Margao: Health officer flags water seepage at Comba subway

Times of India | 1 month ago | 22-02-2023 | 10:14 am

Margao: Health officer flags water seepage at Comba subway

MARGAO: Health officer of urban health centre, Margao, has red-flagged a potential health hazard in the seepage of water through the subway at Comba, Margao.In a letter addressed to the deputy collector (DRO), South Goa, the health officer said that a site inspection of the Comba subway has revealed that the stagnation of water is a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes. “Water constantly seeps/leaks into the subway from both sides of the road and gets stagnated on the stretch ,” the letter read. Stating further that the source of seepage couldn’t be identified, the health officer requested the deputy collector to depute an expert technical team to troubleshoot the problem. Executive engineer, PWD (sewerage), Joaquim Fernandes, said that they have succeeded in tracing the source of the leakage to subsoil water drainage and that it has now been plugged. “There was a subsoil leakage in the subway (probably on account of the spring water finding its way through the subway). Last week we noticed traces of sewage seeping through the subway. The leakage has now been plugged. What remains now is the dried up stagnated water,” Fernandes told TOI.The waterlogged subway has turned out to be a nuisance for the road users, including the pedestrians, for the last several weeks, owing to the consistent flow of water emanating a foul smell. While water logging during monsoons was understandable, what caused to raise eyebrows among the public was the stagnation of water even during the dry season. What’s worse was that the problem lay unidentified for long .Margao MLA Digambar Kamat had inspected the subway last month and issued directions to the PWD to locate the source of seepage and plug it on an urgent basis.

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Mamata to start two-day sit-in protest against Centre from today
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Kolkata is set to witness parallel protests by the Trinamool Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Wednesday.While the TMC is protesting against the Centre’s “discriminatory attitude” against the state, the BJP is holding a day-long sit-in to protest against alleged corruption by the state government. The Congress in the state, meanwhile, will continue its protest against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha.Here is everything you need to know:West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Wednesday begin her two-day sit-in demonstration in Kolkata against the BJP-led Central government’s alleged “discriminatory attitude” towards the state. Banerjee will begin the dharna in front of the B R Ambedkar statue at Esplanade in Kolkata, which will go on till March 30.The chief minister alleged that the Centre had not released funds for the MGNREGA project for the state and other initiatives of its housing and road departments. On Tuesday, she said, “The Centre has stopped releasing funds for MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana (Grameen). Besides, it has also stopped scholarships for OBC students”.While launching the ‘Pathashree-Rastashree’ scheme ahead of panchayat elections due later this year, Banerjee had said the expenditure for constructing the rural roads would be borne by the state and not the central government.“The Centre has not released over Rs 7,000 crores pending under the MGNREGA scheme and has not given work to our people despite West Bengal topping the list of states in completing the work under the initiative… We believe jealousy or politics may be the reason behind this,” she said.Coinciding with this, Trinamool Congress MPs are holding a protest in Parliament against the Centre in solidarity with Banerjee.Simultaneously, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee will address a rally against the “anti-people” policy of the Centre and its “stepmotherly attitude” towards the West Bengal government. The stir was to “save” democracy, federalism, Constitution and the Parliament, news agency PTI reported.In a rare display of unity, TMC MPs had a few days ago, attended a meeting of Opposition parties called by Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and also participated in the protest against Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha disqualification. State Congress workers too will also continue its protest against the same issue. Meanwhile, the West Bengal BJP will also stage a protest in Kolkata, with its leaders holding a daylong sit-in against the ruling state government over “corruption allegations” at Shyambazar today. The party had on Tuesday protested in Kolkata alleging that the TMC government in the state was not doing enough to mitigate the losses being faced by potato farmers due to bumper harvest this year. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led a rally from College Square to Rani Rashmoni Road over the issue.— With agency inputs

