Bad Saligao road
I want to bring to the attention of the government the pathetic state of the road passing near former Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza’s house in Saligao. I used to travel daily on this road to go to Panjim. This road has not been attended to for the last 3 years. It is full of potholes. To avoid the potholes I go via Calangute. Now even the Calangute road has developed potholes. The suspensions of my new car got ruined in only two years. Recently, somebody filled the two potholes with mud which got washed off with the rains. It is also dangerous for two-wheelers plying on this road.
I paid a huge sum of money as road tax when I bought the car three years ago. In addition, I also pay income tax every year. It is therefore our right to have good roads. Now the tourist season will start and tourists travel by these roads to the various hotels and beaches. The panchayat and PWD did nothing for the Saligao road for three years. They have no money to hotmix this bumpy road. I hope the Chief Minister will give instructions to repair this road at the earliest.
Flora Miranda, Arpora
Commendable decisions by Punjab, Orissa CMs
The States of Punjab and Odisha each made significant choices at the State level on employment over the course of several weeks, newspapers provided startling information on regularisation. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has regularised 8,736 contractual workers and is in the process of doing the same for another 28,000 contractual workers. In Orissa, Chief Minister Navin Patnaik has eliminated contract hiring and regularised 57,000 contract workers. Both chief ministers should be commended for their actions, and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant must follow their lead and implement similar regularisation initiatives here in Goa which is much smaller in terms of numbers compared to Punjab and Orissa.
The process of regularisation has to be done with caution though, as performing contractual workers have to be considered for this change.
Only then we can say that Goa has followed the Indian Constitution in letter and spirit by taking care of the welfare of working class. Also if the CM is insisting that educational institutions implement the NEP on war footing. How can this be accomplished without enhancing the talent that delivers higher education? Goa also lacks in happiness index and the Governor of Goa wants to increase these statistics. How can happiness index rise when such inequalities persist? All we see are the top brass i.e. the ministers, MLAs and the permanent employees get all the benefits, while the contract workers who are performing are left to fend and fund themselves.
Venan Bonaventure Dias,
Santo Estevam
Let your light shine!
This has reference to the edit ‘One Lamp for them’ (Herald edition dated October 17, 2022). That was indeed, a thought provoking editorial. Yes, while celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, we need to think of the disadvantaged sections of society and ensure that they too are in a position to celebrate this festival. Purchasing from local and small vendors may be one way of doing that. At the same time, we need to look back. The pandemic has created havoc across all sections of society. Many have lost their jobs and businesses have either been curtailed or shut down. People have used up their life’s savings to survive the pandemic. Many have lost their spouses, parents and siblings. There could be much more. We need to think of all such people. How can we celebrate this Festival of Lights when perhaps our neighbour is living in darkness, poverty and grief? When we light a lamp outside our door or balcony we need to make our light shine on others as well, or else our celebration would have no meaning, it would be a hollow celebration. So, let your light shine!
Melville X D’Souza, Mumbai
Kudos to Legal Metrology Dept
Congratulations to the Legal Metrology Department South Zone-1 team led by Nitin P Purushan for conducting raids in various shops in Margao for checking the weighing instruments and violation of Packaged Commodities Act. Today the consumer is taken for a ride by shopkeepers because the grahak is not bothered to spend a few seconds to check on the violations because he thinks the shopkeeper is doing his duty faithfully but with many spurious and duplicate commodities entering the market everyone wants to make a quick buck at the cost of the ignorant consumer. The Legal Metrology Department should be conducting these raids frequently all over Goa, I am sure thousand violators will be booked in a few months. Please keep up the good work. Cheated consumers or tourists bring a bad name to Goa as a tourist destination. I hope Goa CM receives the 100% award for implementing consumer rights, Jago Grahak Award.
Gregory E Dsouza, Siolim
Lead a healthy life
Why do people sacrifice their health for job or money? Is it human nature to work beyond limits and tend not to care much about our health? Taking it for granted as long as the employer makes merry with our sweat, overwhelmed value of employing us with total loss of energy leads to poor health. Some work for upto 14 hours, with no meal breaks, and even on unpaid weekends. Why become so cruel or selfish to ourselves?
These individuals have their own illusions. They don’t look at their own quality or production of work put in. They are in a race that they may get fired even after working beyond humanity, leading to poor health or have “no respect” towards their family members who see them return home drained out.
In a real environmental world, one has to manage their job in a way that provides healthy work life balance for self, their family and work within their job responsibilities. Then only one is truly blessed and doesn’t make one a hypocrite or a foolish martyr. They should rather work keeping their health (to survive, to live healthy and happy), family and values intact. On the flip side, some don’t care but deliberately roll their life downhill eventually, as they are stubborn to work for power, wealth, name, fame, pride and superficial desires.
I conclude with a beautiful quote: “Employment is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The others are crystal balls — your integrity, family and health, if you drop those, it will be irrevocable- shattered or in simple, never get selfishly busy making a living that you forget to lead a healthy life.
Gaston Dias, Sarzora
Hunger index
India has ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index rankings. It ranked 101 out of 116 countries in 2021as compared to 94 out of 107 in 2020. In 2017, India ranked 100 of the 119 countries. In earlier years, India ranked far better; but fewer countries were included in the study. Since India is the second largest food producer in the world, it is obvious that hunger is unrelated to food production considering India’s GHI is 29.1 points and the body has termed it “serious”. There is no doubt that India has done well in improving upon undernourishment. But it is in the area of “child wasting”, or acute malnutrition, that the country is found wanting.
The National Food Security Act 2013 appears to have laid more thrust on staple diets rice and wheat with less-than-satisfactory focus on the nutritious coarse grains and pulses. That is why hunger has to be fine balanced with nutrition if India has to better its GHI rankings in the years to come.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
