"An edited version of my mail below was published by THE NAVHIND TIMES
(Goa) edition dt. March 20, 2009, found at:
http://www.navhindtimes.com/story.php?story=2009032039
"Restoring Margao's Lost Glory."
I do remember the days when parents would take us kids to the Margao Municipal
garden to play on sunday evenings. Those were the days of glory at Margao.
The garden park used to be well kept, clean to an extent and there were a lot
of slides and swings and also remember catching my first glimpse of a live
crocodile out there...
Then, there were real hard working Mayors at Margao like Vasudev Sarmalkar,
Gajanan Gaundalkar and later Valmiki Faleiro. Somewhere in the early
eighties...Valmiki was the mayor. As in the NAVHIND TIMES report dated 13th,
March, 2009, people still remember the way he strove above
all politics, culture and religious divides to give Margao good civic
governance.
Co-incidently, Valmiki headed the council whilst today's top politicians like
Digamber Kamat, Babu Azgaonkar and Mama Cardozo were as Councillors taking
their first steps in the political arena.
And although Goa lost a promising politician in Valmiki the moment he quit
active politics after his stint as the Margao Mayor, it is very heartening to
read Valmiki's articles and columns in the local dailies specially the Herald
Mirror every sunday (also read on GOANET), where he takes us on a nostalgic
trip of Goa's politics, history and culture.
Even ages after that, today, it was heartening to read in
the dailies about the acknowledgement of such worthy sons of
Margao. Will Margao have mayors like Vasudev Sarmalkar and Valmiki Faleiro,
when the post of the mayor has been reduced to a
mere object in the game of musical chairs?
I wish the new mayor, Mr Savio Coutinho who has inherited all the mess will
show some promise in cleaning it up and soon the people of
Margao, specially the children will have a clean and healthy
environment to play on sunday evenings at the municipal
garden.
Regards
Cedric Da Costa
UAE
