Dears, Below is my article published in the GT today. Read it at leisure.
Today, there is a Press Conference of the Ganv Ghor Rakonn Manch [The Village Home Protection Forum] led by Geraldine Fernandes of Benaulim and which has many simple village people who have turned into social activists out of necessity rather than desire. Goa is on sale to the highest bidder ... and almost no builder has obtained ALL the permissions or obtained them honestly or is catering to any felt need for housing in the village. It is a FUTURES market, selling dreams ...and at exorbitant prices as well as social costs to the excluded people. Rajan Parrikar's photo documentary is creating ripples in the society ...with some people seeing the extent of destruction for the first time. Sometimes it is in their own neighbourhood ...behind zinc sheet fencing ..... invisible except to guys like Rajan who gate-crash the builders' party and shoot with the camera. Tomorrow, the CSJP, with GS in tow, is presenting some views on development by Soter D'Souza, Patricia Pinto, Rajan Parrikar and Pravin Sabnis at Caritas from 4 P.M. to 6.30 P.M. The tea preceeds the talk. Venita Coelho, Vizilia D'Sa, Victor D'Souza, Tony D'Sa and others are sharing information with the people from the village where Dr. Jack Sequeira, Architect Charles Correa, Crispin Lobo [of WOTR watershed fame in Maharashtra] and other greats trace their roots....MOIRA..... from 6.30 P.M. On Sunday, 25 May the Calangute Forum for Responsible Tourism [CFRT] is hosting a meeting of villagers from Kegdi Velim to Keri-Pernem [North Goa coastal belt] at 5.00 P.M. Rajan is likely to show his photo documentary there at about 7 P.M. The GBA is studying the Interim Report that the Task Force will discuss on 03 June, 2008 and begin work on the Regional Plan 2021 .... if Ashok D'Costa of Margao has not already finished all the CAD designing work on the instructions of the Government-Mine owner-Builders [ the Trimuthi with one goal: make money]. The NON-OFFICIAL members of the Task Force have already displayed that they are well disposed to signing any SHIT [forgive me for using the GBA Convener's favourite word nowadays] even before the Convener and Secretary [TCP] authenticates the document with his signature. They may well do so again by 30 June, 2008. The Goa Government will then happily ram the RPG-2021 down your ..and my ...throat and say, "Speak up now. You have 60 rainy days to do it in!" If you do not like what you read above, protest. Your time starts NOW!!!! Mog asundi Miguel .......................................................................................... Demystifying "development" "Planning is about what we want to become." The people of Goa have finally found the best voice to articulate their heart's desire and define what they want their village to become. Surprise, Surprise! It is a rather unfamiliar voice in public forums: it is their OWN voice. After years of experience in having the one who fed them chicken xacuti and gave them booze in the run-up to the elections, speak for them, even the "Mango Man" is shocked to actually hear the voice of the villagers! Surely, that is not what the Task Force on RPG 2021 meant when it wrote the last line on page 7 of the Interim Report that reads thus: "In the ultimate analysis, planning is about what we want to become." There is an old saying, "Well begun, is half done." A careful reading of the well begun "Interim Report: Regional Plan for Goa-2021" [IR-RPG 2021] reveals that the other meaning of "Half-done" is applicable. It is raw at the centre, like a cake baked in an overheated oven. The Aam Admi or Goycho Pao has a simple solution when confronted with an improperly baked "unddo" while eating his favourite 'mix bhaji' in Café Real, Café Prakash or Café Bhonsle: he splits the unddo open, pulls out the half-baked maida at the centre and proceeds to eat the crust with the bhaji. Perhaps, we the people of Goa, need to do the same with the IR-RPG 2021. The bakers do not ask for suggestions, yet we do what we must to make the unddo palatable to us. The Task Force has not asked for suggestions, either. Why can we not do the same with the IR-RPG 2021? In the "half-done" IR-RPG 2021 one will find 1. 80 metres wide 4-lane highways and 25 metres wide Major District Roads [MDR] leading to towns, mines and tourist sites [pg 71], 2. 