Extracts from Stray Thoughts by Rajan Narayan in Goan Observer, Saturday, April 12-18, 2008
COUTO OPPOSITION AND a few stray thoughts on how even the Coutos have joined the battle against the land sharks. In the past, Alban Couto has always been reluctant to come out openly against the collusion between politicians in power and the land sharks. This was because Alban Couto did not want to jeopardise the position of profit and influence that he has occupied in every government irrespective of who was in power. In fact at one public speech, Maria Aurora Couto publicly admitted that her husband Alban Couto was fully aware of what was happening. Alban Couto, the former IAS officer who was in Goa as the developmental commissioner soon after Liberation, has held the post of advisor to every government in the last five years including the government headed by Manohar Parrikar. SHOE PINCHES BUT apparently, as it happens with the best of us, the shoe began to pinch when the peace and serenity of the Coutos themselves, who stay in Aldona, were threatened. The Coutos woke up when the land sharks began indulging in rampant alleged illegal hill-cutting in Aldona which would directly affect their quality of life. So the Coutos belatedly discovered the urgency of saving Goa from the land sharks. And, unlike less empowered and influential citizens, the Coutos used their contacts to get the Town and Country Planning Department and the Directorate of Panchayats to intervene to stop the illegal hill-cutting by Acron which has historically shown scant respect for the environment. But considering that Acron is reported to enjoy the patronage and protection of the Finance Minister Dayanand Narvekar one does not know if even the powerful Coutos will be able to stop Acron from destroying the Aldona hill. -- "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters...Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." — Frederick Douglass
