Politicians badly in need of value education
This has reference to the edit ‘The vitality of value education’ (Herald October 27, 2022). You have very well outlined the importance of value education rather than learning by rote. Scoring 90-100 per cent is not education, that’s competition.
We need to educate our children at a young age to face the real challenges of this world, with correct values and the right attitude. And yes, value education also includes personal values such as morality, ethics, punctuality, etc. What we see today is, values such as ethics are brazenly thrown to the wind in pursuit of money, power and wealth.
Yes, the politicians, they are very badly in need of value education. It is indeed disgusting to see how our politicians have been going about their behaviour in recent times. At the end of the day, we need to emphasize the importance of value education. Certainly then we can look forward to a better way of life.
Melville X D’Souza, Mumbai
Crush empty water bottles
It is learnt that the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) this year has seized and destroyed 16 kgs of cashew nuts as they were found to be of substandard quality. The cashew nuts were spoiled or discoloured, damaged and also unlabelled. It seems absolutely necessary for the authorities to keep a check on the eatables as well as drinks, including packaged drinking water consumed by the citizens for its quality.
It must be said that packaged drinking water is consumed in large quantities by the consumers every single day. Hence a check on its quality and purity also seems necessary. Samples of packaged drinking water need to be checked especially those sold at railway stations and bus-stands. It would be in the fitness of things for the consumer to crush the empty water bottles once it becomes empty.
There is every possibility of some unscrupulous elements refilling the discarded empty water bottles with ordinary tap water and selling it as packaged drinking water after resealing the bottles and relabeling them. Such bottles containing impure water could be sold at railway stations and bus-stands. Crushing the empty water bottles by the consumer after consumption will go a long way in preventing this malpractice.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Promote the disabled govt employees
The Apex Court in September 2021 had “directed the government to issue instructions on ‘reservation in promotion’, as provided in Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The aggrieved disabled government employees had even submitted memorandum to their respective head of the department in regarding to promotions. But still it is pending.
Despite the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of reservation in promotion and department of social welfare granting advisory failed to issue promotions.
PwD employees are eligible for 4% reservations in promotions. The bureaucracy’s approach as obstructive and lethargic, hundreds of eligible employees are deprived of their rights and thereby causing a huge setback in the form of carrier progression and also financial loss to them. The aggrieved PwD employes should not be made to suffer merely on account of departmental lapse of holding the meeting of time scale. The abnormal delay in holding the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee, which decides on employees’ promotions are the reasons for not giving career benefits to PwD employees.
The government should advise all ministries and departments to ensure strict compliance of instructions in order to achieve the desired objectives of timely convening of DPCs/preparation of approved select panels within the prescribed time frame.
KG Vilop, Chorao
Celebrate festivals, but without disturbance
A bunch of self-centred/selfish Goans (despite of knowing everything about global warming and noise pollution) were seen stubbornly lighting up some noisy fireworks continuously in the sky and disturbing others by dancing on loud blaring windows shattering DJ music under the influence of alcohol the whole night until the wee hours of the morning in some of the most remote densely populated residential areas of our State on the eve of this year’s Diwali in Goa.
Why can’t we Goans celebrate our respective festivals peacefully without lighting those noisy fireworks in the sky, playing loud blaring DJ music the whole night and without disturbing the peace of others (especially of all the senior citizens suffering from different types of serious ailments) in today’s liberated Goa?
I think that we Goans should stop this madness or habit of annually disturbing others whilst celebrating our respective festivals to enjoy our own inner kicks and to show our fake imaginary superiority over others in Goa.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
Appreciate Goan talent
Goa is so tiny a State yet it is filled with so many talents. We need to appreciate the hidden talents of Goan brethren and explore them to people. I am talking about the unique yet everyone’s favourite sport football.
Goa was fortunate to host the prestigious tournament of FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 and now it will be hosting yet another season of Indian Super League for the Home team ‘Forca Goa’.
All can’t play in it as some got different talents either to anchor shows or to play as DJ’s. But sadly we hear just one anchor for all these years.
Can’t management and authorities hire one anchor and one DJ for each game? Give chances to the hidden talents who are looking for opportunities to get something big. If I was in-charge of hiring like this, I would definitely bring forward talented people and give them the much needed break. They may get nervous but that should be alright for a start. Hope the authorities look into this, so that we have many more hidden talents getting the much awaited chance.
Peter Pires, Margao
Imran eyeing a comeback
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is a popular politician. Having ruled Pakistan for nearly four years, Imran knows what it takes to please the people. However, after his unceremonious ouster through a no-confidence motion in the Pakistan National Assembly, the man is not taking things lying down. Recently, his Tehreek-e-Insaf party won six out of eight seats in the National Assembly by polls.
Close on the heels of the popular verdict, however, comes an Election Commission ruling that has barred Imran from being a member of the National Assembly in the present term for “corrupt practices” in what has come to be known as the Toshakhana case. The five-member commission has found Imran guilty of dishonest behaviour, fabricating information and inaccurate declaration.
However, Imran has not let the commission ruling sap his energy. His tug of war with the Pakistan army continues unabated. The charismatic politician strongly believes that the army was responsible for his downfall, in and out of power. There are no reasons to believe otherwise.
While declaring the “largest long march” in the county’s history, Imran has urged the incumbent government to hold fresh elections. The 70-year-old leader is determined to come back using all resources at his command.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