Mamata to start two-day sit-in protest against Centre from today
Explained: Why doctors are protesting against Rajasthan's Right to Health Bill
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Thousands of doctors took to the streets in Rajasthan Monday to protest against the Right to Health Bill, hitting healthcare services across the state. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s largest physician association, has announced its support to the Rajasthan doctors.The Bill was passed in the state Assembly last week. While doctors have called the Bill draconian, the state government has claimed that many of their grievances have already been addressed in the latest version of the legislation.Why are the doctors protesting?The protesters claim that the Bill doesn’t help patients much, but penalises doctors and hospitals.The most contentious section of the Bill mandates that all hospitals — both public and private — must offer emergency treatment without any prepayment, when required.IMA national president Dr Sharad Kumar Agarwal, who joined the protest in Rajasthan Monday, said, “Health is the right of every citizen, but providing it is the responsibility of the state government. Because they are incapable of doing so, they are putting it on doctors. We are ready to support the government but we cannot shoulder the entire responsibility. The government spends around Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 to run each bed in their hospitals. Who will provide us with this money? The Act does not say who will pay these expenses. We urge the government to take back this draconian Bill.”The Act does mention that the government will reimburse the hospitals, but the protesters say there is no clarity on how or when these funds will come.Others claimed the redressal mechanisms mentioned in the Bill will not let doctors work in peace.Moreover, there is still some confusion among a section of doctors, who are citing the old Bill that was sent to the Select Committee.Dr Amit Yadav, former president of Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors, said: “There are several problems with the Bill. One, when they say hospitals have to provide emergency service, they have not defined what an emergency is. It could range from a heart attack to a delivery to a child coming in with stomach ache in the middle of the night. It will increase bureaucratic challenges in hospitals — determining what is and is not an emergency. Second, it does not define a clear mechanism of reimbursement from the government. And third, it does not say who should treat what. If I run an eye clinic, I cannot treat a heart attack case.”The Bill, as finally passed in the Assembly, defines emergency in detail, along with adding “… and any other emergency decided by the State Health Authority”. The government has said that more clarification will be provided when the rules for the Bill are framed.About the redressal mechanism, Yadav said local politicians and government-nominated members would be a part of the district authority to look into patients’ complaints. “If I have a tiff with someone, they can lodge a complaint to impede our functioning. It will just become another machine of corruption. There should be a single state-level redressal authority which also has doctors as their members. How can a politician or an IAS officer take a call on medical procedures?”The government says this too has been addressed by replacing two nominated members of the government with two IMA members in the State Health Authorities, and the District Health Authorities.What do public health experts say?Even as doctors continue their protest, many who have been working to increase access to health services have said that the Bill is a step in the right direction.Abhay Shukla, national co-convener of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and one of the people involved in the initial stages of drafting the Bill, said the demand to roll back the Bill because of the clause on emergency treatment is akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water.“If you read the Bill, 95% of it talks about making the government healthcare systems accountable. Just like MGNREGA made work a right, when health becomes a right, people will be empowered to demand it from the government. This will draw the government’s focus on the gaps in the system,” said Shukla.He added, “The section on all hospitals being asked to provide emergency care accounts for only 5% of the Bill. Private hospitals too have some responsibility towards people — doctors’ education has been subsidised by taxpayers, sometimes the land for hospitals is subsidised by the government, there are many other subsidies for them. And the government is not saying that they have to treat anyone for free, the mechanisms for reimbursements are likely to be elaborated in the rules.”He added it was wrong to say that the Bill suggests an eye hospital would be forced to treat a heart attack or accident case, as hospitals will only have to provide “appropriate level of care” as per the Bill. “And no family member will take one suffering a heart attack to an eye hospital!” he added.Advocate Ashok Agarwal, who has been fighting cases to ensure access to healthcare in Delhi — and is a part of the committee monitoring that private hospitals honour their commitments in land agreements to treat poor patients for free — said, “There is a 1996 Supreme Court judgement that makes it mandatory for all medical practitioners to provide emergency care, without worrying about payments. It should already have been happening. So why are the doctors protesting?”He added that the Bill will also ensure that those who aren’t able to get healthcare— such as people with rare diseases for which treatments are extremely costly — become the responsibility of the state. “The state then cannot deny them treatment because it will be their right.” He said the Bill was a great step, something no state or central government has been able to do so far.What are some alternatives?Delhi has a scheme under which all hospitals are reimbursed for emergency treatment they provide for road traffic accidents, fires, and acid attacks within the territory of Delhi. Shaleen Mitra, who has worked with the Delhi government’s health department, said, “Since there is already a Supreme Court judgement that says hospitals have to provide emergency care, all we did to implement it was to ensure that hospitals get reimbursements.”He said all stakeholders were brought on board and their issues resolved. The rates were determined — lower at first and then at par with Ayushman Bharat, with added incentives for hospitals accredited with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers — and hospitals asked to not charge the patients anything.“When a model for providing emergency care already existed in Delhi, a rashly written Bill does not help anyone. It will not help citizens because it will be stuck in litigation, and will also alienate doctors,” said Mitra.

