garbage needs to be collected on a daily basis and there should be no collection of rainwater as the number of cases of Dengue is also on the rise. The fair should strictly end after the proposed seven-day period.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Sarpanch post matters the most
The Panchayati Elections will be held shortly and many candidates will be coming to our places for begging like beggars without any shame, for our votes; some of them like slaves with their folded hands with tall unachievable promises. According to me, it is not any post in the Panchayat that matters the most except the post of Sarpanch.
Our questions to our candidates should be loudly and openly, that is, “who will be your choice for the post of Sarpanch” because everything in the Panchayat revolves around him and not much on others. Knowingly he will say that this will be decided after the election results are declared. But it is unbelievable because they have already decided who will be their next Sarpanch whose identity they don’t want to disclose in the beginning itself otherwise voters may not vote for them.
So, we must demand in advance the identity of our next Sarpanch otherwise we refuse to vote for them.
Then we must tell them to adhere to this promise very rigidly. Only those who are legitimate sons/daughters of their fathers will abide by his promise. However, we must know that as it is done last time in the Panchayat located just below my nose that they keep ready much in advance the choice of the Sarpanch very secretly and accordingly this secret and other foul decisions thru which they accumulate illicit wealth for their personal benefit are decided by this secret body in the Panchayat which is called in the words of Shri Nijalingappa from Mysore a “Kichddi Cabinet”.
This body does all the thinking and putting these thoughts into practice while most of the other elected members are playing the role of dummies. We must avoid such practices by electing upright candidates who will work for their localities.
A Veronica Fernandes, Candolim
A proactive President needed
The President of India is our Constitutional head and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. As the face of our nation, depicts India both at home and when traveling abroad and meeting foreign heads of State and Royalty. The President of India must therefore be someone of integrity and outstanding having excelled in his or her career, who would be a source of motivation and inspiration to the nation especially the Youth. No wonder the President must have good communication skills and act as a role model. Caste, creed, religion or gender should never be a criterion even while electing the President of India.
The office of President of India can no longer be an ornamental position as he or she has a constitutional role to play in the discharge of varied duties. Needless to say must be someone with mass appeal.
On July 18 our nation will elect the next President. Couldn’t the BJP find someone who would fit the cap?
Former Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik, who is now holding fort at Meghalaya, would have been an ideal President. He has all the education, maturity, broad vision and skills that would have benefited the Nation. In a short span, he had done and said enough in our state of Goa to leave a lasting good impression on the minds of the people and to instill hope for a better Goa until he was transferred in the dead of night for standing up for the truth and good Governance.
It is surprising that the BJP did not consider him despite all the potential he had to be a proud face of the nation to the whole world. Satya Pal Malik would have enhanced our nation’s image across the globe and been a role model for good governance at home. Perhaps the BJP was dreading a President of integrity who would be less ceremonial at home and more advisory if he noticed any breach of good governance and erosion of people’s rights and values.
Jean de la Bruyere, a famous French philosopher opined that ‘The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool’. Failure to nominate a candidate of merit and integrity will regrettably give credence to Jean de la Bruyere’s warning, much to our regret.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Cost of domestic cylinder
Last week a major decision was taken by the Centre to increase the cost of the domestic LPG cylinder by Rs 50, the entire electronic media discussed and debated issues like Hindu-Muslim and Maharashtra Politics but not a single news channel thought of debating issues affecting the common man.
The domestic cylinder is now costing a whopping Rs 1,053 only, and in the last 1 year alone it has increased by Rs 200. A couple of years ago when the ruling today was in opposition, Madam Smriti Irani protested with empty cylinders on the streets and said that this government was insensitive towards the plight of the common man. The subsidy, which we got on these LPG cylinders, was scrapped in 2020 and as of today the government is in no mood to give us the subsidy anymore. Can we ask ourselves a few questions, 1) Are we interested in these screaming debates which only instigate people against each other? 2) who will benefit from these debates? 3) We are getting this news because we watch them, how long are we going to listen to these clowns?
And we believed the politicians when they said “Sabka Saath, Saabka Vikas and saabka vishwas.”
Altaf Shah, Vasco
Legalisation of dhirio in Goa
The request put forth by Venzy Viegas with regards to dhirio, is disheartening beyond measure. Putting up bulls for fights for the sake of entertainment of heartless human beings, is not something to be proud of. He envisions Goa as Spain. What he probably isn’t aware of is that every year, at least 35,000 bulls are slaughtered in bullfights in Spain’s bullrings.
Bullfighting is not and will never be a fair fight because it is nothing but a ritualistic slaughter of a helpless animal. A decade ago, Reginaldo had moved a bill on the same lines which was rejected because legitimising dhirio meant a change in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Venzy Viegas needs to bear in mind that there are other ways to be entertained and to celebrate a culture and tradition, in much peaceful ways, than causing harm to voiceless beings.
Stesha Pereira, by email
