GOVERNOR IN PERNEM

MAKE GOA SELF-RELIANT!: Governor OF Goa PS Sreedharan Pillai visited Pernem taluka on Tuesday April 26 as part of the Sampurna Goa Yatra to get the real picture of Goa’s culture, traditions and hard work in villages. While interacting with Sarpanch and Panch members of Mandrem, Morjim, Agarwada, Parsem and Tuvem Panchayats he urged people to work together for the betterment of others. He also took note of various issues handicapping the people like shortage of drinking water, shoddy or no roads, cutting down of hill slopes for construction, etc. MLA Jit Arolkar along with the governor promised to look into the complaints. Also present were Additional Collector Gopal Parsekar, Deputy Collector Deepak Vaigankar, mamlatdar of Pernem Anand Malik, Secretary to Governor Mihir Vardhan, sarpanches and several Panchayat members.

TMC WOES

I-PAC was hired as a consultant by the Trinamool Congress. It was TMC who came to Goa – not three years ago but also three months ago  before the 2022. With zero grassroot workers and zero candidates.  They started poaching from candidates from the Congress and other parties along with their workers to build itself up. Who was the con artiste? Not the I-PAC which failed as a consultant only.

Goans like the Thivim ZP member who now blames the I-PAC jumped to get a ticket to fool voters. They knew the ground reality but greed for ticket triumphed. All Goan TMC members  joined the TMC for a ticket and campaign money. They knew how they were going to harm Goa politics but were shameless. Now her husband, ex-TMC State President along with unsuccessful TMC candidates at Porvorim, Mapusa and  Siolim have resigned from TMC. They could contest the elections only because of the TMC but greedily jumped into the fray to kill Goan democracy.

A big media house actually rolled out the red carpet for the TMC and made a killing. These are the conmen of Goa and the finally the Goa government was formed on a 33% vote! How much did all these conmen of Goa earned and from whom, we need to know.  They didn’t think twice before fuelling the ruling party’s communal agenda and destroying Goa. Who is responsible? Goans must know. Goans must boycott them.  How come the GUJ is so silent?

–R Fernandes, Margao

SOCIAL SCHEMES FOR WHOM?

IN  2001 when the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) was launched the application forms were available only with ministers and ruling MLAs who started distributing them on their birthdays. As this was a public scheme I was constrained to immediately move the High Court which directed that the application forms be made available to the public at the offices of all the Mamlatdars.

It is imperative that the certifying of eligibility for social welfare schemes should be by revenue authorities and not by MLA and MPs. It  is on account of this that hundreds of fraudulent and ineligible persons have managed to get themselves enrolled as beneficiaries of schemes they are not entitled to.

It is also imperative that payments to the needy are unfailingly made monthly and the applicants do not have to wait for months to receive their benefits. A prudent government should not launch new schemes unless it first has the finances to be able to regularly pay the beneficiaries of existing schemes.

–Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

SELECTIVE AMNESIA?

MOST Opposition parties have reportedly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of playing politics during his recent meeting with chief ministers, on the Covid situation, by raising the issue of fuel prices and passing the buck on to states to reduce petrol and diesel prices.  Modi is habitually known for blaming not just the chief ministers of Opposition-ruled states but also the country’s first prime minister who was one of the main architects of modern India, Pandit Nehru.

Apparently now Nehru is to be blamed for everything wrong in this country and this shows up how the PM frequently distracts the people from his own failures, he is instead a political victim of India.  Tomorrow Modi may start  blaming Nehru for de-monetization, excise duties, inflation, price rise and also for  the numerous communal riots (which are becoming common in recent years due to official blessings) that are frequently seen openly erupting in different parts of the country today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his latest discussion selectively accused a few chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing VAT on petrol and diesel and for still selling it at higher rates despite the excise duty being cut by the Centre last November.

Hey, let’s face it.  The excise duty which was just 9.48 and 3.56 in 2014 was raised to 32.90 and 31.80 on petrol & diesel respectively by 2020. It was later brought down to 27.90 and 21.80 on  petrol & diesel in last November as a Diwali gift to bluff the people of this country.

Today,  68% tax is still being looted by the Central government. And Modi piously advises chief ministers to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel and to sell the same at a much cheaper rate in their respective states? 

Modi should scrap all Central taxes on fuel on the lines of farm laws to give permanent relief for the people of this country and then project himself as a people’s PM, instead of misguiding everyone by selectively targeting a few chief ministers of the country to play his own dirty political games  — to  market himself as one undisputed “heavyweight” champion like the Superman of India, using his own godi-media! Jai Hind.

–Jerry Fernandes — Saligao