Explained: Why doctors are protesting against Rajasthan's Right to Health Bill
Compressed biogas projects: Punjab minister Arora meets stakeholders, takes steps to frame state policy
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am

In order to expedite the execution of Compressed Biogas (CBG) projects to tackle the problem of pollution in the state, Punjab New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister Aman Arora Tuesday directed to constitute a working group of all stakeholders to formulate a CBG policy for the state. This group will submit its report by April-end.Arora Tuesday held back-to-back meetings with CBG developers, representatives of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), GAIL, ICAR and banks at the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) Bhawan, Chandigarh, to address the interrelated issues.CBG plants are considered to be the best possible scientific solution to check stubble burning, rampant in the agriculture state of Punjab.Expressing concern over the pending permission at various levels, Arora directed PEDA officials to do the follow-up of the CBG plants cases pending for permissions from various state departments. During the meeting, the cabinet minister also called up officers of different departments and asked them to clear the pending cases without delay.On the off-take of CBG, Aman Arora said that the state will explore the feasibility to create an enabling mechanism for the off-taking of CBG and Fermented Organic Manure (FOM), produced as a bi-product by CBG projects. He assured the investors that he would also take up the matter of CBG off-take with the Central Government.Addressing the CBG developers, Aman Arora said that Punjab is predominantly an agrarian state and there was immense potential for paddy straw and agriculture residues based CBG projects as over 20 million tonnes of paddy straw was being produced every year.To make Punjab pollution-free state as per vision of CM @BhagwantMann g, we have decided to constitute Working Group of all stakeholders to formulate State CBG PolicyThe Group to submit report by April end. Also asked PEDA 2 follow up all CBG cases pending with different depts pic.twitter.com/AfLpICv60v— Aman Arora (@AroraAmanSunam) March 28, 2023As many as 43 CBG projects have already been allotted by PEDA, said Aman Arora, while adding that on completion these projects will consume about 18 lakh tonnes of paddy straw per annum, which is expected to produce 510.58 tonnes CBG daily.He said that Asia’s largest CBG plant with a total capacity of 33.23 Ton Per Day (TPD) has already been commissioned in Sangrur district and another CBG project of 12 TPD capacity has been commissioned at Khanna and is under trial run. Four more projects with a total capacity of 52.25 TPD are likely to be operational in the next 4-5 months, he added.Meanwhile, the cabinet minister further said that the meetings were convened to understand the issues being faced by CBG developers and resolve them at the earliest.CBG developers thanked Aman Arora for convening meetings to hear their issues and personally monitoring the status of all CBG projects.Prominent among those who were present in the meetings include PEDA chairman H S Hanspal, chairman of Punjab Genco Ltd Navjot Singh Mandair (Jarg), PEDA director M P Singh, GAIL CGM Praveer Aggarwal, GAIL SM (marketing) Dhruv Atal, SM of IOCL Kshitij Sandhya, DGM of IOCL G Jauhal, State Bank of India (SBI) Mohali AGM K Pant, SBI DGM Mohali Aruna Thakur, Canara Bank AGM Sunil Khumari, and representatives of Verbio India Private Limited, Enernxt Private Limited (Thermax group), Ever Enviro Resource Private Limited, IRM Energy, PES Renewables Private Limited, Thind CBG Private Limited, Torrent Gas, Think Gas and Gujarat Gas.

