Help Afghans to fight Taliban
Panic and fear continue to grip Afghans following the Taliban takeover, with thousands of people desperately seeking to board the earliest flight out of Kabul. Nearly 1,000 Afghans have already arrived in Delhi in the past few weeks.
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Meanwhile, a UN report said the Taliban intensified their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with NATO and US forces. Despite the violent crackdown in Jalalabad on Wednesday, protesters continued to defy the Taliban carrying out marches in many places, including Kabul. The international community must raise their voice against the killings in Afghanistan.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
Restrict price of gas cylinder
During recent times, prices of essential commodities have increased tremendously. Prices of fuel and domestic gas cylinder have been rising by leaps and bounds. Of late the price of LPG has been hiked by Rs 25 per cylinder. That means, consumers will have to pay Rs 859 per cylinder.
People from weaker sections of society would be hard hit due to such a price rise. Many migrant labourers working at construction and fabrication sites depend solely on LPG for cooking and other purposes. They too would ultimately remain to be the sufferers in the process. On one hand the State government has been promising various facilities for the welfare of people free of cost and on the other, prices of basic items has been rising on regular basis. It is time for the State government to work out a suitable remedy and see to it that the price of LPG is restricted so that people from poorer families do not face any difficulty in procuring the same.
Providing LPG at subsidised rate is a major challenge before the State government which needs to be fulfilled on priority basis. Let us hope that some favourable action would follow in this important matter at the earliest.
Pravin U Sardessai, Adpai
Listen to your MLA
Pan India Opposition voices have been clamped. Anyone daring to speak up is trolled and made to cow down. Listening to the ruling party’s antics has now become boring.
Emboldened by this scenario, the ruling MLAs have been lulled into a false sense of being omniscient and infallible to whatever they say or legislate. Hence when it comes to them disclosing the ‘truths’ about their colleagues, then we must sit up and take note.
The Dabolim and Cortalim sitting MLAs have accused each other of having done nothing for their constituencies. When the cat is beaten away – meaning the Opposition party – the mice then pick on themselves. The MLAs are not able to speak coherently at the National level and so voice eloquently locally. This includes the sitting MPs. There can be no smoke without a fire. The ‘fight’ to hold on to power at whatever cost shows the greed for power and its perks. What more incentive is required for the voters to ditch unperforming MLAs?
Go for: educated, preferably professionals, non-criminal, non-party hopping, and new faces who can speak eloquently and sensibly at international levels. Goa is the 11th best tourist destination in the world-what use if we are to be ruled by uneducated criminals?
R Fernandes, Margao
Porvorim as capital of Goa
It is pertinent to note that there has been opposition from certain quarters to the idea of renaming Porvorim as ‘New Panjim Town’. It would have been better to express this idea after the elections so as to allow the next government that assumes office to take a call on the matter.
On the other hand there has been a demand from the residents of Porvorim to declare Porvorim as the capital of Goa in view that all important institutions, including the Goa Assembly Complex, are situated in Porvorim and more government offices are being shifted there. If the idea of the government is to develop Porvorim then the ideal thing to do would be to declare Porvorim as the capital city of the State.
It must be said that the city of Panjim has reached its saturation point. Parking has become a huge problem. Things get worse during the international events like the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which is due to be held in November. The government offices in Panjim city are spread all over the city. This makes it difficult for the citizens to get their work done in quick time as they move from one office to another.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
‘No data available’, default response
It has become the norm for the Centre as well as for the State government not to disclose any data to civil society groups, empowered parliamentary committees or the common man which would paint it in a bad light or focus on its shortcomings. No data on migrants, no data on farmer’s deaths, no data on oxygen deaths, no data about the progenitor of Aarogya Setu, etc.
In the same vein the State government has no data on the number of houses without lavatories nor on the number of people not having access to toilets. Though Goa had declared itself ODF (open defecation free) a while back, the urban development minister in an evasive reply to a starred question on the floor of the assembly said that no data was available about open defecation in municipal areas. All municipalities have information on the number of houses without toilets but the sarkar just doesn’t want to be honest. It is the worst kept secret that Goa is not completely ODF.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
