Ominous omicron
After the second wave of Covid-19 which spread throughout the nation and caused many deaths, health disaster and panic a few months ago made the people realise that if negligence and carelessness are shown then they have to pay a heavy price. After the wave people were cautious and adhered to Covid protocol but of late it seems as if they have completely forgotten those ‘dark days’ and are back to square one. No masks, no sanitisers, crowded celebrations, overcrowded markets and transportations and as a result now we have another variant, a new strain of the fatal corona virus omicron staring at us and already it has begun its deadly march as omicron cases are surging so fast making States and local bodies to impose restrictions to control the spread.
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The Health ministry has given the alarm that the next few weeks will be very critical. Now who is to be blamed for such a situation? The public and the authority in one way or the other are responsible for such a situation. Protocol during religious festivals were simply flouted.
Now the centre and the States have stressed on people’s participation to control the deadly virus and its variant. Definitely people’s participation is vital to control the infection and harness the pandemic and this is possible only with each and every individual’s support and help.
M Pradyu, Kannur
Political parties get away with lies
Promising freebies during elections is deeply ingrained in Indian elections. When elections are nearing politicians and political parties have been liberally doing out freebies in an attempt to draw voters and this trend has become exceedingly ostentatious in the last one decade. The onus is on the voters who should reject such freebies and exercise their franchise without getting influenced by such offers. Offering such goodies is equivalent to buying people by luring them with promise of free goodies and therefore amounts to corruption.
Freebies will undoubtedly influence voters and make a mockery of the very foundation of democracy as free and elections are its very roots. In fact offering freebies is an insult to the voters because political parties are under the wrong impression that all people can be fooled all the time. They think that people of India are fools because they choose the same political parties who never work for them again and again. The voters aspire for good basic and higher education, jobs, improving infrastructure facilities better health facilities and drinking water supply, transport and improved infrastructure etc.
A true leader is he who thinks of the voters first and party later.
K G Vilop, Chorao
Mephistophelian move
The Union Home Ministry in a diabolic move has blocked foreign funding of Mother Teresa’s ‘Missionaries of Charity’; this goes beyond petty politics and is a ‘the gloves are off’ attack on India’s poorest of the poor. The timing of this egregious step, on Christmas Eve is appalling, smacks of a lack of empathy and flies in the face of principles of humanity. To save face, the MHA has been trotting out lame excuses about MOC not meeting eligibility criteria (this after working for @ six decades in the country?) and certain ‘adverse’ inputs about their activities
Almost 20,000 destitutes, orphans, handicapped, sick, abandoned, aged and the dying are dependent on the Missionaries of Charity for their basic survival, food and medicines ; their lifeline, literally has been snapped, just like that. This is extremely distressing and a low down, condemnable attack on humanity, a vile effort to stop the outreach of the MoC brothers and sisters.
The bogey of ‘conversion’ has also been raised by the ones pursuing a saffron agenda to justify such reprehensible action. First it was the Dalits, then the Muslims and now the Christians and their charities, these despots will stoop to any level to realise their (pipe) dream of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. But they would be well advised to remember that karma is a boomerang, what goes around comes around.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Follow Corona rules strictly
During these times of Coronavirus and Omicron scare, we need to be more vigilant and follow all rules related to Coronavirus strictly. People are known to wear mask on their necks. Such careless behaviour will only lead to the increase in the number of Corona cases.
People should continue to follow measures to reduce their risk of getting infected with Covid-19 by wearing well-fitting masks, following hand hygiene and physical distancing, improving ventilation of indoor spaces, avoiding crowded spaces and getting vaccinated.
Jubel D’Cruz, Mumbai
Traffic signals at Ribandar-Chimbel
The traffic signals at the Ribandar-Chimbel junction on the Panaji-Old Goa highway which were installed earlier this year have not been functioning for the last many months. This junction has been very perilous with so many fatal accidents and precious lives lost. Suddenly and miraculously the signals had started working on September 5, the day President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Goa. And once again stopped functioning in a few days.
The state of the roads across Goa are also a matter of great concern. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had solemnly promised that all the roads in Goa would be free of potholes by November 1. But Pramod Sawant has failed to deliver even on this assurance with potholes galore across Goa. Despite the Bombay High Court having ruled that good and properly maintained roads are a Fundamental Right of every citizen, this so very insensitive Government has allowed the roads to deteriorate to a pathetic condition. The Panjim-Ribandar causeway has developed potholes within days of it being recently hot-mixed.
The authorities don’t seem to care for the hardship faced especially by two wheelers on account of the pothole ridden roads. To add to the misery people have to also navigate around the stray cattle and dogs which have merrily infested our roads and even the Highways.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Health index
The availability of health resources, its reachability to the common man and an effective utilisation of the facilities through cost-effectiveness are useful indicators of a robust country. The Niti Aayog’s “Health Index programme” encompasses a wide range of parameters to assess the health of a state.
The Niti Aayog has come out with its fourth report ranking States and union territories of India by their “overall performance” and “annual incremental performance”. The reference 2019-20 year has been assessed and compared to the previous year’s task fulfilment to provide the competitive thrust and cooperative spirit between States. Health outcome, governance and information, key inputs and processes are given percentages to add to the total performance.
Since this is a year-on-year ranking, a healthy rivalry between States means the common man stands to benefit.
The incremental changes have great significance because they help the States to bridge the deficiency in a particular area in the succeeding year. Here the centre of attention, apart from NMR and antenatal care (ANC), is on grading of PHCs and disease surveillance that underline the importance of rural health.
It has to be noted that states that have come up trumps in the overall performance are those with high education and literacy levels.
The “Health Index” reports of the coming years will reveal whether the States lagging behind have caught up with the toppers.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
