Relentless taxation
Your life as a taxpayer begins with your first salary, taxed via TDS before hitting your account. Buying a house demands stamp duty, while furnishing it attracts up to 28 per cent GST. Everyday living—utilities, groceries, dining out, and fuel—is heavily taxed through GST, excise duty, and VAT. Investing your post-tax income triggers securities transaction tax, capital gains tax, and TDS on fixed deposit interest. Healthcare, medicines, and insurance premiums face steep taxes too. Retirement brings no relief: pensions, EPF withdrawals, and property taxes remain taxed. Now, the government wants taxes on paying for goods after charging GST on the goods themselves. Everything has become P&L; public service in India is dead. Citizens spend a lifetime funding the government, yet asking for basic civic services and corrupt-free governance gets you labelled an anti-national.
Rekha Sarin, Benaulim
Misguided ban
The government’s temporary ban on two-wheelers on the newly opened Porvorim elevated corridor is deeply unfair. CCTV footage clearly shows a high-speed four-wheeler caused the tragic accident that killed two people. Why punish tax-paying two-wheeler users for a car driver’s reckless driving? Two-wheeler commuters suffered the most during the two-and-a-half years of construction, braving horrible traffic and choking dust pollution while four-wheeler occupants sat in comfort. Banning them now selectively ignores their hardship and fails to address the real problem. Instead of arbitrary bans, the government must build safer connecting roads at entry/exit points, install speed limit signs, deploy AI cameras, and impose hefty fines on habitual speeders. Target reckless driving—not vulnerable two-wheeler riders—to ensure true safety on the Porvorim flyover.
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
On patient safety
Public awareness and education, engagement and understanding go a long way in achieving the World Health Organisation’s intended objectives to make every patient feel at home. ‘Safe care for non-communicable diseases’, the theme for World Patient Safety Day, 2026, was long overdue especially when diseases like diabetes mellitus and hypertension are becoming pervasive ‘silent killers’. Annually, more than two million deaths in hospitals of low and middle income countries are reported due to less than adequate safe healthcare. Fifty per cent of these are preventable and, therefore, solutions must be found to address these. Augmented investment, tackling hospital acquired infections, early detection of diseases are all paramount towards patient safety.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Opposition disunity
Amid widespread public disenchantment and peak anti-incumbency against the Sawant government’s anti-people activities, AAP-GFP actions could effectively help the BJP. By splitting votes and confusing the Goan electorate, they risk sounding the death knell for the entire Opposition. Voting is a sacred duty, and the votes of Goa’s citizens must not go in vain due to Opposition disunity. The Congress, alongside the Goa Revolutionary Party, commands a substantial vote share among both native Goans and the migrant population. I appeal to the leaders of the AAP and the GFP to stop making allegations against the Congress. The Congress has deliberately kept its doors open for a united front and withheld its candidate list to foster unity. For the sake of Goa, Opposition parties
must unite to defeat the ruling
dispensation instead of dividing
the anti-BJP vote.
Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
Toxic cosmetics
Unsafe beauty products are filling our markets, made worse by dangerous skin-lightening creams smuggled illegally into India. Popular items like Goree Beauty Cream and Chandni Whitening Cream cross our borders unlawfully. These creams contain extremely high levels of toxic mercury and heavy metals that stop the skin from producing its natural colour, causing serious long-term damage including kidney failure, nerve damage, and brain toxicity. At the same time, popular collagen creams are a waste of money because they cannot absorb into the skin, while cheap dermal fillers can block blood flow and destroy skin tissue. The government must ban these illegal creams, tighten border security, test all beauty products for safety, and warn the public about these dangerous chemicals.
Vijaykumar HK, Raichur
Democratic integrity
Hats off to the Madras High Court for refusing to stay the by-elections to Madurandakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies. The court rightly observed that elected MLAs resigning within a week of victory to join another party insults voters, prompting the Election Commission of India (ECI) to question how to prevent this ‘mockery of democracy’. Given the malpractices political parties use to retain power, we must urgently overhaul age-old election rules to end state and parliamentary horse-trading.
N Mahadevan, Chennai
