Ponda Scan Issue3 | Page 5

South Goa needs well equipped district hospital Social Activist T wo issues which are of prime important are traffic and secondly the district hospital in Margao. This hospital is expected to caters to the whole of South Goa district including Salcete. But the Hospital is totally in shambles. We are talking about constructing a third bridge on the same river. But we are not paying attention to one of the most basic facility for a common citizen – facility to take care of his or her health. Patients are forced to sleep on the ground at this hospital due to none availability of beds. Admissions are postponed and so are operations. The limited capacity operation theater is not capable of handling the large number of patients who come here with the hope of improving their lives. Now lets look at the traffic issue. They are planning for a multistoried parking for years together now. But it is not happening. According to me even if the existing parking space is utilized judiciously a lot of relief will be brought to commuters. The traffic police, municipality and collector should work together in tandem for this to happen. We can ease the traffic problem and take care of the parking issue if the parking places which are currently available are put to optimum use. In a place like Bombay they have cut-to-cut i.e. line by line parking. Over here vehicles are parked in such a way that instead of three vehicles only one or two vehicles fit in as a lot of space is left in between. There is an immediate and simple solution to the parking problem in Margao which can give at least a temporary relief. But for it to be successful the three authorities Municipality, Collectorate and traffic police have to work in tandem. They just need to go around and identify all the places where vehicles are parked or can be parked. Once that gets done, parking slots need to be painted there making optimum use of the available space. And public will have to be than made to follow the parking etiquettes meticulously. There are Non government organizations (NGOs) in Margao who will be more than willing to take up this parking slot marking job if the need be. Only thing is they have to identify the places and tell these organizations where they can paint the markings. Don’t blame authorities, be responsible Dr. Harishchandra Nagvekar Ex- Principal, MES College, Vasco 5 OPINIONS ((Ĵ