Do our Politicians love Goa and Goans? By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
Last week has been a very eventful one, not because something good has happened for Goa and Goans but because the same people that we have elected to shape the future of state made their intentions crystal clear to all the ‘Goenkars’, here and all over the world that their prime motive is power to make money for themselves and their generations, irrespective of whether Goa survives the pressure of mega housing projects, large scale illegal mining depletion of ground water, destruction of our eco sensitive zones, cutting of hills, filling of low lying areas and fields, violations of CRZ the list can go on and on.
The chief minister Digambar Kamat and his cabinet colleague PWD minister Churchill Alemao uttered and displayed these objectives very succinctly with chief minister’s retort “I don’t depend on your votes, go ahead and do whatever you want” and with Alemao aggressively backing a non Goan builder of mega project in the coastal village of Carmona, which is a part of his constituency.
For the Goan masses, this should be the revelation that none of the 40 MLAs elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly have any interest of Goa and Goans at heart, but their concerns are opening avenues for businessmen be it the builders, industrialists or the mining lobby who alone can satiate their insatiable greed. And in this regard they will not hesitate to bend any law or break a bone or two to achieve that goal.
Moreover I refuse to believe that Goans are allowing Goa to be marauded, otherwise why would villagers in almost every village of the state raise their voice against the rampant destruction allowed by the government.
Let’s dwell on to the altercation between the aam admi chief minister and the Goans, I’m emphasizing on Goans because CM Kamat is alleged to have said that he does need our votes to win elections. As an old saying goes, beneath a sanctimonious man, there is boiling dirt and Digambar Kamat who has a stupendous control over his temper displayed it before a group of ladies. I refuse to believe that he does not need the Goan votes, but that his victory margin comes from Monte Dongor is very true. Where over the years he has provided them with water taps and sodium vapour lamps at their door steps, two schools and has harboured all sorts of elements some of whom think they are above the law.
Goans had heaved a sign of relief when Digambar Kamat was donned with the chief minister’s cap by the Congress and had a lot of expectation from him, but he dashed all the hopes with just promises and no action. He made grand announcement and scrapped the Regional Plan 2011 and began formulating RP 2021. But between this period, much more destruction has been done to the landmass of Goa. Construction activity is at its peak; more and more villagers are raising questions and objecting unplanned development in their villages. Goans from the rural as well as urban areas are so frustrated that any NGO gives a call for a meeting or a demonstration and bus loads of the people from different villages culminate at the venue to vouch their support against destruction of Goa and vent their anger at the government.
And when the chief minister refuses to give them a hearing and then utters words that need to be condemned, where do the people turn too. The chief minister and his government need to be warned that he is pushing Goans to a corner and a day will come that these same people will take to arms like the Naxals and Maoist and only communicate with the government through violence.
Coming to Churchill Alemao supporting Raheja project in Carmona did not come as a surprise to me at all. Firstly we need to remind him that construction of mega projects is not development and instead of giving him the definition of development, he should first bring fore all his experience in long distance studying, delve into the dictionary for its meaning. Secondly people need to be reminded of Churchill’s love for Goa. When he was caught in a sting operation, he had allegedly called Goans ungrateful and how can you expect this same politician to support the villagers against the builder and that too when he has the audacity to compare Goans to pigs.
Furthermore, it is a well known secret that in the next general election Churchill will be contesting from the delimited Navelim constituency of which Carmona, Orlim, Varca and Cavelossim will not be a part, thus he does not need the votes of these villagers, nor should the villagers give it to his daughter.
Be that as it may, I wonder how Churchill Alemao intends to meet the need of water for the extra population that will settle in the villages, when after three years of being in power he cannot solve the water woes of Niz Goenkars all over the state. I think Navelim MLA should ponder about it first before making such an irresponsible statement of support to a builder, but all said and done, it is amply clear that our elected representatives do not have the welfare of Goa and Goans at heart.
Keeping this in mind there in an urgent need to put up a united fight against the government and in this endeavour all the Goans should come together under one umbrella organization. Small organizations sprouting here and there will not help; instead it will give the politicians the much required opportunity and time to plunder the resources and land of Goa.
Let me give a case in point, among the villagers who came under the banner of Village Groups of Goa were leaders of the now defunct anti Meta Strips agitation (AMCAC), who are fantastic in planning an agitation from their confines of their offices, but what they lack is street intelligence. On 4th April 1999, a bandh was called by AMCAC and all the hell broke lose, villagers resorted to guerilla warfare as a result of police firing. Some policemen also lost their lives while many villagers were badly beaten up and injured by the police. When members of AMCAC were questioned by the press about the violence, their arrogant reply was, “AMCAC consists of few members, did you see any of our members there, it is the villagers who resorted to violence.” We should not have leaders of this sort instead we should rally behind leaders who can lead the charge and owe responsibility. (ENDS)
===================================================== First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - May 27, 2010
