*Please read the Article by Mr Aravind Bhatikar in the Herald on whether the Goans are against development. **The writer is a former IAS officer, and former Chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust.** * ***Recently we have seen how our Goan politicians accuse Goans for opposing their grandiose plans what they think is their idea of development which is nothing but promoting their own selfish and vested interests in order to pocket the kick-backs and moolah that they are raking in without a thought of the permanent destruction in Goa.*
*Mr Bhatikar will be one of the speakers at tomorrow’s meeting at the CANSAULIM PANCHAYAT HALL on Friday July 30th at 6:00pm that will expose the Politicians-Builders- Government Machinery nexus that is working overtime to destroy Goa our villages, hill slopes, Khazan lands, rivers, hinterland, coastal areas and our Goan way of life!* *Let us all join together in support of our brothers and sisters in Cansaulim to preserve their beautiful village as well as all our Goan villages! Together we shall overcome. * *Please forward this to all! See you at the Cansaulim Panchayat Hall July 30 th at 6:00pm!* **************************************************************** *Are Goans against development? * *Opposing huge projects that siphon public money for private gain isn’t anti-development, says ARAVIND BHATIKAR * All ‘development’ must ultimately result in a better quality of life. The United Nations Human Development Report (HDR), brought out annually, compares countries on the basis of the Human Development Index. The Concept of Human Development is explained by United Nations thus: “Human Development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interest. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value… Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human capabilities… The most basic capabilities for Human Development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the lives of the community.” The Concept of Human Development explained above includes provision of adequate educational and employment opportunities, sufficient facilities for protection and improvement of citizens’ health and the required physical infrastructure to facilitate and sustain continuous economic growth. When the media discusses Development, it generally refers to physical infrastructure like electricity generation and distribution facilities, water treatment and sewerage plants, railways, roads, airports, government buildings, etc. The quantum, type and quality of education, health and social security are seldom discussed as part of development. When Ministers and other politicians talk of development, they invariably refer to capital works of physical infrastructure requiring considerable government funding, which throw open welcome opportunities to siphon off public funds for private gain. It is this last variety of development that is increasingly being opposed, and rightly so, in the last few years by Goans. Goa is by size the smallest state in the country. But its per capita income is higher and socio-economic indicators better than most states in India. Successive Chief Ministers of Goa have been flying to Delhi almost every year to receive the ‘Best State’ award, whatever it may mean. The above achievements would not have been possible if Goans had objected to building of railway lines, roads, bridges, school and college buildings, hospitals, community halls, government offices, etc. Goans have never objected to any ‘development’ perceived to be environment-friendly and supportive of a better quality of life. Unfortunately, the economic boom in the country, though a boon elsewhere, has proved to be a bane for those residing in the coastal talukas of Goa. The stampede of the rich, famous and ‘nouveau-riche’ from Delhi and Mumbai to acquire holiday homes in this land of sun, sand and surf, coupled with a new genre of fly-by-night and mercenary real estate operators in unholy alliance with greedy and unscrupulous politicians, has set off loud and clear alarm bells like never before. Goa’s shoddily maintained and hopelessly managed infrastructure is but a part of the non-existent governance in the state. Elusive power supply (should we be happy that it is worse in some other states?), shortage of drinking water (Did you say Goa receives 110 inches of rainfall every year?), and the garbage woes of the smallest sized state in the country (How do they manage in Kolkata and Mumbai?) are not the only reasons why Goans are opposing unbridled and senseless expansion in private housing in coastal talukas. More than 50 per cent of the flats in housing complexes and luxurious gated communities are believed to be unused for most part of the year, giving rise to a rudderless misallocation of scarce land resources. Are our self-serving politicians and servile town planners trying to solve the problem of houseless people by allowing the construction of people-less houses? Goans are objecting to mega-housing projects, not only due to insufficient and badly managed infrastructure, but also to the resultant misallocation of our limited land resources. Unprecedented corruption and total non-governance is leading to environmental degradation like never before. Whether it is the boom in mining or the spurt in housing, it is the environment that suffers. It is this destruction of tomorrow that concerned Goans are agitating against. Whenever vested interests are attacked, it is but natural for them to counter-attack. The agitation against mega-projects, large-scale industry which does not do any good to Goans, huge capital works whose utility to Goans can only be marginal, illegal hill cutting and land filling, illegal and reckless mining, are all dubbed by politicians, builders and other vested interests as manifestations of a negative and anti-development mentality. The opposition is not born out of unfounded phobias but is a result of the real life experiences of Goans. The opposition to so-called ‘development’ seems to have started with the mega-auction of Goa, planned and initiated by the Town & Country Planning Department in 2006. We are talking here of the Regional Plan 2011. What politicians failed to achieve through RP-2011 is sought to be subtly, or not-so-subtly, achieved through individual acts of greed, illegality or legal chicanery. We have the example of the Rs137-crore housing project of more than 500 flats connived at, on the hill slopes of Chichalim Panchayat, by the Mormugao PDA and the Town & Country Planning Department. The PDA as well as the TCP Department mysteriously failed to take any action within 90 days of the application from the builders, and the project was eventually permitted due to a ‘deeming provision’ in the Act. Can anyone cite any other instance in any part of the country, of a use of a deeming provision in law to allow a Rs137-crore project? The Outline Development Plan (ODP) in Taleigao (the only village in Goa that has a separate ODP, for obvious reasons), the land-grabbing Sport City, the proposed 1300-flat private housing project on the Taleigao plateau on land that was earlier acquired by the government for police housing but later ‘returned’ to the land-owner, the proposed merciless killing of a forest at Tivim for a cricket stadium, and countless other examples all over Goa, point to anti-environment and hence anti-Goa machinations of vested interests. Isn’t it high time we stopped dubbing Goans as negative? Isn’t it high time they are congratulated for supporting and enforcing the Human Development efforts of the United Nations? (The writer is a former IAS officer, and former Chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust) * * * UK STOCKS EXHAUSTED! After a community-supported launch at Croydon, Selma Carvalho's *Into the Diaspora Wilderness* is available at Broadways Book Centre, Panjim [Ph +91-9822488564] Price (in Goa only) Rs 295. Ask a friend to pick up a copy. Details of the book http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ * * *
