IF YOU’RE IN THE MOOD TO BUY SOME GOLD JEWELLERY…you may want to drop in at the C Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers exhibition on at the Hotel Fidalgo, Panaji, from December 16 to 19, 2022 between 10:30 am to 8pm. Here is a range of contemporary creations in gold, diamond and silver selling selling @ Rs1,869 plus, plus. The 105 years old C Krishniah Chetty are Bengaluru’s oldest jewellers and they return every year with their exceptional jewellery collections featuring turquoise, citrine, pearls, amethyst, rubies along with fine diamonds. The exhibition was inaugurated by Minister for Art & Culture, Sports & Youth Affairs Govind Gaude and present are were Chaitanya V Cotha (Executive Director, C Krishniah Chetty Group Of Jewellers) who said, “Our jewellery is sure to make you feel beautiful at end-of-the-year celebrations to usher in Christmas and New Year…it is jewellery for magic moments for all Goans!” Sharing his vision on the luxury fragrances collection was Chaitanya V Cotha (Executive Director) who quipped that jewellery and fragrance go together and they have the finest collection in perfumes too as they were the first high-end Indian perfume company. We say check it out!
HUMAN RIGHTS SACROSANCT!
ON Dec 10 while the world observed Human Rights Day, hopefully we all vowed to selflessly make our Goa a better place. Where human rights are not a privilege for just a few but for every human being, citizen, resident.
It is appalling that this awfully power-r intoxicated government pays scant respect to orders passed by the Human Rights Commission, which is an independent authority constituted by law to deliver justice and bring to book violators of human rights. The government must respect and diligently comply with all the orders passed by courts and other constitutionally established authorities.
In the current state of anarchy, there is a paramount need to secure the human rights of one and all. No citizen should have to fear the State but should confidently participate in its administration and stand up for his rights.
We all need to be champions in the battle of ensuring everyone’s human rights. There couldn’t be a more worthy cause to be striving for. In fact, every day should be a human rights day, a day on which we work to ensure that all people can live with equality, dignity and freedom in a true sense.
Needless to say that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
— Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
CASINOS RUIN FUTURE GENERATIONS
GOA’S governance, or lack of it, is a matter of serious concern for citizens. Panjim’s unofficial status as India’s gambling capital is not just a slap in the face, but a death sentence for her genteel inhabitants.
We have reams of evidence of horrific crimes at casinos worldwide, but the latest news of a violent gangster arrested at a Goa casino is the last straw. There are plenty of other crimes/unsolved mysteries/ discrepancies that have all occurred near or at Goa casinos. These should serve as sufficient precedent for our courts to take suo motu action and stop Panjim from becoming a crime capital of mass shooting and car bombings in the near future.
History tends to repeat itself and concerned citizens do not want to entertain uninvited, unregulated sin industry, attracting hordes of terrorists/druglords/pedophiles and assorted sociopaths. Till casinos are shunted out of the Mandovi river and Goa the courts must order logs of casino patrons (and employees) to be maintained, and posted daily on a public website.
Ideally, checks should be done beforehand but vetting the entire volume of gambling visitors would be both time-consuming and labour- intensive. The website would help tackle anti-money laundering (AML) issues, counter terrorism financing (CTF) screening and enforce politically exposed person (PEP) bans.
Our news reports reveal cartels using crowds of seemingly innocent millennials to launder drug money — an algorithm could identify regular patrons and alert pertinent authorities. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau and Enforcement Directorate could use the website to apprehend culprits and thereby tackle national security threats. Employers and gamblers’ kin could keep track of their employees/relatives. CSR could also be accrued accordingly. Women should be kept tabs of too, given Goa’s shameful track record of crimes against women and high human trafficking rate.
Goa has now become notorious as a narco-tourism destination and was recently mocked by an Indian comic for being a banana republic. We’ve read that casinos have wreaked havoc in Canada, which is highly placed in Transparency International’s standing. Almost every three months, like clockwork, Australian news reveals how a major casino has been caught breaking the law. (Three and counting.)
Macau’s many loan sharks have clearly inspired touts in Goa who carry out similar scams here too. Case in point being tourists being kidnapped and beaten to extort cash. A report a week ago documents how Turkish premier Erdogan’s right-wing outfit has been using casinos to lure influential people and plying them with drugs and women. Their sexual exploits are covertly recorded and used against them to sway elections.
The CM’s recent comments that Goa is being used by criminal elements, Goa’s snowballing gun-related rate and the police crackdown on illegal tenants have to be factored in too. Unemployment, lack of social security schemes for youth and the pandemic will drive wayward impoverished kids to do the casinos’ “dirty work.”
The people of Goa need to come together to plan action now, before more nightmares and horrors rob them of their peace-loving, safe and secure life, as time goes by!
— Chris Fernandes, Panaji
LIMIT RECUSAL BY JUDGES
VERY often we read about a judge
recusing himself/herself from a particular case, irrespective of the fact that
they are affiliated to lower or Supreme courts. There are instances where for a
specific case quite a few judges have recused themselves.
There might be explanations for a judge to keep away from a case such as conflict of interest, having earlier been an advocate for the client in the same or different case/s, the judge or his close family members may be a shareholder/ investor in the litigants business, and for many other reasons. The task of reshuffling of cases, shortage of judges and recusal compounds to the existing problems of the already pending crores of court cases.
Time, money and energy are wasted on this seemingly simple looking exercise of seeking alternate judges who will be willing to sit on the bench. The citizens always believe that judges are neutral and unbiased and that they give a thought to the blind-folded Lady of Justice patiently standing behind them with the balancing scales.
But it appears that matters are not as simple and even judges have their own whims, fancies, fears and prejudices to preside over certain tricky and sensitive cases, in spite of several layers of protection that they have. Can our lawmakers come up with a law that forbids any judge from recusal in more than two cases during their term?
–Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem,
BJP GOVERNMENT STOP
TARGETING GOANS!
CHIEF Minister Dr Pramod Sawant (obviously at the behest of his RSS-Sangh Parivar bosses in Delhi) is currently somehow trying to mischievously hurt the religious sentiments of the entire Christian community in Goa. There is confusion everywhere by the sudden targeting of centuries old traditional Christmas Eve/New Year’s Eve midnight masses/other week long Christmas celebrations/open air weddings, etc. All under the guise of implementing the recent Bombay High Court order on noise pollution in Goa!
It may be noted that the State government had earlier permitted the use of loudspeakers or public address system during night hours from 10 pm to 6 am on 17 different religious & festive occasions, which included Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, Easter Eve and Easter Day.
Now through a new notification the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government has decided to permit the use of loudspeakers and public address systems only till 12 midnight on just 15 special days and has omitted New Year & Easter Day from the new list. It shows that the government is playing with the religious sentiments of Catholics and slowly destroying their centuries old traditional religious and festive occasions under the guise of stopping noise pollution in Goa.
If the government is really so concerned about noise pollution why allow some notorious elements to hold rave/EDM parties where loud music blares throughout the night and much of the day in the coastal beach belts?
Please stop insulting the religious sentiments of Catholics in the name of noise pollution! Allow them to hold their traditional Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve midnight masses beyond 12 midnight just like before, without new restrictions/clauses, to prove that the BJP government has secular credentials. May better sense prevail!