Picnickers : Farmers Nightmare! Make no mistake: farming is no picnic. A report in one of the English language newspapers suggested Goan picnickers should be exempted from the new law of cooking, eating and drinking in public which is being enforced in Goa because of the ill social and environmental effects.
Not only restaurant businesses make a loss after investing money and paying all the necessary taxes but the suggestion is also unthinkable because the law has to apply to all citizens, locals and tourists. We cannot have special zones for only Goan picnickers to eat, drink and make merry while at the same time fine tourists for doing the same in public in a state where tourism is the backbone of the economy. We cannot discriminate; the law does not. Everyone is equal under the law. In the coastal ares, in particular, picnickers - locals and tourists - invade private coconut plantations on the weekend, preferably on a Sunday, spread out their picnic fare which includes all kinds of food packed in plastic and other eco-unfriendly materials, and proceed to celebrate an open air picnic lunch in someone's private coconut plantation. After they finish their illegal lunch they leave the empty packages of the food and drinks, paper cups, bottles and all sort of paraphernalia, including alcoholic drink containers, and proceed homewards without a care in the world. The mess, dear, is for the farmer to clean up. These people are mostly residents of Goa and include Goans and non-Goans but what they have in common is a total disregard for the law, and do not have any human feeling and respect for the rights of others. Not only do we have to clean up their mess after they have partied but they add injury to insult as they even pluck the tiny nuts off the coconut trees which end up on the ground. What is the point of this destructive act? Now, this sort of behavior cannot be tolerated and a special squad has to be put in place with a special contact number so they can be fined and arrested if necessary. If they are not shown the red flag, tomorrow they will move from the shade of someone's coconut plantation to your garden. Give them an inch and they take a mile. Shacks on the beaches also add to pollution and environmental degradation. While the picnickers add to the visual destruction and attack your eyes, the shack stakeholders attack your nose and sense of smell. The toilets showcased on the beaches are for customers, and customers only, and not the laborers, waiters and cooks, and so the workers head for the pathway leading to private coconut plantations along the beach. The Tourism Department does not believe the workers also need to answer the call of nature; if they do believe it then we have to assume they think the workers need to answer the call of nature in nature, and no toilets for them. The farmers and laborers who have to go to work on their coconut plantation have to hold their noses to get there only to see the circumstantial evidence of the latest illegal picnic, and on the way also have to smell what the shack workers have donated free to us. Is Goa becoming a lawless state? The situation for farmers is becoming a nightmare. As I wrote at the start, farming is no picnic.
