Applaud women’s football in Goa too
At a time when the football fans of Goa are following the fortunes of FC Goa in the ISL, the incredible performance of the Goa girls’ team in the U-18 Junior Nationals Girls Championship went almost unnoticed. Brimming with confidence and bolstered by the presence of seven international players who have represented India at the age group level, the Goa girls’ football team started off their campaign at the Junior Nationals Girls Championships in an emphatic way with a ruthless 31-0 victory over a hapless Jammu and Kashmir team at the Rosary sports complex in Navelim. The Goan skipper Velanie reportedly scored as many as nine goals. The performance of the Goa U-18 girls’ team needs to be lauded and appreciated. Women football in Goa should be promoted in a big way at the school level, the junior level and the senior level as there is a lot of football talent and enthusiasm for the game among women in the state. Women football also needs crowd backing just as men’s football is getting.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Set precedents
In this country of opportunistic, corrupt, self-centred and immoral politics, it has come as a breath of fresh air to hear that a corrupt minister of Delhi was sacked by the Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, when he was caught demanding a bribe in a sting operation. Ruling dispensations consider it their birthright to indulge in such immoral and corrupt practice, and we have seen politicians, across parties, brazenly involved in such acts. Against this very gloomy political future of our country, we have our hopes revitalised and re-freshened by knowing that there are still politicians capable of taking the bull by its horn and honouring the promise made to the people. Fight against corruption was Arvind’s main plank in the run up to the elections, as the previous regime was allegedly neck deep in corruption. He has set the precedent. Irrespective of who the person is, throw him to the wolves, if found involved in acts of corruption. Bravo Arvind! In the meantime, let us hope that Arvind maintains a clean slate by disallowing the unethical 400% increase in the MLA’s salary that some committee has approved.
James Monteiro, Loutulim
Not so smart
Panaji had number of occasions to become smart but this was never achieved. JNNURM funds never materialized and Charles Correia foundation project was a failure. The project by Spanish consultants also failed. Now Modi is trying to get some cities in India to become smart which includes Panaji. The city has a number of problems to cope with. First of all, gutters for drainage system is a biggest problem, nobody knows where the Portuguese plans for storm water outlet into Mandovi river are. The CCP and PWD are carrying out drainage by trial and error method. The rise sea level is another problem because Panaji is below the sea level and the water comes in during high tides. For example, the St Inez Creek gets filled up during high tide and the sewage is accumulated inside. I feel bad when people talk about their plans for making Panaji a smart city when they are born only after 1961 as they have not seen Panaji before.
Therefore my presumption that Panaji city as a smart city will never be achieved an the funds will be simply exhausted. Please keep those funds for something else like roads, garbage, environment, water, electricity and beautification of Panaji etc.
Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
