The coalition partners in government are at loggerheads on the issue of statue erection at the Secretariat. This will be a huge wasteful expenditure and will remain neglected as seen in other such installations, only to be remembered once a year by making a huge hue and cry. Erection of statues is outdated and mainly for gaining political and communal mileage for increasing vote bank. Such vested short-sighted moves should be rejected at all costs as all of us are mature enough to know it. T B Cunha, Peter Alvares, Alfred Alfonso (Canacona), Urselina Almeida (Velim), Viswanath Lawande, Sahnkar Sardesai (Sanguem), to mention a few have sacrificed their whole life for the freedom struggle of Goa. All these heroes need to be honored not by erecting statues, but naming streets, gardens, circles, hospitals, educational institutions, playgrounds, etc. The entire amount which would be spent on statues must be distributed in the form of scholarships, tuition fees, incentives to needy and deserving students. This will be a tribute to these great heroes who will be then remembered for generations to come.
Tulsidas Malkarnekar, Margao
