OPEN LETTER To: The Chief Minister Government of Goa.
Mr. Chief MInister, I am one amongst the thousands of Goan voices from the villages that are concerned about your claims through recent advertisements about having put in place a transparent and participatory process for the Regional Plan 2021. Though the villages of Goa at the time of liberation in 1962 were self-reliant and self-sustainable due to the centuries old gaunkari system of governance, we Goans are being painfully administered with doses of untruths by successive governments proclaiming the great social and economic developmental strides when the realities are totally different. I will save you time and agony by not spelling out the untruths and contradictions as the newspapers have been exposing them everyday. Discarding the traditional knowledge and practices of natural resource management your government opts for ceremoniously flying in wise men from the British colonial regime that have not yet understood that salt extraction and pisciculture can be carried out in khazan lands which are categorised as eco I. Your government through advertisements, all at our (the tax payer's) expense, seems to be presenting us a scorpion and insisting that we it is a fish. Your government little over a year ago set up a Task Force to study the Regional planning process, and hardly 3 months later it amends section 16 and 16A of the Goa, Daman and Diu Town and Country Planning Act, 1975 to exempt government projects from the purview of the Regional Plan. Before the Task Force could even present its study report on the Regional Planning process it's mandate was overnight modified into preparation of the draft Regional Plan 2021. And now comes another revelation that an organisation called CREDAI was represented on the Task Force. Should we Goans believe that all these were steps to increase transparency in governance? While the world is is opting for techonologies with fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emisions to combat global warming, your government persists with a Planning Act of 1975 model inherited from the British colonial raj and uses it to prepare a Regional Plan in the 21st century. The Constitution of India sought to restore the centuries old people friendly and cost effective governance process in the year 1992 through the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendment but your government is hell bent on appriopriating the powers of the people guaranteed through article 243 ZD and 243N of the Constitution and vesting them in the hands of 'babus' and politicians huddled together on a Town and Country Planning Board that has mercilessly permitted the destruction and plunder of our village resources. A draft of a model Town and Country Planning Act which was circulated to all State governments in 1998 by the Ministry of Urban Affairs, Government of India has perhaps landed in the conservation zone of your secretariat. When such daring day light pranks of your government are so glaringly visible, should we Goans in the 21st century continue to believe that this process of formulating the RP 2021 is participatory? Your government now appeals to the Village Panchayats and Gram Sabhas to participate in this process of the RP 2021, a draft hatched by some of the very people that are responsible for designing the horrors of modern townships and the rape of Goa's hills, forests, rivers and paddy fields. Your government has not bothered to motivate and train the people in participatory planning, besides not devolving the necessary constitutional powers to the local bodies, and now expects the 'aam admi' to participate in the planning process. It is like expecting a child to hold a pencil and start writing even before it has developed its motor skills. Though on paper your planning experts are moving around the villages the reality is that my Village Panchayat among several Panchayats has not even been given a complete set of maps as specified in the kit. Your government has several migrant planners who do not know the local language while several Panchayats have demanded that training and intructions be imparted in the local language. The various secret policies of the Goa government, that supposedly will shape the future for a film on Goa's horrific tale at the next IFFI, have not been shared and discussed with the very people who are now expected to decide on the Regional Plan 2021. Yet, does your government expect us to believe that all this is part of a transparent and participatory process? Mr. Chief Minister, your government seems to consider politicians, miners and builders as the only clever breed of Goans that can understand about development, while the rest of the common people like us are ignorants to be enticed with media advertisements. Your government does not recognise the freedom of expression and peaceful social action which it classifies as disruptive activity warranting extra policing according to the draft RP 2021. Can 'We The People' beat the wisdom of the eminent planners in your government who make us believe that in a tiny and ecologically fragile land called Goa which is further divided into even tinier villages, only projects over 20,000 sq. metres built up area qualify as mega projects? This list of ommissions, commissions and contradictions that has led to the forcible snatching of the Goan people's precious land and livelihoods and put it in the hands of migrant vote banks could go on endlessly. The only question that I wish to ask you is, "After all the hide and seek that your government has been playing, should we continue to believe that the Regional Planning process for RP 2021 initiated by your government is so transparent and participatory? from a Goan betrayed , Soter D'Souza Socorro
