GRIM PUBLIC PLAYGROUNDS

Green with monsoon beauty but Panaji’s several public playgrounds are maintained with lackadaisical tender loving care! This otherwise lovely Caranzalen playground can do with better drainage of rain water at its
entrance…Nasir and Ajit are the two children taking a rainy day morning break on the swings but have little to smile about! (Pic by Pankajbala R Patel)

NATION IS BEHIND YOU!

IT is disappointing to read that nurses are discriminated against when functions are held in Goa, they are not invited. Indirectly classing them as covid-19 carriers! Also in certain parts of India doctors are attacked by relatives of patients if a covid patient dies.

Everyone indulging in these shameful acts should realise that in this covid crisis theya re dependent on doctors, nurses and all healthcare staff, who are doing their job tirelessly and loyally without fearing that they will be infected!

People should stay away from rumors and myths about the infection and virus as spread over social media. Hospital staff working in covid wards are educated and careful not to catch the infection, if they get any symptoms they immediately self-isolate themselves. So visitors and covid patients’ relatives should not indulge in their own biases, attitudes, fall for false information and instead seek scientific, rational knowledge before drawing conclusions and being judgemental and discriminatory.

Medical staff is risking their own lives by working overtime and without visiting their families during this covid crisis and working in trying times having to protect themselves in uncomfortable PPE uniforms. Over more than a year they have observed their daily routine of protecting patients as well as themselves. They take of your loved ones in difficult times and we are aware that many doctors and nurses have lost their own life caring for covid patients. They deserve our sincere gratitude and respect for all the sacrifices they make.

The Goa and Central government should immediately offer bonus and pay rise to these nurses, doctors and healthcare staff to boost their morale. They deserve it. Also the government should deploy staff from less busy Goa government departments to assist them. More health staff is needed at government hospitals, urban health centres, community health centres, PHCs and sub-PHCs.

 This will help improve monitoring home isolating patients and also help doctors/nurses at the hospitals and centres. In preparation for the eventuality of any third Covid wave the government health care system should be ready and think of all possible scenarios and plans to save lives rather than lose them.

In some foreign countries medical staff is offered more than 20 per cent discount on all purchases at supermarkets and other stores and this is really a genuine humane gesture. We want them to know the nation is behind them!

–Jo Dias, Salcete, Goa

DON’T INTIMIDATE TIATRISTS!

Politicians have no business intimidating our Goan tiatrists! The Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias has reportedly filed (obviously at the behest of his BJP political masters whose speciality is killing two birds with one stone) a defamation case of Rs5 crore against budding Konkani singer Alison Gomes alias ‘Alison de Curtorim’ for uploading a controversial Konkani song on a video sharing/social media platform and for exposing the former’s misdeeds through that particular song.

Singer Alison Gomes on his part has claimed that he has the required evidence to defend the controversial song and also to fight the defamation case filed against him by the politician. The tiatr fraternity is extending its full moral support to Alison and that’s really  encouraging.

Many Konkani singers have been fearlessly targeting politicians from different platforms in their own unique style. Not just in Goa but all around the world through their creative songs and to enlighten the public, besides entertainment everyone through the years.

In fact, this trend started way back courtesy singers the late William de Curtorim and I remember him daringly blasting various politicians (especially Goa’s longest serving chief minister Pratapsingh Rane and that too, when he was in power) through his songs, but no cases were ever filed against him at that time, why?

That’s because our past politicians respected the art forms art form of all such Konkani singers of Goa unlike the politicians of today who are very much allergic towards any kind of criticism and who always believe that they alone are above law.

In fact, the politicians of today are arrogant who come like beggars at our doorsteps during elections but after getting elected start behaving like the ultimate undisputed heavyweight champs and acting rude/arrogant as if there is no damn right for anyone to even question them.

Well,  I personally feel that a first time MLA like Clafasio Dias should stop harassing a budding Konkani singer like Alison Gomes by filling a defamation case for merely exposing his misdeeds through a single song because Mr. Dias has already defamed not just himself but also all his voters from Cuncolim by getting himself elected on a Congress ticket and then suddenly jumping like a shameless frog in the BJP for the sake of his own personal development. Period….

— Jerry Fernandes, Saligao

EFFECTIVE LAND USE

THE pandemic has proven without a doubt that our elected representatives are completely at sea! They even hide inadequacies like oxygen shortage, wrong decisions, which created the deadly second wave. All our 42 elected were either in hiding or making excuses and proved to be totally unfit.

