August 18, 2013 PRESS STATEMENT FROM GOANS FOR DABOLIM ONLY
Now that the country’s 67th Independence Day Anniversary celebrations with all the accompanying speeches and lofty promises and visions for the future, are behind us, Goans for Dabolim Only appealed to the Parrikar led state government to at least now, change its direction from turning Goa into a hub of decadence and exploitation masquerading as “development”.
It is a sad commentary on the mindset and outlook of the incumbent government when the state’s Art & Culture Minister uses his position to promote a beachside rave party culture, berating and humiliating an upright and dutiful senior police officer by dubbing him a “goonda” for raiding beachside rave parties, which over the years, have been alleged to be hubs of the drug trade. But this is hardly surprising in a government where the Health Minister, who is also the Mandrem MLA has publicly justified the drug trade allegedly flourishing in his constituency on the grounds of improving the economic “health” of his constituency of Mandrem.
This alarming trend of permitting Goa to be used and abused as the playground and party zone of tourists at the cost of Goans, or as a golden goose to be sacrificed for the profits of vested interests is also apparent in the actions of this government to displace local Goans and tear them apart from their prime agricultural land in the interests of building an unnecessary Public Private Partnership airport at Mopa. Interestingly, this project is being pushed through even before conducting the mandatory EIA, and despite the feasibility study clearly proclaiming that “the Mopa airport would not be able to generate cash flow to sustain the projected capital investment”.
Hence, going by the track record of this government, the people of Goa can safely assume that in addition to the heavy human costs inflicted by this project, the inevitable problems that will arise in the operation of the proposed Mopa airport that the government seeks to build by flying in the face of rationality and sound economic considerations, will result in pumping of funds from the public exchequer, or perhaps pulling out of the private partner as has happened in the case of India’s first PPP project of the Airport Express Line of Delhi Metro with Reliance Infrastructure.
Whilst once again appealing to the state government to formulate actions and policies that put the interests and wellbeing of Goa and Goans first, GFDO continues to push ahead with its campaign demanding just, viable and sustainable development for the state, by retaining Goa’s existing airport of Dabolim as its sole airport. While two well attended meetings at Goa Velha and Merces on August 11th marked its northward advance, a meeting was also held at Canacona on August 12th.
Fr. Eremito Rebello Convenor
