Provide creches for migrant children
O Heraldo (13.4.2023) has brought out a pertinent point about safety and welfare of children of migrant labourers who are involved in making Panjim a Smart City. It is a common sight in India to see kids at construction sites and public works with some of them tending to toddlers and even babies while their parents are working.
The kids play in sand, cement and run around where construction materials are dumped, heavy vehicles move and machineries are operated. They eat and sleep soundly amidst unhygienic conditions. On the other hand, most of us do not allow our kids to play in a park or garden. They are made to wash and rinse their hands with soap and sanitizer to safeguard from falling sick. But a super-protector takes care of the migrants’ kids for normally they do not fall sick quickly and their immune systems get strengthened and art of survival increases!
Government and corporate employees are lucky since there is a court ruling that the staff should be provided with a creche facility for their kids. Sometimes parents keep their kids in private creches. Here the kids are under the watchful eyes of caretakers and well taken care of but in the informal employment sectors this is not so. Presently registered construction workers are given several benefits such as insurance, family and disability pensions, cash awards, education and marriage assistance, etc. To this list, the Central government could add creche facilities too.
Contractors, who undertake government or private work worth say Rs 50 lakhs and above, should either provide creche and caretakers for their workers’ children or, the contractors could take the help of local NGOs in this aspect. Once the workers see their kids in a safe environment, their minds would be at ease and they will work more efficiently.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Agonda shows the way in cleanliness
The Agonda village panchayat has played a key role in initiating various measures to tackle garbage and keep the coastal village clean and hygienic. The number of cleanliness drives being conducted on the beaches and at strategic locations by the Agonda panchayat is a lesson for other coastal village panchayats on how cleanliness can be achieved with proper planning and significant contribution by the villagers.
The panchayat is reportedly in the process of sanctioning toilets to those families who do not have the facility. Besides this plans are afoot to provide every school in the village with separate toilet blocks for boys and girls.
It is understood that besides having a mini-garbage compactor, the Agonda panchayat has hired two other vehicles to be used solely for garbage collection. Wet and dry garbage is collected on a daily basis from beach shacks, restaurants, resorts along the Agonda coast and roadside garbage is collected twice a week. Giving much importance to cleanliness, it is learnt that the panchayat organises corner meetings regularly in order to promote cleanliness in the village besides conducting wall-painting activity in order to create awareness on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the village. A garbage treatment plant has also been set up at an isolated place in the village. The wet garbage is treated in the composting unit and the dry waste is baled at the plant.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Oppn unity, just distant dream
Having seen the Indian political scenario over the years, we are not convinced about any opposition unity taking place in the light of 2024 General elections. We never call it a kichadi combination or a Ghatbandhan but it is just a build up before the real fight is on. Instead of a consolidation of the Opposition against the BJP, at least three factions have emerged. One headed by the Congress as alliance maker, if not alliance lynchpin, the others are permutations and combinations of smaller regional parties pivoting around different leaders. The permutations and combinations of the faction-ridden Opposition is a treat for a math geek. Finding an answer to how India’s Opposition, with over 20 political parties, will arrange and rearrange itself to coordinate its strategy of challenging the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party is a mind-boggling puzzle. Thus the possibility of a unified fight against the BJP that calls for adjustments and accommodations between factions is a challenge as much to math geeks working on permutations and combinations as it is to political parties and the voter. It appears as though the so-called opposition unity is just a build up.
C K Subramaniam, Navi Mumbai
Time for Oppostion to unite and fight
There is an old saying, ‘United we stand, divided we fall’. So it would be in the fitness of things for all the opposition parties to unite and take on the BJP unitedly. Let all the people of India unite to remove hatred on religious and communal lines. Only then, we can call India a secular country.
Matias Lobo, Tivim
Train-elephant collisions on the rise
The perennial “train–elephant collision” seems to go on unabated. Another pachyderm death was reported in the Jarapada forest range of Odisha’s Angul last week. A speeding train crushed the elephant that was crossing the track. It is said the forest department officials were trying to drive the elephant towards a hill from a village when it strayed into the railway tracks. Blame games are on, but half–hearted measures to prevent elephants being hit by trains have apparently not helped. Proper track signals, loco pilot sensitisation, periodic review and maintenance of elephant corridors, and a unique elephant detection system should safeguard the lives of elephants.
Overpasses and underpasses, solar powered fences and elephant proof trenches are vital to minimise elephant deaths due to any cause.
Shrinking elephant habitats is one of the root causes of the big mammals succumbing to different causes. More and more elephant corridors and enhanced budgetary provisions for ensuring elephants are in the safe confines of their homes and hence away from human interference, cannot be overstressed.
Some time back, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change had announced it would undertake a sophisticated elephant corridor verification and mapping land use and land cover of elephant reserves through GIS technology.
Fragmentation of existing corridors due to human activities have led to the old ones giving way to the newer corridors. While using modern technologies, it is imperative for the officials to correctly identify the elephant corridors in regions of the country where elephants abound.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
