Beyond the Grave: Looking back at Last Man Standing! Does the State government want to destroy the heritage houses along the railway tracks?
Several meeting were held in Vasco to protest the destructive policy of the Goa government, and finally the people were assured the second track would not be laid down against their wishes. Did the people in Velsao, Cansaulim and other villages celebrate too soon? When news of the second track broke out for the first time, the late CM Manohar Parrikar commented: Someone makes a decision somewhere else - and we have to follow it? Why is this government anti-Manohar Parrikar? Will the Mody government approve of the State government who wants to write to the Central government to acquire the land under a special provision even though the late CM Manohar Parrikar was against the laying of the second track? And, of course, every villager, too. When the government fails to convince the people, do they then use their power to bulldoze their way and flatten any opposition? Is it enough to pay lip service to CM Manohar Parrikar’s vision and build a memorial which is going to cost the tax payer crores of rupees and then ignore his policy and strong stand against the laying down of the second railway track? The old heritage houses include the ancestral house of the late Dr. Proto Barbosa, a chief minister after whom a road has been named in his honour. Is it now okay to bring in an additional railway track to further destroy his ancestral house instead of making it a tourist attraction? CM Parrikar’s closest and strongest political supporter, the late Mathany Saldhana also has his 250-year-old ancestral house which is already damaged because of the trains. Does the government want the house to be damaged even more until the house collapses completely? What is the goal of this government? Make the late Mathany Saldhana’s another tourism attraction and declare Cansaulim a heritage village! There is the option of realignment of the railway track. Why not follow this plan of least resistance rather than go to war with the people of several villages? What has the government got to gain by starting a war with the people of these villages? The wife and MLA of the late Mathany Saldhana is fighting her own government on this issue. She has shown great courage in going against the strange aberration of the present State government who appears to have lost its way and is heading for a collusion with the local people. MLA Alina Saldhana is not the only railway blockage on the track and she might well be the only woman (man?) standing in the end although it will not be easy to dislodge her. She walks the talk and unlike the other ten Roman Catholics who gave up all principles and joined a party to either save their skin or make pots of money without bothering about small details as right and wrong and ethics - she, no doubt, is determined to walk the talk. In the race for gold poor Jesus Christ is again and again crucified.