Compressed biogas projects: Punjab minister Arora meets stakeholders, takes steps to frame state policy
TMC, BJP, Congress to hold parallel protests in Kolkata: Everything you need to know
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Kolkata is set to witness parallel protests by the Trinamool Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Wednesday.While the TMC is protesting against the Centre’s “discriminatory attitude” against the state, the BJP is holding a day-long sit-in to protest against alleged corruption by the state government. The Congress in the state, meanwhile, will continue its protest against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha.Here is everything you need to know:West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Wednesday begin her two-day sit-in demonstration in Kolkata against the BJP-led Central government’s alleged “discriminatory attitude” towards the state. Banerjee will begin the dharna in front of the B R Ambedkar statue at Esplanade in Kolkata, which will go on till March 30.The chief minister alleged that the Centre had not released funds for the MGNREGA project for the state and other initiatives of its housing and road departments. On Tuesday, she said, “The Centre has stopped releasing funds for MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana (Grameen). Besides, it has also stopped scholarships for OBC students”.While launching the ‘Pathashree-Rastashree’ scheme ahead of panchayat elections due later this year, Banerjee had said the expenditure for constructing the rural roads would be borne by the state and not the central government.“The Centre has not released over Rs 7,000 crores pending under the MGNREGA scheme and has not given work to our people despite West Bengal topping the list of states in completing the work under the initiative… We believe jealousy or politics may be the reason behind this,” she said.Coinciding with this, Trinamool Congress MPs are holding a protest in Parliament against the Centre in solidarity with Banerjee.Simultaneously, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee will address a rally against the “anti-people” policy of the Centre and its “stepmotherly attitude” towards the West Bengal government. The stir was to “save” democracy, federalism, Constitution and the Parliament, news agency PTI reported.In a rare display of unity, TMC MPs had a few days ago, attended a meeting of Opposition parties called by Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and also participated in the protest against Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha disqualification. State Congress workers too will also continue its protest against the same issue. Meanwhile, the West Bengal BJP will also stage a protest in Kolkata, with its leaders holding a daylong sit-in against the ruling state government over “corruption allegations” at Shyambazar today. The party had on Tuesday protested in Kolkata alleging that the TMC government in the state was not doing enough to mitigate the losses being faced by potato farmers due to bumper harvest this year. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led a rally from College Square to Rani Rashmoni Road over the issue.— With agency inputs

TMC, BJP, Congress to hold parallel protests in Kolkata: Everything you need to know
The Opposition is being vanquished by unfair means. And there is no reaction
The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

