The Goan Civil Code!
Goa was governed by a Civil Code inherited from the Portuguese. It was a wise piece of legislation. Unfortunately, at present, not much of it remains, for it has been dismantled into loose Acts. Still, unfortunately, our public, our lawyers, as well as guest speakers from outside Goa, are not aware that Goa has no longer a Civil Code as such and go on singing praises in its honour and proposing it as a model for the rest of India. Can it not be restored, after having been overhauled? I do not know.
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Art. 41 of our Constitution contains the directive principle advising the State to secure uniform Civil Code throughout India, and BJP has made it a part of its core manifesto, pushing it to be implemented. Its motives are suspect, and the Code which it will bring will be tailored according to its communalist and divisive philosophy. Therefore, this is not the right time for well-meaning citizens to call for bringing about one Civil Code throughout India.
We need to be simple like doves, but also prudent and shrewd like serpents. BJP’s philosophy, being surreptitiously carried forward, is Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan; one Nation, one Language, one System; one Election, one Party, one Leader. It is essentially a fascist organisation, against the democratic and federal ethos of the Indian Union.
Mousinho Ataide, Saligão
Prevent damage to underground pipeline
It is learnt that most of Bardez taluka will receive restricted water supply for two days after a 1,000mm underground pipeline burst at Karaswada. The damage was caused during the ongoing highway widening at Karaswada. If one considers the stretch from Guirim up to Karaswada junction, surprisingly this is reportedly the fifth time the same stretch of the pipeline has been damaged for the same reason.
Bursting of water pipelines due to digging of roads has been taking place at a disturbing frequency at various places in the State. Besides causing inconvenience to the residents and business establishments in the locality due to restricted water supply, a lot of water is wasted due to such bursting of pipelines as it takes some time for the authorities to repair the damage. Puncture to the pipeline causes delay in the supply network and it takes time for the supply chain to normalise thereby adding to the woes of the consumers.
The contractors need to be made aware of the underground network of water pipelines in order to prevent any damage to these pipelines. Alternatively in order to find an underground water pipeline a utility line locator, that can find both metal and plastic pipes, can be utilised. A pipe locator uses conductive or inductive methods to find hidden pipes with a high level of accuracy. Incidentally now besides the water pipelines, underground power cables also need to be protected during road digging.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
The public is dispensable!
Even the Centre today realises the repercussions of the ever-increasing number of positive Covid 19 cases in the country. India now has the third highest number of such cases in the world after Brazil and the US. Vaccination of the public being one measure to contain the same, the Centre is now to include all public above the age of 45 from April 1. They have asked States to ramp up testing to 70% of capacity per day and to follow all protocols including containment and surveillance. Even States which have the highest number of daily cases have asked people coming into their State to furnish the RT-PCR negative certificate.
In Goa, the Health Minister is calling for tourists and other visitors to furnish Covid negative certificates. Other political parties in Goa are calling for the same and to ban parties at Hotels and Clubs. But the CM says all this is not required!
Is this topic not as important as the CZMP, marinas, etc? Why is the Public not being consulted as they are the key ‘stakeholders’- how we love this word! Why is this not discussed in the Assembly? Why are the parties who ‘claim’ they are a new force in Goa, not demanding the same? What stops them from going to Court?
Sadly, politicians in Goa work for their own agenda. And people allow them this liberty.
R Fernandes, Margao
Calibration of patho-labs’ devices
All over the country there are pathological laboratories, some are standalones while others are within hospitals and polyclinics. There are also sample collections centres where samples from patients are obtained and sent to patho-labs. The patho-labs and centres may even be located in dirty alleys and in unhygienic surroundings. Sometime or the other or as an annual event most of us get done pathological tests to check for hemoglobin levels, diabetes, thyroid issues, uric acid and several other parametres. After we give the samples we trust and pray that the values are in the normal range! If the optimum values for some parameters are not present then a doctor prescribes medications that would benefit the patient, or to begin an operation or extract a tooth. Most of the patho-analysis are expensive since the sophisticated instruments used are costly.
If we carry out a round robin test i.e., analyse the same sample in different patho-labs there are chances of getting variable results. The analysts would say that this is because of different methods used. This explanation is acceptable if the values vary marginally but it may not be the case. After a few days if the same sample is analysed in the same patho-lab the values could be disparate!
In the above scenario, the moot question is: how reliable are the analytical values? The answer partly depends on the capability of an instrument, skills of a technician and a doctor’s interpretation of the results. But for all these the vital issues are calibration of instruments and methods used. If instruments are not calibrated, methods are not standardised or standard samples are not used during the analysis then there is always an element of doubt about the results. Based on wrong results a doctor could always mis-diagnosis an ailment and the treatment could go awry. Therefore, the government should make it mandatory for patho-labs to annually test and calibrate their instruments. Officials from health department and nominated government doctors need to check and issue certificates (with validity for year) that the doctors have to display, just as they proudly exhibit their degrees and diplomas!
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
Reveal vaccine’s true efficacy pattern
Reports of the Swedish/British vaccine’s efficacy pattern has not been addressed in clear and simple terms. Also doubts have been raised that this vaccine has proven to lead to bleeding, clotting and low count of blood platelets. However, what the manufacturer of this vaccine has to clarify in clear terms is the exact percentage of number of recipients who have been protected by this vaccine so far, as well as the percentage as to what extent each individual will be protected by this vaccine, based on actual data.
Only if these straight forward and simple data, so far observed have been released by the manufacturer, will there be a thorough and actual reflection of its observation so far.
It may be emphasised that it is highly unlikely that any two sets of clinical trials data and actual inoculation patterns data will match one another even in so far as percentage is concerned, which makes it complicated. It must also be borne in mind that this vaccine is under the scanner, but the other vaccines being used has still not drawn the scrutiny of the microscope.
Elvidio Miranda,
Panjim
