Chosen by God
All the media theories of a “frontrunner” for the papacy came to naught when an unsung champion of the poor and the underprivileged was elevated to the papacy of the Catholic Church. Indeed, mysterious are the ways of the Almighty that the hand of God lifted the lowly servant of the slum-dwellers of Argentina to be shepherd of the larger flock of Christ the world over.
Tomas Lobo, Alto-Porvorim
Saluting bravery
It was very saddening to learn of the tragic death of the young Ponda PSI Abhishek Gomes in an accident recently. From the chase it is evident the truck was carrying some illegal goods and was trying to avoid getting caught. Finally the truck succeeded in crushing the diligent PSI. I salute the courage of this brave young man and request the chief minister to take stringent action against the culprit.
Simon D’Costa, Assolna/Dubai
Demoralising action
The sudden shunting out of Elvis Gomes, Executive Director SAG does not augur well for Goan sports. By removing Gomes from his position the Sports Minister has displayed his dictatorial attitude. Susanna de Sousa was also shunted out by Tawadkar for not toeing the line. Such an action being taken before the Lusofonia Games is extremely demoralising. Dismissal is definitely for any reason other than sports.
Lucas D’Souza, Qatar/Verna
VVIP treatment
Ever since England and Portugal ruled us, we have bowed to royalty and dignitaries. Independence helped us get rid of them and our own set of royalty. Or so we thought! Politicians, once elected become VIPs and VVIPs with all its privileges, perks, immunity from prosecution et al that the position entails. The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi with Justices Rajana Desai and Kurien Joseph stated “The issue of police protection and use of red light, hooters and sirens by private individuals and so-called VIPs need to be debated.” Why are we tolerating this?
John Eric Gomes, Porvorim
Vote bank politics?
In recent months, some vested interests have been slowly trying to disturb communal harmony by forcibly attempting to install statues at communally sensitive areas and constructing illegal religious structures at public places, national highways, bus-stands, rickshaw stands, government lands with the sole intention of instigating communal passions between all major communities in Goa. The latest such move is of an upcoming illegal religious structure near the gate of Goa Medical College, Bambolim and which is in total violation of the Supreme Court directives which clearly forbids construction of such religious structures within 25 metres of a highway. Is this not vote bank politics?
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
On line passports
Goans have repeatedly expressed their frustration about the difficulty they have been facing to get online appointments for passport renewal.
The fault lies with the way the system has been implemented. The solution is simple ~ advance appointments could be allowed for a period of two months. These can be shown in different colours ~ yellow for holidays, red if slots are full and green days when slots are available. People can log in any time and click on green dates.
Sanjiv Nadkarni, St Inez
An eye-opener
Late PSI Abhisek Gomes was a diligent police officer, who died in the line of duty. Will his death be an eye opener to the home department? Many police officers do their duty faithfully. We will have to work hard in order to gain zero percent in corruption. Instead of announcing various schemes, the salaries of our police personnel must be increased, so that they can live a decent life. We must respect their service to us. Since the police are paid less, they are tempted to ask for bribes during night patrol and at check-points. The driver of the Punjab truck involved in the murder of PSI Gomes must have mistaken the signal to stop given by the sincere police officer, for something else, and in fear must have tried to flee from the scene. The routine practice of corruption among some of the police men malign the image of our sincere and hardworking police officers and home department, bringing death to innocent police officers like the late PSI Gomes.
Eleuterio Carneiro, Navelim
Encroaching the streets
Anti-encroachment drives are being conducted by civic authorities wherein even the goods of street vendors, who illegally occupy the pavements, are confiscated. All this could well be a thing of the past. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) bill could well be passed in the current session of Parliament as Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Ajay Maken has reportedly promised to push for the Bill. If passed it will create chaos on the streets in small states like Goa where there is limited space for public use. It would be wise of the central government to leave implementation of the rule to the individual states depending on the necessity.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Upright officer
It was shocking news for all of us. PSI Abhishek Gomes was a student of our college and passed BCA from our college. He was a very gentle, hardworking and good student and played football for the college. It was a tragic incident and it is unbelievable that he is no more. Goa Police has lost an upright young officer. We also convey our sympathy to the bereaved family. May his soul rest in peace.
Dr I Bhanu Murthy, Margao
