PEOPLE POWER By Valmiki Faleiro In placid Goa, people are likened to the place: placid, sushegaad. So thinks everyone, as we saw last Sunday. Few realise that genteel Goenkars can also rise. They have done it before, down history, they will do it again when necessary. Rise as one man. The politically incited communal mob attacks in Curchorem last March were a Himalayan disgrace. But the positive power of an untutored mob last week comes as a silver lining on Goa’s otherwise dark political horizon.
The villagers of Kundaim, in Ponda taluka, rose as one mighty ‘Apshi’ (the benevolent demon of our folklore) and forced the entire, allegedly nepotistic, local Panchayat body to demit office. Villagers claimed that their elected representatives merrily attempted to allot house plots under the 20-point programme, not to the poor for whom the scheme is designed, but to their own relatives. A minor, almost insignificant, transgression, one could say, when compared to the scale of loot and plunder raging since the 1990s at the State level. When incensed Kundaikars learnt of the designs of their elected honourables, they assembled, gheraoed the leaders, and forced them to resign. When a few leaders dithered, the villagers were out again, enforcing an indefinite bandh. The hesitant leaders scurried with their letters of resignation. "We elected you, we have the right to recall you," the villagers thundered. Henry David Thoreau would be mightily pleased. A clear message, one hopes, to the 40 men in shining armour, who will be elected sometime next year. Not long ago, the humble and long-subjugated villagers of Saleli, a tiny hamlet in Sattari, rose against their omnipotent landlord, a Rane of the legendary Kashe. The incident, sadly, saw the slaughter of a young man in his prime: the landlord’s son. Down the ages, Goans have demonstrated their will and ability to rise against oppression. If things at the State level continue the way they are, or further nosedive as is possible, it won’t be long before the entire Goa turns into a Kundaim or Saleli. Bodes well for Goa. WANTON BLOODLETTING: And whilst Goa glides in IFFY gear, at the threshold of commemorating the 500th birth year of her patron saint and the peak of another promising tourist `season’, wanton bloodletting flows unabated on her roads. At least another two dozen have died on Goa’s roads since I last touched the subject in this column a few weeks ago. Far-fetched to expect political will on arresting the madness on our roads. With impending elections, concentration of politicians -- practicing and aspirant -- swivels on funds for the electoral battle. Not on action that might displease any section of the electorate. But a police officer did what no one before had done. On Thursday, November 16 afternoon, a 14-year student, Mandar, was crushed under the wheels of a packed bus chartered by a school, near Pandava Chapel (now St. Sebastian Church) at Aquem, Margao. The bus was bereft of an attendant. Mandar had stepped down to let fellow students alight from the overcrowded bus, when the bus driver unwittingly engaged into gear. Another life, which no amount of compensation or insurance money can bring back to Mandar’s parents and siblings, is lost. Another statistic gained. The Police Inspector of Margao, Santosh Dessai, moved the RTA to cancel the permit of the bus, and the RTO to cancel the licence of the driver. In a culture of routine road death, rendering a vehicle permanently idle and a driver permanently jobless without prior notice may not stand the test of law. Let’s hope the twin agencies responsible for what goes on on our roads will hand down an exemplary sentence. This road madness must stop. More power to the Santosh Dessais of Goa! Levinson Martins, the livewire Dy. Collector of Mormugao, and Dhinraj Govekar, its sub-divisional police officer, also deserve a pat for trying to educate bus drivers in Vasco-da-Gama in the wake of the latest spate of road fatalities. Road accidents have a tendency of sharply increasing around yearend. UPHOLDING THE LAW: The registration number plate on the white NE-118 official car allotted to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Margao, violates the rules regulating number plates under the Motor Vehicles Act. Will the RTO or Traffic Police bell the cat? An ordinary traffic constable had once prevented the mighty Goa Governor’s limousine from breaking the traffic route at Old Goa, in the colonial days. The spunky Kiran Bedi had booked ministerial cars wrongly parked at the Palacio do Idalcao much after liberation. A few more like them would liberate us better. (ENDS) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 =================================================================== The above article appeared in the November 26, 2006 edition of the HERALD, Goa _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
