Welcome back to Goa
It was heartening to read that in Goa casinos, spas, cruises and nightclubs have been permitted to open. This is good news for owners, employees and related service providers and for the government’s coffer. There are certain conditions such as the patrons need to have had their double jabs and the usual 50% occupancy, social distancing, etc. Although the government is taking a gamble on opening up these sectors, hope that the prerequisites are strictly followed in letter and spirit.
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Most of the above places are in enclosed spaces and have restricted floor areas. If a casino boat lawfully operates at 50% capacity a few hundreds of people would be cooped up in an enclosed space and that too, for hours together.
And the same applies to spas and nightclubs. A nagging doubt persists. Would these sites not be congenial for the rapid transmission of the virus? Places of worship, cemetery and burial grounds are airier, more open and people go there for only a few minutes, yet only a handful of persons are permitted to be present. The authorities could well do to remove the restrictions placed on number of people at these important places as these are also of tourists attractions and contribute economically to the government’s treasury.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Tattoo stray cattle to identify owner
Stray cattle have been a perennial problem in the State. These stray cattle have been the cause of numerous road accidents many of them have resulted in fatality of humans and at times of the animals. Now stray cattle are seen on the beaches as well. These cattle cast a pall of gloom on the mood of the tourists and locals as they present a sore sight.
Some panchayats do not have cattle pounds. These cattle stray on the streets in search of food. Driving away the cattle from the beaches is not a viable solution, as they will then crowd the roads where they even squat for hours at end. It is learnt that the Mormugao civic body has no shed for stray cattle. This has resulted in failure to set up a mechanism to impound the stray animals thereby causing great inconvenience to the residents. However, even if the cattle are impounded by the civic bodies or the panchayats and kept in the cattle shed the owners do not come forward and take possession of the animals.
It is learnt that these cattle are abandoned by the locals as they are no longer into agriculture and find no use of these animals. There is no mechanism in place by which the owner of the stray animal can be traced. To solve this issue it must be made mandatory for the cattle to be tattooed with a sign so that the owner can be traced and told to take the cattle back after being penalised.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Charity begins at home
Over the past three years, villagers of Curti-Khandepar have united to infuse life into five community ponds choked with waste and silt without waiting for government funds to be sanctioned. The water bodies can now be again used for irrigation and horticulture purposes. To encourage local communities to protect their own ecosystems, the government allots a meagre Rs 50,000 per water body, technical assistance and earthwork/desilting machinery.
Projects like these succeed because of the strong sense of ownership by the locals who become stakeholders and are willing to put in the hard yards and many a time their own funds to preserve the environment, if this is not being truly ‘Atmanirbhar’ then I do not know what is.
Rekha Sarin, Benaulim
Streamlining govt services
In a bid to end mandatory submission of physical documents year on year to avail of government services, the State is bringing in a paradigm shift by integrating and digitising the functioning of ten different departments by leveraging cutting edge technology. The digital process would ensure that supporting documents for services gets attached to applications from the source department in real time without the need for manual intervention.
Consider the fact that at present, 15 different papers are to be tendered for issue of a voter ID card, 34 for obtaining NOCs from ministries, 24 for birth certificates, 20 for domicile papers, so on and so forth.
As a pilot project, the PAN section of the IT department and the Directorate of settlement of land records have been integrated with the Goa Online platform. The simplified process would ensure that one does not have to stand in crowded lines to submit applications, everything can be uploaded/ downloaded at the click of a mouse; this would be a boon to the old, the infirm and citizens residing in the remote hinterlands. But for all this to function optimally the government should first roll out a robust Internet backbone by laying Optic Fibre Cables and installing mobile towers across the state. 24×7 seamless connectivity is a must, further the State should provide at least one web enabled device to each BPL household so that the last citizen standing in line can reap the benefits of this well intentioned Sarkari endeavour.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Independence of the Judiciary
Our nation will always remain indebted to the current Chief Justice of India NV Ramana for all his strenuous efforts to regain and restore the much needed independence of the Judiciary. His three immediate predecessors took the Judiciary to a point of disdain by compromising its sanctity and Sovereignty.
Given the battered state of this pillar of hope, Justice Ramana, in the remaining ten months of his tenure, has an uphill task of battling a government that has set all out to erode judicial values. May he be bestowed with all the strength to take the powers that be in the noble mission of protecting and safeguarding our temples of justice.
It is imperative that every Judge across the nation dispenses justice without fear. The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and a judiciary which is truly independent. A judiciary that is accountable only to the Rule of Law while resisting even the faintest trace of governmental influence or interference. We owe this to ourselves for the greater good of our nation.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
A tragic mistake
America must hang its head in shame. What a mess it has made in Afghanistan. They wanted to take revenge for Sept 11 attack on the Twin Towers. But there were other ways to do that, besides going to war.
How many young lives were lost on both sides? And the most heartbreaking news I read, was the deadly drone strike by the American army days before its pullout.
The US military has admitted that it was ‘a tragic mistake’ that did not kill ISIS-K planners but instead killed 10 innocent civilians, of which seven were children! The children had run out in the compound to meet their dad who had returned in his van, when the drone struck killing them all. The US military who had been tracking his movement thought he was loading bombs in his vehicle, when actually they were water canisters!
What a tragedy. Will America never learn? It invaded Iraq saying they had weapons of mass destruction but there were none. Syria, Libya, Iraq all these countries are worse off after American intervention and refugees are pouring into Europe. Does America think it’s the saviour of the world?
America needs leaders like Angela Merkel not gun toting cowboys like George Bush, Donald Trump whose only aim is to sell their arms and armaments. Then perhaps there will be peace in the world.
Jennifer Viegas, Navelim