India’s political system is veering towards a full-blown tyranny. The targeting of Opposition leaders leading to the farcical disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, the hounding of civil society and research organisations, censorship of information, the suppression of protest, are harbingers of a full-blown system of rule where all the interlocking parts add up to the one objective of tyrannical rule: To create pervasive fear.These actions are alarming, not because this or that leader has been targeted. They are alarming because the current BJP government is signaling not just that it will not tolerate the Opposition. It will not, under any circumstances, even contemplate or allow a smooth transition of power. For, what these actions reveal is a ruthless lust for power, combined with a determination to use any means to secure it. Neither the form of power the BJP seeks, nor the ends they deploy to achieve it, knows any constraints or bounds. That is the quintessential hallmark of tyranny.In a democracy, a smooth transition of power in a fair election requires several conditions. The ruthless crushing of the Opposition and the squelching of liberty erodes these conditions. The first is that professional politicians treat each other as members of the same profession, not as existential enemies to be vanquished by any means. Once a regime does that to its opponents, it fears the consequences of losing power. It can no longer rest in the comfortable belief that democracy is a game of rotating power; transitions should be routine. Can you now imagine Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or their minions calmly contemplating the prospect that they could ever be in the Opposition, after the hubris they have deployed against opponents and critics? The hallmark of tyrants is impunity in power and therefore an existential fear of losing it.The issue is not whether the government is popular. It may well be. Tyranny can be a stepchild of democracy, as Plato knew so well. The insatiable show and assertion of power the BJP is engaged in traps them in a logic where they will seek to create the conditions in which a fair and open contest is no longer possible. Their institutional imagination is paranoid — desperately trying to shut out even the slightest opening from which light might appear. What else but a paranoid system would target small think tanks or civil society organisations that do social service? What else but a paranoid system would appear to politically orchestrate a disqualification of an Opposition MP?And this same paranoia will make the prospect of even risking a fair electoral contest from now on a non-starter. Paranoia is the seed of all repression and we are now seeing it in full measure.Political parties that situate themselves as unique vanguards of a majoritarian national identity find it difficult to relinquish power. In normal politics there are many sides to an argument, and we can all pretend that different sides are acting in good faith even when we disagree. But when the ideological project is singularly communal and wears the garb of nationalism, every dissent is treated as treason. Ideological parties like the BJP will play by the electoral rules when they are not in a position to wield power, or when they feel electorally secure. But once this regime is entrenched, it will think it is its historical destiny to act as a kind of nationalist vanguard, no matter what the circumstances.In its own imagination, this nationalism will justify everything: From playing footloose with the law to outright violence. It has institutionalised vigilantism, violence and hate into the fabric of politics and the state. But this culture is not just difficult to dismantle. It is also part of a preparation to exercise other options in case a purely political hold on power is no longer possible. Parties that have institutionalised structures of violence are less likely to give up power unless they are massively repudiated.But the logic of tyranny goes further. Increasingly, the issue is not just the weaknesses of the Opposition parties. Even in the wake of this disqualification, Congress’s political reflexes, the willingness of its members to risk anything, and its ability to mobilise street power, is seriously in doubt. Opposition unity is still a chimera, more performative at the moment than real.But has the psychology of tyranny now been internalised by enough Indians to make resistance more difficult? India still has the potential for protest on many issues. But what is increasingly in doubt is whether India wishes to resist deepening authoritarianism.To take one example, India’s elites, broadly understood, have gone well past the quotidian fear of those in power. This kind of fear often expresses itself in a gap between public utterances and private beliefs. But what is happening is something far more insidious, where a combination of fear or outright support for government is so deeply internalised that even private demurring from blatantly authoritarian and communal actions has become rare. Ask any victim, who has been the object of the state’s wrath, whether they are at the receiving end of horrendous violence, or targets of administrative or legal harassment. Even the private shows of support will disappear as swiftly as the state intervenes. This suggests either a deep-seated cowardice or a normalisation of authoritarianism.The hallmark of a successful tyranny is to induce a sense of unreality in those who support it. This sense of unreality means no disconfirming evidence can dent their support for the regime. In this world, India has little unemployment, its institutions are fine, it has ascended to the glorious heights of world leadership, it has not ceded any territory to China, and there is no concentration of capital or regulatory capture. But the unreality centres mostly on the lynchpin of this system of tyranny, the prime minister. In his hands, repression becomes an act of purification, his hubris a mark of his ambition, his decimation of institutions a national service.Institutionally and psychologically, we are already inhabiting a tyranny, even if its violence is not in your face. A regime that is paranoid and full of impunity will overreach. But what is the threshold of overreach? The threshold seems to be shifting higher and higher. Communalism was unleashed. No reaction. The information order collapsed. No reaction. The judicial heart stopped beating. No reaction. The Opposition is being vanquished by unfair means. No reaction. Such is the logic of tyranny that the ogres of oppression roam free, while we look on indifferently as justice and freedom are tied in chains.

The Opposition is being vanquished by unfair means. And there is no reaction