Don't take the D-train
The following information appeared in the NT, Friday 26 According to Mr Prashant Shinde of Shinde Packaging in Verna Industrial Estate: The best part of the Regional Plan is setting up micro industrial zones in villages, which would help generate employment in the villages, he added. Are we Goans lemmings? In my view this is the worst case scenario! It is the beginning of the end of the Goan village as we know it. A foxy strategy indeed to urbanize the Goan village, for if we set up micro industrial zones, while some villagers no doubt will get jobs, most will not have the skills or qualifications. As you guessed rightly, it will simply mean the bringing in of outsiders into the villages most of whom will be non-Goans. Where will they live? We have the choice of building apartments for these outsiders in our villages or allowing them to create illegal slums, as has happened again and again all over Goa. This is the choice before us! Either we transform our villages into towns so the outsiders can live in apartments or create more and more vote banks for the politicians. In the name of so-called development we can only expect destruction and doom!
