THE MEDIA has been showing pictures of the Health Minister removing bed-sheets from beds in the Paediatric Ward of the GMC and threatening to suspend the ward nurse in the presence of Dr. Rajan Kunkolienkar. If bed-sheets have not been supplied to the ward - as they should be - how can the ward nurse be blamed and suspended from service?

I would like the Health Minister, Vishwajit Rane, to take note of my observations during numerous visits to the GMC. On December 5, 2008, my husband was to undergo surgery at the GMC. When he was admitted to the hospital, I was shocked to see that the sweepers did not have brooms and were forced to wash the floor with their legs and a cloth! On enquiry, I was informed that brooms had not been supplied to them for a month. I immediately went to Panaji market and purchased a dozen and handed them over to the ward sister.

On March 25, 2009, I visited the GMC to get and ECG done. Since there was no gel, water was used to fix the knobs onto the skin. I then asked my daughter to purchase some gel from the pharmacy.
In March 2009, I noticed that the bed pan in the ICU, which is built like a five star-hotel, was cracked. Half the urine spilled on to the bed and I had to change my own bed-sheet.

In all these cases, who is to be blamed? The Superintendent? The engineers and supervisors? Or the Health Minister himself? The Superintendent has no time to visit the ward and do the needful because he is too busy boot-polishing ministers/VIPs and their kith and kin. Recently, in the Valpoi PHC, a nurse is reported to have administered Dettol to a baby instead of a polio dose. The Health Minister obviously had a soft corner for her and, therefore, merely informed the public that a show cause notice would be issued.

A ward sister who has put in years of service invited the wrath of the Health Minister because he did not like the bed-sheets she had put on a bed. Yet a nurse who gave a child a potentially life-threatening dose of Dettol was “threatened” with a show cause notice?! The Valpoi nurse is obviously a voter of the Minister while the ward sister is unknown and inconsequential to him.

According to me, the Superintendent should be suspended first for neglecting his duties.

Shanti Almeida,
Dona Paula.

GAMBLING MINISTER

THE casino-tangle involving the Tourism Minister gaining such prominence in the local press is quite perturbing, to say the least. When the whole state is crying hoarse over the matter of casinos with allegations to the effect that they have ruined families, a public remonstration of a minister against the management of a gaming casino for cheating is stealing the headlines! Further, the probe being handed over to the crime branch is proof enough that the local police dread cases involving high profile personalities.

Politicians are known to be a breed apart, but every legislator and parliamentarian needs to be taken to task for unruly behaviour. However, considering their constituencies as personal fiefdoms, ministers and their cronies have only exemplified ‘Neroan’ attributes. This does not mean that one can justify irresponsible submissions to the effect that “the threat to the Goan public from public liquor vendors far outweighs the threat from casinos.”

How can a vice be classified to actually understand the threat perception it could impart? There is no scale to differentiate between various immoralities. An addiction to vicious habits will only bring about the ruin of a society.

Pachu Menon,
Margao.

BETUL SCAM

THE most aired statement of our politicians with regard to every project they like to take up is, “it will only benefit locals”. It’s the cornerstone of their corrupt political swindle-logy. They say mining, mega housing projects, SEZs will benefit locals, beyond which nothing is done to benefit us. On the contrary, every project our politicians come up with only benefits helps inflate their ever bulging accounts and fortunes.

The Quepem MLA, Chandrakant Kavlekar, who is also the chairperson of the GIDC, says that the industrial estate at Betul will help minimise unemployment. With the prices of essential food commodities on a steep rise, with our water, electricity and telephone meter running to catch up with Usain Bolt, transport and fuel on a high, medicines and treatment making a big dent into our pockets, how will Goan youth work and survive on the mere pitiful salaries offered in the private sector or government sector where the Sixth Pay Commission is not applicable? Until and unless the salary structure is not proportionally set, to the cost of living of average Goans, most of the low-paying job opportunities will be taken by outsiders, who will be more than willing to support the vote bank politics of our corrupt politicians.

Freddy Fernandes,
U.A.E.