I think the Dr. in Dr. Ashwini stands for Ph.
qualification. I also think that when Dr. Ashwini started his career in Goa
somewhere in the 80's he did not have that title. When he was part of the
foreign agency funded project it was called Malaria Eradication Programme and it
seems a lot of money went down the drain because instead of malaria being
eradicated it increased manifold.And it appears that the funds were
exhausted.
Then some more funding from another agency and
the programme came to be called Malaria Control programme. Another project
another failure. I need not prove it. It's there for everybody to suffer it.
Some more money into somebody's pocket it appears as more and more citizens fall
prey to malaria and other diseases.
When I approached the Health Centre at least on
three occasions to supply me that particular variety of fish to put into my my
the answer was always "we dont have them at the moment".
Call it nostalgia, lusotalgia or portugalgia but
some of the older citizens recall with the sense of deja vu that the Portuguese
had almost eradicated malaria from Goa.
And I tend to believe them.
I wonder how much money exactly or even
approximately has gone into these programmes.
Richard Cabral
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