Rough road ahead for CM Pramod Sawant
In what is unprecedented, for the first time Goa is seeing an unacceptable delay in Government formation.
On March 10, after having won 20 seats, the BJP with the support of the MGP and three independents had that very night a clear majority of 25 in the House of 40. But the Government is still not in place. Finalising who would be the Chief Minister itself took over 10 days with the High Command having to intervene while Pramod Sawant and others making several trips to Delhi.
Having selected Pramod Sawant to be the Chief Minister, the High Command will now have to grapple in selecting who the Ministers will be and also in the distribution of portfolios. While Goa is anxiously waiting for a government to be in place, the much delayed swearing in ceremony is now scheduled on March 28, to suit the convenience of the Delhi dignitaries who could have witnessed the function from Delhi and saved Goans all that traffic chaos. Had the BJP been in the Opposition, they would have created a ruckus on the streets over this inordinate delay.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
BJP leaders and CM’s swearing-in
A ‘grand’ swearing-in ceremony function (against the backdrop of discontent among a few BJP MLAs over MGP’s support to the national party) of Dr Pramod Sawant as Goa’s chief minister has been finally planned in the distinguished presence of prominent BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President J P Nadda, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and seven Chief Ministers of BJP ruled states.
The local BJP leaders are seen getting all set to make it a big event by bringing in thousands of people from the interior villages in jam-packed buses to show their party’s popularity in the State and somehow expecting to take maximum political mileage out of this much hyped upcoming swearing-in ceremony function.
Couldn’t these local BJP leaders go for a simple swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan itself to immediately kick start governance in the State instead of unnecessarily inviting some top central BJP leaders/chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to make a big show and delaying government formation?
I think that our local BJP leaders want to somehow start celebrating their own “ache din” by unnecessarily wasting crores of rupees organising such a grand swearing-in ceremony functions even after seeing the continuous ongoing price hike of petrol, diesel, domestic gas cylinders in our country carried by their own central government and watching the ever worsening condition/ suffering of our ‘aam-Goans’ in Goa.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
Growth of Konkani in Romi script
This is with reference to the article titled ‘Let us focus on the growth of Konkani’ by Jose Silveira (Herald, March 22) where he has rightly pointed out with reason that it’s never too late to introduce Konkani in Roman Script to bring about harmony among Konkani lovers and help literature in the language to grow while also making us aware of the bracket or clause in the 8th schedule.
On Monday Goa woke up to the shocking and sad news of one of her sons being shot and killed in the US. It brought to mind the tragic event in1986 when another of our Goan son lost his life to firing during the Konkani Agitation where people of Salcete fought unitedly just like they did during the Opinion Poll. Unfortunately today there seems to be nobody left to fight for Goa and for Konkani.
After Konkani was recognised as our official language schools began teaching in Devnagiri script but sadly some 30 years later some of these students grew up and as parents began demanding education in English Medium for their children! This wouldn’t have happened if Romi script was also taught on par with Devnagiri. Let’s not forget that Thomas Stephens though being an English Jesuit came to Goa and studied Konkani and set up a printing press at Rachol which was then the fourth press in entire Asia .He printed his first book in Konkani in 1616 and his last known book ‘Konkani Veakoronn” in 1640. Let’s be proud of our Konkani heritage and strive to promote the language and literature.
Allwyn N D’Souza, Saligao
After Mhadei, now it is Cauvery
A day after Tamil Nadu passed a resolution opposing the Mekedatu project, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly did the inevitable – pledging to go ahead with its plans to build a dam across river Cauvery. The Opposition Congress called TN’s action unlawful while extending support to the move and urged CM Basavaraj Bommai to seek the Centre’s early clearance. However, with both sides refusing to budge, a lasting solution remains elusive.
N J Ravi Chander, Bengaluru
We are to be blamed for garbage
Day by day the problem of garbage menace in the State of Goa is getting worse. As Goa is a tourist destination our Goa government should take a step to solve this issue in a safe manner as it is affecting our environment very badly. Residents of Goa are dumping their garbage on the road side where the street dogs and cattle do the menace. Today garbage menace is seen across the state of Goa and we should be blamed first and not only government. During the village panchayat gram sabha meetings the issue is discussed to mark the area for garbage disposal but people are raising their voices saying not in our area then where will we dump the garbage?.
We should allow government to set up garbage management plant in the locality so that in future there will be no garbage menace issues and we can breathe fresh air which is healthy for our lives. Sonsoddo dump is a major issue where Saxttikars are worried as the garbage mountain goes on increasing, goes up in flames again and again and the horrible smell of garbage affects the health of the public staying nearby and surrounding areas.
Hope the dream of late Manohar Parrikar to make Goa state garbage-free state comes true as soon as possible.
Ronnie D’Souza, Chandor
Let us save our water and forests
We had two very important days this week: International day of forests on March 21 and World Water Day on March 22. The former was to remind the people that forests are an integral part of water, shelter and food and the latter to raise awareness about the importance of water and to remind us of the need to conserve it. If the developments in my once green village Assagao are any indication, even scant respect is not paid to these important matters and the builders who build housing projects are the worst violators and destroyers.
On the eve of the International day of Forests, one builder engaged a contractor and denuded a big orchard land with the help of cutting machines. On the eve of the Water Day when people of Assagao met in the Village Panchayat to seek solution to their water problems, two aggrieved citizens reported that a builder had recently completed a project of 12 villas in which he built 12 swimming pools, one for each villa. There are at least 50 swimming pools in our small village all filled periodically with ground water.
Ground water is our resource but nobody has a check on it,swimming pools have become a fashion even though the sea and beach are close by. So while the local people complain that they have no water to drink and cook, outsiders who buy villas enjoy in the swimming pools built for their pleasure.
Rodney de Souza, Assagao
