Panchayat problems
The Goa state commission for protection of child rights met the director for animal husbandry with regards to the stray dog menace and took up the issue of rising cases of people being bitten by stray dogs in public places. The director of AH was quick to wash his hands off by passing on the responsibility to local bodies and the Mission Rabies and the stray cattle management scheme. Both these schemes have to be routed through the local body for forwarding the applications to the Directorate of Animal Husbandry. His counterpart the Director of Panchayats himself is not aware of the Panchayat Raj Act 1994, sec 112. The Mission Rabies India scheme engages the service of NGOs for dog sterilisation with the Panchayat body acting as the medium for getting the funds from the government vide order of Directorate of Animal Husbandry Veterinary Services. Many of the village panchayats do not avail of this scheme for reasons best known to them. The government needs to have a rethink and pass orders wherein the NGO is appointed directly and the work is monitored by the concerned department. The government or local bodies take advantage of NGOs who raise funds through donations and show the way, but how long can they provide such yeoman service to the public, while the authorities shun their responsibilities? They act only if someone files a PIL in the court, which comes to the rescue of the affected public.
Gregory E. D'souza, Siolim.
Quality of service
The union cabinet has approved the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission headed by Justice A K Mathur. This means a considerable hike in pensions and salaries of the government employees, while the employees of the private sectors continue to struggle with the "hire and fire" policies of employers.
Considering the upcoming assembly elections and also looking at the past trends regarding previous pay commissions, it is clear that the government of Goa will implement the recommendations of the commission in full measure. While this shall impose a great amount of financial burden upon the coffers of the state, I wonder whether it shall make any improvement in the quality of service meted out by the government employees to the citizens.
Vikas Kamat, Margao
Drinking in public
Finally the government has decided to implement the ban on drinking in public spaces. This is a welcome move for everyone who are tired of seeing empty bottles and cans strewn across the place. One can find such little on the beaches, in the nullahs and almost everywhere. It’s a very bad sign when we have such bad civic sense. It’s easy to blame tourists for this mess, but if one goes into the villages and to springs, garbage of this kind is clearly visible. This happens even in places where tourists are rarely seen. Now the government has to ensure that they implement these rules otherwise it will be all for naught.
Bhushan Kamat, Panaji