This is not limited to pandemic handling alone. Matters concerning Goa are ill thought-out plans proposed mostly by Central ministers to  benefit out of Goa businessmen. Land is the costliest resource and cannot be created but can be usurped from one holder to offer to another for a pittance.

Goa is a very small state with limited land, which must be considered as a scarce resource and to be shared with future generations. However, this government is on spree ensuring change in land ownership with no thought for the locals.

Five lakh sq/ mt of SEZ land is to be auctioned. How will it benefit Goans? The Benaulim prawn hatchery has been put out for the highest bidder: Will locals benefit? Now the government want to give land — maybe on lease — which is like 99 years?

This is a gift for the India University of Legal Education and Research with a planned reservation of 20 seats for locals. First, we know that this will reduce later on for varied reasons. Next: Land is being taken up from locals for the use of 20% locals only? The remaining 80% is for outsiders?

Does this make sensee? Surely 80% of the benefits must go to locals! During the pandemic: Did the elected provide 80% of their income from government office for the benefit of their voters? Did we see just 42 oxygen concentrators, when needed? Why are they so free with resources not theirs?

Does the GCCI/TTAG run their business where 80% benefits go to their customers? As  beneficiaries they will not protest! This  attitude must change.  Party voters must form alliances to ensure we get, not just educated  representatives but toppers. Otherwise there will be no Goa left.

–R Fernandes, Margao

JUDICIARY BACKLOG

COVID-19 induced disruptions have only further dented the administrations of justice while adding to the backlog of cases pending. Cases have now reached an alarming level.   

As on April 15 this year 67,279 cases were pending in the Supreme Court, 5.75 lakh  piled up in High Courts and a mountain of 3.8 crore gathered in the subordinate courts across the country. It is a very grim picture of India’s justice delivery system.

In view of the rising pendency of cases, the number of holidays could possibly be slashed and ensuring that courts sit for at least six hours a day. In the current pandemic there is no reason why with all the precautions in place courts cannot function, hearing just 15 cases in each session. This would help ease the backlog. And for every litigant his case is urgent.

 The judiciary seems to be placed beyond the reach of the common man while influential and wealthy Ambanis and Adanis wade their way through. Courts of law can never end up as temples of surprises, as every order passed must be based on very sound legal reasoning.

For decades there has been a gross failure in administration of the judicial machinery. Many judges highlight all this in their speeches at various functions but it remains good to hear while nothing gets done to cure the situation.

Many do not see an end to their litigation in their lifetime! It can take 15 to 20 years if not more for a legal battle to end. There is need to identify problems grappling the judiciary by finding some practical solutions.

The issue of easily obtained and indefinitely lasting stay orders needs to be addressed. Adjournments for the asking must also be done away with. As the years pass, memories fade, witnesses turn hostile and justice becomes meaningless. Widely spaced dates is another problem, especially in criminal matters, with  under-trials in judicial custody denied  their fundamental right to life and liberty.

The Supreme Court needs to invoke its administrative powers to remedy an unacceptable state of affairs.  If immediate remedial measures are not put in place the justice delivery system may collapse sadly under its own weight.

–Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

VACCINE POST-MORTEM, PLEASE!

WOULD be satisfied if vaccine manufacturers providing information to establish beyond doubt the efficacy of their vaccines? Is there  a high degree of data from clinical trials which testify to the efficacy of vaccines as 90% to 95%? Is it only 10% to 5% who showed side effects in clinical trials?

The credibility of the MNCs should be to establish beyond doubt that vaccines were more protective than harmful. This would restore their credibility  there is cause to worry about the doubting Thomases, who regard vaccines as not totally safe?  For example could particular co-morbid conditions of volunteers during the clinical trials mirror the same effects of those in the new mass inoculation? Would it be clear if the companies reveal in detail that various specific co-morbid conditions had a particular chance of leading to failure of the vaccine that was noted during the clinical trials? Vaccine companies owe it to the recipients a clear guideline as to what may happen during mass inoculation which should be in line with clinical trials Broadly would persons with diabetes, heart disease, kidney malfunction, liver disorder or allergies may be medically examined and advised that vaccination should not be had since it is harmful because of their health condition Prevention would be better than a later post-mortem.

— Elvidio Miranda, Panaji