GOA’S SLUMS By Valmiki Faleiro Goa’s slums are now political, not economic outgrowths. Vasco pioneered slum culture. It was terminus of the Western India-Portuguese Railway, built 1887, for the upgraded Mormugao port. Hordes of UP ‘bhaiyyas’ were imported as dock labour. Goa achieved its first slum. Vasco never abandoned its claim to slum fame. Not migrants alone, but Goans in search of economic opportunity in the port town, squatted on any open land. An entire township, perched on a hillside, is known as “Fukat Nagar.” Among its large slum colonies was Baina, until recently Goa’s red-light capital – bang on the town’s once beautiful beach. Vasco still is the slum capital of Goa. Goa’s first – and to date, only – ‘Notified Slum’ is not in Vasco da Gama. It is in Margao. Called “Moti Dongor,” reflecting not merely a corruption of the place name ‘Monte,’ but the degeneration of Goan values. Where Goan policemen fear to enter, except in armed platoons-sized numbers, even to catch a thief. Where swords (mercifully not yet AK-47s) were seized sometime ago. “Moti Dongor” is 99.9% migrant. A ‘notified slum’ denotes that squatters cannot be evicted, save by rehabilitation. I know firsthand how “Moti Dongor” was notified. But before that, a bit about Margao’s own slum history. Margao’s first slums were `economic’ ones. They benefited all – landowners, migrants, and the then Salcete municipality, which employed the Zamunes from Karnataka as conservancy workers. Slums sprouted around the rail tracks … Cine Lata, Peda- Khareaband areas, early last century. (Sanitation workers, far fewer in number, came from the Harijan – ‘untouchable’ children of god – ‘bastis’ of UP.)
From the end-quarter of the last century, economic slums gave way to the marvel of
political slums. Inevitably entwined with the municipality, elected Councillors, and even a long-time local MLA. In law, municipalities prevent slums. In Margao, the municipality encouraged shanties. Which spread, generally by the railway tracks, eastwards upto Rawanfond. Margao’s red-light district moved from near Cine Lata to Rawanfond. Another outrageous slum sprouted in the mid-1970s. Mid-town, behind the old Power House, near today’s Junta Quarters at Pajifond – on land once gifted to Hospicio hospital. It was removed following public outcry. Then came “Moti Dongor.” The local MLA lived in Aquem Alto, then part of Navelim constituency, represented by a young first-timer who bit the senior’s feeding hand. Across the senior MLA’s house was “Moti Dongor.” The MLA encouraged migrant hutments, obviously to dilute his ungrateful foe’s votebank. Shanties sprang like ‘Congress Grass’ – the wild weed difficult to control. As Municipal President in June-1985, representing a civic forum that stood for a “Clean and Green Margao,” I began the exercise of ‘cleaning’ the town. Including of its slums. After cleaning up slums from Khareaband to Rawanfond, including the area by the old railway station and where ESI hospital is now, I turned my sights to “Moti Dongor.” Before we could marshal personnel, equipment and police protection needed to take on Margao’s biggest slum, we were slapped with a State notification declaring ’Moti Dongor’ a Notified Slum. The man who authored Goa’s only notified slum was Pratapsing Rane, then Chief Minister. My friend and fellow-Councillor, Digambar Kamat, was known for his proximity with Rane. When CM again in 2005, Rane advised Margao politicians to keep slums in check. The cheek! Count the slums of Margao and you’ve counted her politicians, past and present. Babu Azgaonkar, another fellow-Councillor, was patron of Aquem’s “Fakir Bund” slum. To his credit, when dwellers were displaced by the Konkan Railway, Babu ensured they were rehabilitated – in another slum christened “Babu Nagar.” A shift in power saw it renamed “Azad Nagar.” Goans are fools. They buy their shelters. Goan politicians are smart. They provide free shelters to migrants. Goans are double fools. They re-elect Goan politicians. If you doubt me, visit the countryside. Slums are no more an urban monopoly. Villages now sport them. Before us foolish Goans realise, slums will ensure our vote counts no more – we’re almost a minority. (ENDS.) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ============================================================================== The above article appeared in the March 8, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
