Peace Not War
THE article, ‘Iraq free to chart its own course: Obama’ (NT, August 29) was welcome news indeed. This news will be even more welcomed by the near and dear ones of the troops sanctioned in Iraq. But who will clear the mess and rebuild Iraq.

US President, Mr Barack Obama deserves applause for keeping his election promise. He would deserve another Nobel Prize when he declares that those who created the mess are responsible to clean it, just as he did in the recent case of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Let us hope that better counsel will prevail upon the world leaders, lest they venture again to burn their fingers (and prestige) in more such mis-adventures. Humanity is crying for peace and not for wars.
ANTHONY C MONTEIRO, Bastora

IT Rules for Senior Citizens
WHEN one attains the age of sixty years, one becomes a ‘senior citizen’ and the government issues identity cards based on which one can avail concessions in bus/rail fare, priority in queue in banks, post offices, government departments, hospitals etc. This is indeed a good move on the part of the government. Senior citizens have to depend entirely on their pension to make ends meet. But unfortunately they have to pay income tax just like normal salaried persons till the age of 65 years. Only after completing 65 years of age does a retired person get rebate in tax. Same is the case as far as air fare and insurance cover is concerned. One does not understand the disparity in rules. After Independence the retirement age continued to be 65 years, so IT rules were in conformity with the situation prevailing at that time. The government is talking of tax reforms but this disparity has been overlooked. The definition of ‘senior citizen’ should have been uniform for all purposes. Will the finance minister and the concerned authorities take cognisance of this aspect and amend the definition of senior citizen under the IT rules and give relief to the pensioners and eventually the senior citizens?
B V S PRIOLKAR, Margao

Figment of Imagination
I REFER to Mr Nandkumar Kamat’s article, ‘Dangers of Maoist Intrusion in Goa’ (NT, August 16). If asking for special status for Goa–so that this state’s land is not usurped by businessmen and relatives of big bureaucrats with huge bags of money–is a symptom of ‘soft Maoism’ as he says, then, by his definition, 39 out of the 40 MLAs in Goa’s Legislative Assembly (all except the Speaker), irrespective of party affiliation, are ‘soft Maoists’! For, the Goa Legislative Assembly has passed a unanimous resolution demanding special status for the state and submitted it to the central government. Mr Kamat’s hypothesis is completely without foundation or fact. Not one of the numerous accusations he throws around is backed by even a name, let alone any concrete evidence. If he can accept as ‘fact’ the recent fatuous claim of the Bangalore police that Pakistan’s ISI is ‘hiring’ the Maoists to do its dirty work, we can only describe it as gullibility. He cannot be unaware that the Union Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram made a categorical statement on the floor of Parliament that the Maoists are not getting any foreign assistance. Despite this he chooses to tar local activists with a Maoist brush. Mr Manohar Parrikar made a similar allegation earlier about activist, Mr Seby Rodrigues, only to be proven wrong.
SAYEESH NAIK, St Cruz

Injustice towards Minorities in Goa
THE statistics of educated unemployed amongst the minority Catholic and Muslim communities is increasing every year, while the employment potential in the state of Goa is diminishing. Most of the vacancies in the industrial sector are filled in by candidates from outside Goa with the authorities having neither any employment policy nor any control over this matter. The situation of jobs in the government departments also indicate that the government is insensitive to the Goan minorities. This is corroborated by the employment statistics tabled in the recently concluded Goa Assembly, that during the last three years of Congress rule, out of 11,000 government jobs only 700 were given to the minorities which is just 6.36 per cent, even though nearly 40 per cent of the Goan population comprises of Catholics and Muslims. The Leader of Opposition, Mr Manohar Parrikar had pointed some time back that as per the official records, as on March 3l, 2009, out of 9000 employed by the Goa government, only 813 jobs have gone to the minorities which is just 9 per cent. And out of these 643 were Catholics and the rest are Muslims. Can the Goa government create quotas of both gazetted as well as non-gazetted posts for the Goan minorities, as done by some state governments.
J M DE ALMEIDA, Alto Betim