State no longer safe for Goans
This is regarding my small beautiful Goa which is slowly losing its charm and beauty. First as a Goan, I used to really feel safe in Goa but now I feel unsafe and unprotective in my small and beautiful Goa and especially feel worried also for our children who are really the future of our Goa.
My small Goa is now slowly turning into a dangerous State and especially the small villagers are surrounded by illegal immigrants and tenants which are not verified by police nor our panchayat is doing anything.
Please as a Goan, I want that each and every Goan feels safe in their own beautiful small Goa, amchem sundor ani sobit Goem.
Anita Fernandes, Verna
Good interstate KTC bus service
It is learnt that the Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd (KTCL) has recently restarted the interstate bus service to outstation destinations such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru for Goans returning home for Ganesh Chathurti. This is a good move by KTC and needs to be continued even after the festive season.
Initially the State-owned bus transport service had commenced its operations from Goa to border areas like Belagavi, Karwar and Sawantwadi. Five buses are reportedly plying to Belagavi from the earlier one that was operating last month. It is understood that buses coming from other States to Goa have a 70% occupancy.
It would be desirable to restrict the occupancy to just 50% during the Covid pandemic times and increase gradually as the situation improves. In order to have occupancy of just 50%, it may be necessary to ply more buses along the various routes. Another aspect is that instead of in-person booking of tickets at the KTC bus terminus, online ticket booking for passengers needs to be encouraged. This will reduce the number of travellers at the booking counter.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Give customers option of choosing taxis
The government in power has gone out of its way to finally give in to the demands of the taxi operators to fix the digital meters free of cost. But the Taxi association has rejected the offer sighting various reasons and one reason is to scrap the App-based system. The Government should also take into consideration the consumers’ point of view for hassle free choosing the mode of transport which is cheaper and comfortable and safe.
What guarantee is the Govt giving to see that digital meter will be put into operation? Secondly The RTO has issued permits to many taxi operators that their taxis will operate from home as there is no facility for notified taxi stands in many villages? Better sense should prevail that using of App-base aggregator is a most welcomed and will have the consumer the option to choose is the basic consumer right.
Gregory E D’Souza, Siolim
Crimes, but no punishment
The Sports Ministry has taken a major policy decision to honour dope-tainted athletes and coaches with sports day awards such as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award. The only condition is that these people must have completed their ban period. This is a bad decision (and an insult to the prestigious Awards) as it is sending a wrong signal to the people, especially to youngsters, that your ‘crime’ could pay in the long run.
Tomorrow the Education Ministry could proclaim that students who were rusticated for copying in any exams could automatically qualify in exams after a year or two.
Income Tax defaulters could get away with a rap on the knuckle and after some months even be felicitated if they pay the tax. A hardened criminal may be released if he/she confesses in public. The list could go on. It is amazing as go who in the ministry comes up with such hare-brained schemes. When hundreds of sports persons are morally upright and give all their worth and when most citizens are law-abiding, why a kids-glove treatment to wrong-doers?
Instead of punishing such people in a suitable manner the government plans to place them on a pedestal and equal footing with ethical sports persons. Let us not make the country a laughing stock in the global community.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Tourism in Goa in utter doldrums
Tourism, the backbone of Goa’s economy has now sadly deteriorated into total shambles and is in the utter doldrums. Even before the onset of the pandemic, the inflow of quality tourists had been very much on the decline for many years with visitors to Goa retreating for varied and valid reasons while moving elsewhere.
The wretched infrastructure, the accident prone roads, erratic water and power supply, stray dogs and cattle infested beaches with garbage strewn all over and the very high taxes have been turning the tourists off. The inept infrastructure at the airport, railway stations and the bus terminals leave much to be desired. The traffic police instead of regulating free flow of traffic seem to be focused on what they are best at, on which less said the better.
Besides due to the alarming crime rate with the increasing number of rapes, murders and thefts, Goa has unfortunately evolved as a very unsafe destination having been transformed into a gambling, prostitution and narcotics den. Our only solace is that the Talibans have not landed here.
The authorities need to swiftly get their act together with a vision and sincerity to revive and regain lost ground and at least ensure that we don’t lose those leftovers of the once flourishing tourism trade and industry.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Ranking institutions
‘Institutional ranking’ is a common practice to assess the overall quality of centres of excellence through different yardsticks. In India, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), put in place in September, 2015, ranks institutions through a pre-determined methodology.
Graduation outcome, Research and professional practice, outreach and inclusivity, teaching, learning and resources, are some broad yardsticks. Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) spread across the country, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), to name a few, are centres of excellence that have kept pace with the changing times.
No educational institution is without blemishes though there are some centres that can consistently hold their head high. The 2021 rankings are no different than the earlier ones. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been crowned with glory in the engineering field, and the institutes that topped various disciplines in the previous years have more or less done an encore.
IIT Madras has bagged the top honour in the ‘overall’ category which makes it stand apart because this category is not limited to competing with its own stream.
As expected, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has done well again by ranking second in the overall division. Besides, IISc is now the numero uno in research.
One positive feature of this year’s list is that research was added as a category for assessment. Though the participating institutions numbered to 6000, many institutes did not meet the criteria for competition or simply did not participate. That said, NIRF needs to be more dynamic ensuring enhanced engagement is crucial.
Focus on research is alright, but whether education delivered to students bears fruit can be the eventual scale to evaluate an institute as well as a student.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
