KONKANI FILM “SIMRAN” IN KUWAIT.

 

Yet one more Konkani VCD “Simran” is on sale in Kuwait city now and as usual it is sold very cheaply. It is Nevile Pereira’s third presentation in which some of the top Konkani Stage artistes namely Annie Quadros, Diana, Cyriaco Dias, Comedians Mathew  and Supremo Humbert, Anil Pednekar, Sheikh Amir and Sucurro de St Cruz participate.

In the cover page the names and identifications are not given and  because of this it becomes difficult to identify the names of all the participants.

Evergreen and seasoned artiste Annie Quadros plays a stellar role in this film while new comedian Mathew gives an added colour to this film. Comedian Humbert plays his role well.  Anil Pednekar with his youthful and handsome looks plays his role very well along with his female partner. After a very long gap veteran actor Cyriaco Dias is seen in this film playing a very good role of which type present generation artistes cannot play and will never be able to do.

Videography  is excellent. Lot  of priests are seen acting in this film.

The theme of the film is Anti Abortion in deference to the Church Doctrine. 

It is worth watching this Film available in Kuwait city. 

A well written story and well directed film by producer Nevile Pereira.

A. Veronica Fernandes,

Kuwait.

CCP COFFERS EMPTY BUT MAYOR WANTS A PLUSH NEW CAR.

 

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By Aires Rodrigues


Every paisa of the tax payer has to be judiciously and thoughtfully spent, more so when the State is currently going through difficult financial times. It is therefore outrageous and despicable that despite the coffers of the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) being empty, Mayor Surendra Furtado has had the audacity to seek for himself a new Toyota Innova at a whopping cost of Rs 14, 20,643. The reason cited for opting for a plush new car is that on health grounds the Mayor has been medically advised not to travel in his current official car, a Volkswagon Vento Sedan which is just two years old.

What a cruel joke on the people of Panaji. If the Mayor is not well, then what he needs is walking around for exercise and talking less for rest. As the Mayor has to move around only in Panaji, a Nano would suffice in troubled economic times being faced by the CCP. Worse come to worst buy an ambulance. The CCP has a hearse already.

Surendra Furtado had promised a Parivartan in Panaji. He is three months in office and has been unable to even clean up the filth at the Panaji market..

And let us hope that the four garbage trucks donated this week to the CCP by some of the city builders is not laying of the stage to facilitate the further concretization of Panaji.. 

STEP - MOTHERLY TREATMENT.

 

By Nisser Dias                                                                                  

Step-motherly treatment to health care in Goa

           

            Decades back the basic needs of a human being was ‘roti, kapda aur makhan’, today with the evolution of time and modernity two more basic needs have been added to that list. And that is education and health care. Many a countries in the world including India has made these two requirements of modern day life freely available to its citizens, sadly in India it largely remains as desire of the people. To some extent the Centre through the state governments have reached out to students to attract them to attend school to eradicate illiteracy, healthcare has suffered badly because of the apathy of the political class of people who seem to be more interested in letting private players in the health sector to flourish.

            It will require reams and reams of papers if we try to compile medical negligence in government hospitals and neglect of government hospitals all over the country. So at the moment let me concentrate or rather focus on the neglect of government hospitals in our own state. A state that is said to be forward looking with a different outlook compared to the rest of the country, advanced state in contrast to other states. A world famous tourist destination and yet successive governments have not been able to establish a robust government healthcare system where its people can get quality medical treatment for free.

            Of course in 2002 during the first tenure of Manohar Parrikar as chief minister a survey was conducted by a reputed national new magazine and Goa did stand among the first five in healthcare. But the parameters then were based on the number of primary health centres, sub centres and government hospitals. So also it was based on the number of people visiting these hospitals. But the mystery still remains whether the journalists conducted survey by actually visiting these centres (health) and observing its functioning or whether the information sought by them was provided by the government officials in their hotel rooms?

            Nonetheless Goa was projected in the top five in health-care in the country but we all know the ground realities are quite different.  A visit at any health centre or sub-centre or hospital including government Goa Medical College (GMC) will indicate that the authorities are not bothered about the hygiene and upkeep of the centres and hospitals.

            Recently the false ceiling of the Out Going Patient (OPD) at GMC had collapsed due to leakage of rainwater. Fire had also erupted in the complex, there are many more examples to show that successive Health minister lack the will and the zeal to bring about revolutionary change in the public health care.

            Hospicio is yet another story of neglect and disregard. It has become a sort of a tradition that upon taking oath the newly ordained minister visits this hospital based in the commercial city of Margao and is a nodal hospital for south Goa. But successive governments have conveniently ignored to cater to its requirements. The word hygiene had taken leave of absence in this hospital years ago. The staff including the doctors posted at this hospital must be using the word sanitisation only while advising the patients because I do not think the hospital was ever sanitized. Of course I do not blame the doctors and the staff because it is the duty of the government to provide the equipment and chemicals to do it. It is our bad omen that the successive governments have even failed to provide adequate beds and bedsheets due which patients have to share a bed and that too without a bed cover and bed sheet. Family members or relatives have to be content sleeping on the floor.

            The morgue at Hospicio is yet another issue. Over the decades the capacity of the morgue has not been increased and there have times when even two corpses were accommodated in once space. Infact some years back reacting to my news item on the mortuary I was invited to visit the morgue. The contention of the in-charge was that it was maintained and the dead persons were given the due respect. To his bad luck a dead body was kept on the floor outside the cold storage and he had to apologize to me. Subsequently chief medical officer posted at Hospicio decided to build another morgue at Leprosy hospital inspite of resistance from the morgue incharge. Couple of years later it was closed down because of inconvenience. Lakhs and lakhs of rupees down the drain.

            The leprosy hospital in Margao at the Monte hill is another case neglect. Yes, we have the infrastructure in place in terms of buildings, plenty of space around it and qualified staff but to my utter dismay the government does not have the resolve and determination to maintain it and run it smoothly like private hospitals.

            Similar treatment is also being dished out to hospitals in the pipeline. Digambar Kamat government has poured in crores of rupees in the new district hospital project on the outskirts of Margao. Today all the works on the promising project has come to a standstill as the current government is not making the funds available for its completion. Initially Health minister Laxmikant Parsekar made tall promises of completing the project so that it would be a big asset to the state and a facility to the people of south Goa. One and half year down the line the project stands abutting the national highway as a ghostly, ugly structure.

            The government showed great interest completing the imposing South Goa Collectorate even after cribbing that its maintenance would be a financial burden on the government treasury year after year. But similar enthusiasm is lacking in this case. The question is why. If the government does have the finance due various factors like stopping of mining, servicing of various populist schemes then why does the chief minister keeps on promising financial assistance at every public function he attends. The idea should have been to complete public amenities already underway and then take up new ones. But it has become our government’s agenda to give step-motherly treatment to most of the public amenities including health care.

            Send your comments/reactions to nisserdias@gmail.com Or SMS 9422437029)

  

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Nisser