In order to safeguard the rights of the elderly in public places in Goa, the state government is contemplating on moving a legislation in order to make it mandatory for people to abide by the rules made for the elderly. The NGOs working with senior citizens and want to take care of them psychologically maybe supported by the government financially.
“There are several rules which are made to make life of senior citizens easy. There are seats reserved in public transport (buses). But many a time people don’t respect these rules,” Social Welfare Department Minister Pandurang Madkaikar was quoting by PTI addressing a function to mark Senior Citizens Day.
The minister informed that the government is thinking of making it offensive if rules related to senior citizens are not respected by passing a legislation. “When there will be a fear of getting booked or punished, automatically people will start abiding by these rules,” the minister said.
According to Madkaikar, his department has already issued a circular to all department stating that senior citizens are to be given a priority if they come for any other work. “You need not stand in a queue to get ticket of Kadamba bus (state-run public transport service) or when you go to any department you can jump the queue and get to the window,” he said.
Copies of the circular were distributed among the citizens and were asked by the Minister to show it to the government officers who do not give them priority.
After an aged person expressed his worry about senior citizens who have psychological issues, Madkaikar said, “We can involve the NGOs in such activity as no one is ready to take care of the aged person if he has psychological issues.”
Information credit: PTI
Image credit: Alamy
ItsGoa/OCT/SST/1
