Dear Prasad,
There is no scope for despondency. "Let the chaos continue ...... it
will lead to stability" Read any of today's English newspapers and you
will know what I mean.
The GBA is NOT dead. The GBA is the voice of the people of Goa.
Leaders may change but the GBA must live till the PARTICIPATORY
PLANNING PROCESS is in place. the mandate is not just the Regional
Plan 2021. If we cannot plan for that long now, let us plan for 2012,
the end of the current 5-Year Plan.
My specific comments are interspersed below.
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:54:13 +0530
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Benaulim Protests online
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
What is the use of calling such meetings if the sarpanch does not
have answers to any of the questions?
COMMENT: Unless we meet and discuss the issues in each village, how
will we know what is happening in it? Would the Aldona villagers know
that ESG is renting their bridge for Rs. 6,000/- a day to film makers
and putting the people of Corjuem, Poira and Mayem to great
inconvenience if not for the Gram Sabha? Would the Benaulim villagers
know that there was a project that had illegally amalgamated two plots
AND the Communidade storm water drain that it did not own to
amalgamate? Would the villagers from Colomb know that the mines
operating there are illegal? This is just ABC. check out what the
villagers from Zarme found out in their Gram Sabha. There may not be
ready answers. At least the Questions are getting framed.
People no longer have any faith in their representatives, who hardly care as of
now, since it is a long way off till the next elections.
COMMENT: This is not TRUE. Just a year ago these very people stood in
long queues to vote for new Panchas. Would you stand in a queue for 2
hours for nothing. The faith is there. So is the questioning, a new
phenomenon that has come about post the formation of GBA and the use
of Gram Sabha meeting on 26 January 2007 to reject the Regional Plan
2011. That worked. It has given the people hope. The builders and
other vested interests are shaken up. Their technology of keeping the
villagers suppressed failed. The dis-empowerment of the poor by
forcing their children to study in sub-standard Govt. Primary Schools
[GPS] in Marathi and Konkani while their children study in English to
get an edge for higher education failed when GBA reached out to these
people in the language they understood. Once the GPS and primary
education is handed over to to the Panchayati Raj system, see what
transformation will take place in the villages. It is the vested
interests who are spreading disinformation. People have actually lost
faith in their MLAs who silently passed the Goa TCP [Amendment] and a
dozen other bills on one day .... 25 March, 2008!
If the elected members of the society are not in sync with the same
people who have
elected them, then the definition of democracy needs to be changed.
Regards,
Prasad Vaman Raicar
COMMENT: There is nothing wrong with the definition of democracy. what
needs to be redefined is the role of the legislators and the Zilla
Panchayat and Village Panchayats. Ministers are not required to
inaugurate tarring of a road, the PWD Contractor can go about his work
from 8.30 A.M. instead of waiting for hours for the Minister or MLA to
turn up. Sychronized swimmers, gymnasts or dancers are not born
...they have to be taught. Ditto for MLAs to be in sync with the
electorate.
Mog asundi
Miguel
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Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts,
Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa
Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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