Dears,
Let me start with the GBA.
I believe that the GBA was the best thing that happened to Goa after the
Opinion Poll and the Language Agitation. That Goa needed a very stable yet
strong, People Oriented 'Pressure Group' to keep the increasingly
self-centered governments of the day in check was never in doubt. It is in
this direction, to put together a strong apolitically oriented 'pressure
group' in place, a consolidated move was made in late 1999, starting it's
first deliberations at the 'International Center', Dona Paula, and moving
off to 'Caritas' in Panjim which ultimately culminated in the formation of
the Goa Su-Raj Party. Why? Because it was generally felt that NGOs and
Pressure Groups cannot and will not survive the pacifications by the powers
that be which are strong-willed, and funded by self-interest as well as
unlimited monetary resources, right from the public exchequer. If it was the
interest of the assembled persons to fight dirty politics, the only answer
would be to challenge dirty politics with clean politics. That there is no
bull-fight if horns of the opposing bulls do not lock in that fight was very
much hinted at. However, that the bull-fights have been stopped in Goa is
another matter altogether, and does not give the 'carte blanche' to the
dirty politicos of Goa to prosper with vigour J
I would be an active part of the GBA if I had attended the Don Bosco's meet
when it was formed, by virtue of being the General Secretary of the very
effective and result oriented environmental group called the Goa
Environmental Action Group. My political face or not, no one can dismiss my
environmental activism, where, not to boast, I have 5 successful Public
Interest Litigations to my name. And therefore, I was genuinely happy to
offer my maximum support to the GBA as an organization, from the outside,
because of my dual face, especially not to give the hungry politicos the
chance to point fingers for their exclusion. Dr. Oscar Rebello is aware of
this aspect as I had confided in him, privately. But it was a rude shock to
me on 18th. December at Azad Maidan when, despite my request, the President
of the Goa Environmental Action Group was not even acknowledged by his
presence, dismissing GEAG as a non-entity by the very person or persons who
tom-tom'ed of GBA's apolitical stand and at the same time gave the central
stage to the General Secretary of the UGDP. I have spent a good number of
years actively fighting social issues and I knew that not all was right with
the GBA to start with. That vested interests had already infiltrated the
movement was obvious and it would be only a matter of time before things
would come to a clash.
It has come to that now, already, to much recriminations and personal
attacks which Goa could do without to the cheers of the powers that be. An
unfortunate thing to happen when Goa is going through a most difficult phase
of vested interest taken over without abandon left, right and center.
Knowing fully well that Goa's problems will not pass away by ignoring active
political interest, I had personally phoned Dr. Oscar Rebello, a few days
before the formation of the GBA, infact, on the evening of the 'Press
Symposium' held at Don Bosco's (the very day that Patricia Pinto was
arrested for agitating against the cutting of a roadside tree at
Caranzalem), telling him that he must contest the Panjim seat in the coming
2007 assembly elections and that it was my acute belief that he will win the
seat. It is a different matter altogether that the GBA under Dr. Oscar
Rebello, did not even utter a single word in favour of those candidates,
including myself (who contesting the Aldona seat), that electing these
persons would make a difference to Goa's stinking politics, hiding behind
the elusive apolitical curtain, much to the happiness of the Goa's dirty
political vested interests. I am not blaming Dr. Oscar Rebello for this but
want to expose the GBA's inner machinations of remaining apolitical, which I
have forthrightly objected from the start.
To me, if we follow or are seen to follow Mahatma Gandhi as the father of
the nations, then it is right that we follow his wishes when he said "WE
MUST BE THE CHANGE THAT WE WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD' .... [ How's that for a
CHANGE?? J]
I have done my bit to help the GBA wherever I could to stop at least one
major environmental
degradation vide hill cutting (of which Patricia Pinto will know), but
mostly I have been a silent observer. It pains my heart to come to the
conclusion that, however much the GBA or whatever remains of it may tout
tout, that it is intact and will perform, the GBA that Goa had put it's
faith in, is lost forever. That Goa will muster it's strength to put in
place another People's Organization is in doubt, but will do better to look
at the 'CITIZENS' [OF GOA] INITIATIVE' that has shown it's head, as if on
the burning funeral pyre of the GBA, and which cannot succumb to crabby
machinations ever, by virtue of it being planned as a 'headless' Initiative
of the concerned citizens who will pinch their own pockets to take it
soaring upwards.
Coming to the 'Task Force Interim Report', the development that followed
with its rejection by the core group of the GBA in the absence of the
Convenor, I have a printed copy of the same with me which I printed off the
CD that was loaned to me. At one point, immediately before the upheaval
resulting from the rejection of the interim report by the GBA, I had made a
comment on the internet that though I have not had the luxury of the time to
go through the minute details of the Report, a cursory glance tells me that
the Report is on level with the sentiments of those who were agitating
against the RP-2011 and could be used as a well established guideline for
drafting the RP-2021.
In the past few days, I have gone through the Interim Report thoroughly and,
barring a few small matters here and there which I have noted down and
which do not really count when the magnitude of planning is taken on line,
it is my conclusion that the Interim Report should not have been rejected
by the GBA. That Dr. Oscar Rebello was right in standing-by the Report is
very much evident from guidelines that are set for the drafting of the
RP-2021. The report has made ample provisions for the bottoms-up
consultations vis a vis the 73rd and 74th. Constitutional provisions. More
than that, I do not think that anything vastly better can be done, taking
into consideration that those who are harping on the 73rd and 74th
provisions are barking-up the wrong tree, especially when the existing
Panchayat Raj Act - 1994 is, I have gone on record to say on several
occasions, fit to be used as a toilet paper and nothing else. Devolution of
powers to the self-governing bodies without tightening the rules and holding
Sarpanches, Secretaries, Chairpersons of Municipalities and the Chief
officers accountable will be tantamount to handing the chicken to the fox in
his own den. The Task Force Interim Report has made it's apprehensions very
clear on this point.
Those who are vigorously agitating for the devolution of powers to the
panchayats and municipalities must first make a case for a completely
overhaul of the Panchayat Raj and the Municipal Acts, to close all the
hidden loop-holes, so that those in power at these levels will be taken to
task, even sent to prison, for misappropriating the public funds and
entertaining the political higher-ups to sustain their nefarious activities
to aid and abet vested interests.
Neither Floriano Lobo nor the Organizations he belongs to is against any one
person or persons involved in the above subject matter but wants to
indicated that the Task Force Interim Report may not be the most perfect
instrument but it is surely the instrument that, if used effectively and
without biases, will make the draft RP-2021 a plan that Goa has never had
before.
If Goa cannot begin with this beginning, I am afraid that it will never
attain anything but CHAOS as is rightly reported in the Press now a days.
floriano
goasuraj
