Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 9:59 AM
To: goa.kranti@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Tony Rodrigues,
Please don't use our young innocent school children for your dirty games. It looks like you are landed in Pakistan.
All our Indian Schools / Institutions are used to teach only good things and not bad things. Here in this particular case you are using our small children for your selfish interests. Allow our sweet and tender children to study well and be good doctors, engineers, lawyers, professors, religious leaders, mayors and politicians.
In Pakistan and Afganistan the governments have set-up Madrasas (Schools ) to learn how to use the guns against their enemies and go in the Terorists-way. This is the reason behind Pakistan and Afganistan. So Mr.Tony, don't go in dirty way. You can have a nice and decent dialogue with the government to solve the garbage problem.
Carmo Santos,
Kuwait.
PANAJI - The city councillors, teachers from the educational institutions in Mala/ Fontainhas ward, the 6,600-odd students from these schools and the residents of Mala, led by the Mayor, Mr Tony Rodrigues will oppose the International Film Festival of India 2008, scheduled to open in the city on November 22, if the government is unable to find a solution to the city garbage disposal problem.
However, I hope that there is 90 per cent chance of the government reaching a solution before November 22, which is a deadline set by us, the Mayor told the media on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, around 350 students of the five educational institutions located in the Mala/ Fontainhas ward as well as situated along the Rua de Ourem creek poured a bucketful of garbage in the office of the Mayor denouncing the failure of the CCP in preventing the stench emanating from its anaerobic digester plant, at Patto. The students belonging to the educational institutions namely Peoples High School, Mary Immaculate Girls High School, Mushtifund Middle and Primary School, Dr K B Hedgewar High School and Seventh Day Adventist Primary School were accompanied by their teachers, principals and headmasters. They also lighted candles and agarbattis at the entrance of the CCP headquarters.
Interestingly, Mr Dattatray Ghanekar, the president of Mother Earth, a city-based NGO concerned with environmental and health issues, which in association with the Goa People�s Forum, earlier guided a morcha of the students from Mala to the CCP headquarters, said that neither the organisers of the morcha wanted the students to pour garbage in the office of the Mayor, nor had they asked the students to give any slogans against the councillors.
Some interested person misled a group of 40 students to enter the office of the Mayor and pour the garbage on his chair and table, he stated. Few councillors like Ms Carolina Po and Ms Regina Almeida, however maintained that the entire incident was pre-planned and the students carried garbage with them right from the starting of the morcha.
The teachers from these schools, later in the evening attended a meeting convened by the Mayor and apologised to him for the action of the students. The teachers also agreed to join hands with the CCP to pressurise the government for reaching a solution to the city garbage problem by November 22.
It may be recalled that the students of these particular schools are facing serious health problems including stomachache, headache, nausea, throat infections and so on since past few months, due to the stink generated by the garbage at the Patto plant of the CCP.
Meanwhile, the deputy Mayor, Mr Yatin Parekh said that the anaerobic digester plant, at Patto was set up by a group of councillors without taking other councillors as well as the public into confidence. The futility of the decision can be understood from the extreme step taken by the students, he added.
In another development, the city MLA, Mr Manohar Parrikar and the 9 opposition councillors at the CCP on Wednesday complained to the chairman of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, Mr L U Joshi that the CCP is still dumping the city garbage at Patto, despite stop orders from the GSPCB.
We request you to instruct the Panaji town police to conduct a thorough inquiry and also immediately stop illegal dumping of garbage, which has been causing severe health hazard to residents of Mala and students studying in educational institutions located in close proximity to the garbage treatment site, the complaint stated.
