Team Herald
DONA PAULA: Taking a dig at those opposing mobile towers on the issue of radiation, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar countered saying that those opposing towers are moving with the mobile, which in their understanding can be a time bomb, in their pockets. He said he does not find any danger in mobile towers.
“In Goa many people oppose mobile towers, they complain that connectivity is not good or they are having one bar signal, this is the problem people tell me but if you go and set a tower there is opposition because someone has spread rumours that mobile radiation causes cancer,” Parrikar said, addressing the gathering at the inaugural function of a four-day workshop on communication strategies and approaches with focus on the Indian Ocean by NIO.
“Scientific knowledge, properly understood, can be to the benefit of society otherwise we have a society which one way wants the benefit of technology, that is digital connectivity, but on the other side the same people oppose setting up of mobile towers out of lack of scientific knowledge about radiation,” he said.
He said that research has been carried out, that shows that the level of radiation is considered safe and that you get more radiation from the sun but benefit from sun radiation is much more.
“Now it’s very fundamental that you carry that mobile, which is actually continuously taking signals from the tower everywhere and actually if at all you consider it dangerous (I am not calling it dangerous), you’re carrying the dangerous time bomb with you and opposing something where you will be there once in day or one hour in a day,” Parrikar said.
The Chief Minister stated that every field in India is expanding, whether it is technical, infrastructural or the media field. “The media has also grown exponentially to a level where media is finding itself short of people who can really understand journalism. I consider for every aspect of society whether it is politics, judiciary or elected representatives or journalists, an ethical code and integrity is very important and integrity does not necessarily come from your faithful reporting but also from your knowledge of how do you report a particular incident for the benefit of the society,” Parrikar added.
He said that scientific knowledge is very important to journalists to analyse reports, which need scientific thinking.
