Taximen’s demands unjustified & selfish
“Sorry the Taxi Lobby & their political patrons: You don’t get what Goa needs” (Herald, April 17) was bang on!
In fact, each day I read these articles of the striking taximen and their unreasonable rants, every time it stirs me to open up and view my thoughts on their unreasonable, unjustified, selfish demands. However, your edit has come at the right time and you’ve already said it all therein, summing up what most right-thinking Goans and tourists would fully agree with and vouch for. As such, I don’t think that I have much to say now, but would only add that the Government of Goa under Pramod Sawant needs to be tough with these rogues.
Bringing wives, women folk, and studying students on the scene, proves that they have failed to garner public support and sympathy to their unjustified strike. These dramatic scenes of women folk reportedly fainting are clearly pressure tactics that are not working. As they say, you can fool some people for some time; however, you cannot fool all the people all the time.
My dear taxi brethren, remember this is not Melaulim, or any other justifiable agitation. You are literally agitating against your own families, your own Goan brethren and Goa’s Tourism industry, that you and your families make your living from. We live in a democracy and while you have every right to protest and/or go on strike for your legitimate demands (if any), you are also bound by your constitutional duty to adhere to court orders and directives for fixing digital meters thereby offering reasonable travel fares for the public which is also our constitutional right.
Meanwhile, I reiterate, the App based GoaMiles, has been a relief to multitudes of tourists, the Goan Industries, and Goans alike. Instead of giving in to blackmail and the unreasonable taximen’s demand of scrapping such a successful venture in GoaMiles, the Govt needs to go ahead and strengthen GoaMiles and even introduce more such Apps by inviting tenders for the same and such striking taximen can participate in these open tenders. Goa being on the international tourism map cannot and will not let itself lag behind due to some selfish cronies with their political affiliations.
We seriously need to move on. Dear taxi brethren we Goans appeal to you, “Please withdraw your unjustified strike”, which is actually against the essential commodities act.
Olavo Fernandes, Abu Dhabi
Treat flags with respect, dignity
During their various occasions and to coincide with visits of national leaders, the respective political parties put up their party flags and huge cut-outs all over the cities and the villages.
In fact public places are brazenly defaced with party flags, posters and banners without even securing the necessary permission from the concerned local authorities and with no payments made towards the requisite municipal and panchayat fees in rank violation of law. The onus is on the local authorities to act firmly and deterrently against the political parties breaching the rules and law.
The political parties also fail to promptly remove the flags and dispose them aptly after their functions. As a result, we find the party flags and other material inordinately strewn along the roads and pavements with the public at times walking or falling over them and sometimes even the party flags ending up very coarsely in the garbage bins. Worse still is when we see the flags choking our drains. A sheer offensive insult to the flag and disrespect to our environment and garbage disposal policy.
Every political party needs to treat its flag with utmost esteem and sanctity which is unfortunately not seen today. It is incumbent on every political party to ensure that its members and supporters show all due and solemn respect at least to its party flag which should never ever be treated like thrash or a political tool but as a symbol that is an expression and manifestation of a peoples’ feelings and sentiments to a particular cause or to the nation.
The authorities should also ensure that on our solemn occasions like Independence Day and Republic Day, our national flag is duly respected and hoisted at important sites and lowered with dignity. The little flags used by the public must not end up lying on the streets or in our bins and drains after the official function is over. This respect and dignity for the national flag is the least that is expected from us all. These fundamental values have to be inculcated in every child, as young as they are.
For many a flag is not just a piece of cloth or paper. It represents honour, respect and sacrifice. For others it represents blood, sweat and tears. For everyone it should always represent inspiration, dreams and hopes. That is why it must be treated with respect and dignity.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Air-borne virus more dangerous
The worst fear as regards the spread of the Coronavirus now appears to be a reality. A new assessment published in the Lancet Journal reportedly suggests that there is consistent, strong evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind the Covid-19 pandemic is predominantly transmitted through the air. It must be said that containing the spread of the infection when the virus is air-borne is much more challenging and difficult than if the infection is spread by larger droplets. The air-borne virus can travel to much farther distances thereby infecting more people than large and relatively heavy droplets which settle down on the surface after travelling a short distance.
According to researchers if an infectious virus is primarily airborne, people can potentially be infected when they inhale aerosols produced when an infected person exhales, speaks, shouts, sings or sneezes. This is probably the reason for the exponential rise of the infection in several countries including India which has seen the worst of the second wave.
Since the virus is proved to be airborne the dynamics of preventing the infection do change. It is proved that besides following the normal SOPs attention also needs to be given to proper ventilation, air filtration, and reducing crowds. People could be more at risk of an infection when they are indoors.
Adelmo Fernandes,
Vasco
Don’t put students in health risk
Several states along with the Centre and IB postpone and/cancel board exams on the behest of student cries amid concerns for the unsafe conditions considering the exponential rise in Covid numbers throughout the country. The Goa govt is firm and insistent on conducting their own on the exact days as planned. Prepared to make students risk their lives to answer an exam going as far as setting up an isolation centre for students who have tested positive to answer their exams. Exemplary dedication or unnecessary stubbornness; what good is doing anyone or to rather the students answering?
The education department is doing something very odd. Why are they so decided on not following the advice of the centre? What do they have to lose by obliging to student requests? Why so much of the unwanted insistence, why this stubbornness? I fail to make sense of it however let’s consider what we could gain; students would not have to worry about going outside to answer an exam while Covid cases are at all time high, ease off mental strain and have more time to better prepare for their very important exams.
Anyways, that’s a chance for students to better prepare themselves for their exams devoid of health concerns going into the eye of the storm and risk raising a peaking statistic.
Denzel Fernandes, Taleigao
