MAY LIFE BE AN EXPEDITION!
A LOT of Goans surrender their passports and move on. Besides the Passport office at Goa, many do so at the Indian Missions across the world. All looking for varied opportunities. Some may be also be acquiring a foreign passport while continuing to keep the Indian one in breach of the Indian law.
This makes no sense, given that an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder has virtually all the rights as an Indian Citizen except voting rights, unable to contest elections and cannot buy agricultural or plantation properties, which today in Goa are extinct anyways. OCI status allows pursuing various specified professions in India. Advocates, Architects, Chartered Accountants, Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and Pharmacists are all allowed to pursue their profession. An OCI is also entitled to be appointed on the teaching faculty of IITs, IIMs and Central Universities.
We are living in an age where the world is a global village just like no man is an island. There are no distant places any longer; the world is small, and the world is one. It is encouraging and heart-warming to see that the large Goan diaspora, a vibrant community spread across the world, is still maintaining strong connections with their native land, its language, culture and traditions.
There is much truth in the well-worn saying “You can take a Goan out of Goa but you cannot take Goa out of a Goan.”
—Aires Rodrigues, London
GOA RTI SECTOR!
GOA has an online RTI portal that’s excellent! E-mail applications are not explicitly accepted for filing RTI requests. The online portal allows for filing appeals and tracking the status of manual applications, but it’s not a system for submitting initial RTI applications via email, according to the RTI Online website. Why?
But some offices are responding to public via emails. This is so called digital advancement of India as our honourable PM says. Government could directly recover RTI charges online itself.
Goa government has launched Right to Information (RTI) Online portal and it is laudable today, marking a significant step towards enhancing transparency and accountability in governance. However, some departments are not displayed on the portal, those perhaps be made accessible to the public.
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi had said in his speech, that the Union government’s Digital India initiative is complementary to RTI, because putting information online brings transparency, which in turn, builds trust. He had also described the Right to Information Act as a tool through which the common man has got not just the right to know, but also the right to question those in power.
In reality, have these statements remained a pipedream? Let the full form procedure start from Goa as our chief minister is visionary leader. Let Goa be Number One in RTI Sector. Finally, transparency is vital.
—Rajesh Banaulikar, Arpora-Nagoa, Goa.
PANAJI MARKET – SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT
THE present Panaji market is spacious and bigger as compared to its previous avatar, the remnants of which exist nearby. There are more vendors and service providers but certain issues need attention by the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). Some of these have been highlighted in the media – lack of hygiene, poor lighting and ventilation, leaking roofs, and since 2017 non-functional water pumps, fire hydrants, smoke extractors and damaged/ missing rubber hoses, to name a few drawbacks. All these could be set right provided the CCP has a will though it has the money.
On the ground floor are grocery, fruits, flowers, coconuts and vegetable shops while on the first are a plethora of vendors (mobiles, clothes, plastic, footwears, women’s fancy items), tailors, repair shops (electrical, electronic, bags). These can be accessed from two broad staircases but it is difficult for those carrying heavy bags and/or with kids, pregnant women, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
The CCP needs to install escalators and elevators with operators which would be of immense help to the citizens who have remained in a mute mode all these years.
—Sridhar D. Iyer, Caranzalem