'Double-track' for Canacona to Pernem Konkan Railway and search for an alternate route for the Vasco Castlerock South-Western Railway [pg73] 3. a) "All minor ports along with MPT are slated for expansion along with coastal and inland fishing jetties" , b) "Inland waterways system with ferry [RO-RO] and some motor launch services helping in transportation of people and goods." and c) "Marinas, water sports and inland tourism" [pg 74] and , of course, a spanking "new international airport at Mopa." The All Con group is likely to be singing "RO-RO, row your boat, gently down the stream." While Goa will have to withstand Churchill singing "Una Paloma blanca" while over Mopa we fly … "but no one can take our freedom away". The International Institute for Rural Reconstruction [IIRR] at Cavite-Philippines recognizes my ability to demystify jargon and tell it like it is. It uses my services as an Editor or even as a Facilitator for its "Conversion Mela" [converting jargon to layman's English] that is called a "Writeshop". Multi-lateral donor agencies like IFAD, ODI, SIDA, ICEF and, most recently, IDRC have used my services. The latest publication is "Adding Value to Shifting Cultivation in Nagaland, India" prepared at a 'Writeshop' in the International Centre-Goa, Dona Paula. One of the persons whose work I edited was Mr. Alemtemshi Jamir, Team Leader of NEPED and former Cabinet Secretary to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, the one and only Mr. S. C. Jamir, now the Governor of Goa! I will attempt a brief conversion of the IR-RPG 2021 here. First things first: the certificate of the IR-RPG 2021 is signed by Prof. Edgar Ribeiro, Dr. Oscar Rebelo, Ar. Dean D'Cruz, Er.Rahul Deshpande Shri Blaise Costa Bir and Shri. Datta Domodar Naik [where Ar = Architect and Er = Engineer] While three of these worthies represent organizations [GBA, GCCI and GICH], Edgar, Rahul and Dean are in it in their personal capacities. The important persons, who did not sign the IR-RPG 2021 up to its release, include the right Honourable CM of Goa and ex-officio Chairman of Task Force, the Vice-Chairman Ar. Charles Correa and even the Convener of the Task Force, Shri Rajiv Yaduvanshi as the Secretary for Town & Country Planning. I do not know if the copy available with the CM has all the nine signatures. To its credit, the IR-RPG 2021 certificate and page 1 of the body text acknowledges that the "mandate" of the "Task Force for guiding the preparation of the RPG 2021" was amended to "preparation of the RPG 2021", and to hell with the "Guiding" that the 'Girl Guides' insisted on. Whether the GBA authorized its Convener to agree to the change of mandate is not in public domain yet. I cannot state it either. You know it: I write this column in my "Personal capacity" without ever having the need to re-state that in writing. I have a simple benchmark or litmus test: if it good for Goa, it is good for me ...and not necessarily vice-versa! "How is RPG 2021 different from previous RPs?" is the question the IR-RPG 2021 addresses to itself. Then it writes a Half-Truth [or a full lie, depending on one's perspective] as the answer to the above thus:" a) Incorporate Transparency and People's Participation" The minutes of the meetings and presentations to the Task Force were a well guarded secret till recently. The IR-RPG 2021 is a good indicator of the degree of "Transparency" the Task Force is willing to have on record. The synopsis of the three-pages long submission made by the Director of the "Centre for Panchayati Raj" has been reduced to three lines in the Annexures to IR-RPG 2021. Whereas the main trust of the CPR Director's presentation [for which I was present as the next speaker on behalf of BSG at the CM's residence where the Task Force, or its butt end, met in the absence of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Convener and Nodal Office-Admn on 23 November, 2007] was that the Goa, Daman & Diu Town & Country Planning Act, 1974 [Act 14 of 1975] was ultra vires of the Constitution of India after the inclusion of Article 243 ZD via the 73rd Amendment in 1993 and needs to be repealed, the Goa Government has gone ahead and amended it to make the RPG 2021 itself irrelevant to its "projects and schemes". It is a scheming Government, no doubt. As for "People's Participation", it will be sufficient if I faithfully quote from page 4 of the IR-RPG 2021: "The TF heard representatives from industry, experts, MLAs, NGOs, citizen's groups and, through local papers, invited inputs from the general public." The d-list [EMAIL PROTECTED] is more participatory and open to all who care to join the debate. As indicated in the above example, what NGO and CSO representatives spoke or presented and what the Task Force "heard" and recorded are perhaps two sides of the same coin. The Task Force has not been on the side of the People of Goa as it has pretended to be. When the police protect the mines and arrest the protesting people one does not need too much intelligence to know on whose side it is. The Task Force has, however, acknowledged that "Inhabitants are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities as citizens – and of their rights." on page 7 of IR-RPG 2021. One has seen that in the Gram Sabhas, at Colomb, Advalpal, Nuem and Dando-Benaulim. Be at Calangute this Sunday at 5 P.M. if you live in Goa and want to see your children's children play on the sands of any beach in the Future. Miguel Braganza -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. ------------------------------------ VascokarsUnited for a plastic-free Vasco. 26th Jan 2006,a day in the history of Vasco health. VASCO LETS GO GREEN http://www.vinsanworld.com/letsgogreen/index.htmYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VascokarsUnited/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VascokarsUnited/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
