While Panjim is officially on the road to SMART-ness, it is creaking under the weight of age old neglected issues from parking to garbage mess.
The continued presence of off shore casinos in River Mandovi, poor road conditions, no permanent site for garbage dumping and treatment, haphazard/mismanaged parking, the stinking St Inez nallah, non functioning of street lights, etc, are some of the issues that are the same as they were five years back.
Even good Samaritans, selfless people, who walked the streets of Panjim to make them better like Patricia Pinto (who was co-opted as a corporator), seem to have a tine of resigned fatigue, after fighting for Panjim’s cause for so long. “The problems continue. In fact have become worse. You take up any issue, be it casinos, garbage; parking. They are the same or have worsened over the years. There is no solution to this,” she said
And to add to this, she said “there is no effort to bring any end to all this people issues”.
Here are some of them:
Shifting of casinos
Shifting of off-shore casino vessels out of River Mandovi was one of the major promises of BJP in the run up to the 2012 elections There are five operational off shore casinos. The Panjimites have strongly opposed the casino culture in their city, irrespective of the fact that their own MLA is silent on the issue. After granting several extensions, BJP government has set March 31, 2017 as deadline for these vessels to shift.
“Casinos in the city are a nuisance. It leads to several anti-social activities on and off shore at night. Despite assurances, the government has failed to act upon and casinos continue to remain in River Mandovi,” Prasad Dhume, a local businessman, said.
St Inez Creek
The historical St Inez creek, running right from Caranzalem to behind Old GMC complex, has been crying for attention for decades. While on one side Government talks about Panjim to be developed as SMART CITY, the irony is that the creek remains highly contaminated, having no oxygen, no aquatic life and stinks leading to severe environmental pollution in the vicinity. Political pressures have forced local authorities not to act upon the huts and shanties located along the bank of the water body, that releases sewerage into the creek. It is a known fact, that occupants of these huts are a vote bank of politicians.
Garbage
The Garbage menace is something that has been haunting the capital city for over a decade now, with government failing to find any solution. In the absence of permanent dumping ground, garbage continues to pile up at Patto site, emanating foul smell in the entire area, which houses some of the leading commercial establishments, government offices, banks, hotels, etc. While the treatment facility behind Heera Petrol pump is still taking shape (for last six months), the Bainguinim plant is still a distant dream.
“There is no point in planning for a ‘Smart’ City, if we cannot resolve people centric issues first. Definitely we need smart facilities but before that we need to resolve our basic issues. Parking, garbage, bad and roads are issues affecting the common man. BJP ruled Panjim for more than two decades now, but the problems continue to grow having no solutions,” former Mayor Ashok Naik said.
The political countdown has obviously begun to claim and reclaim Panjim. The BJP is likely to retain its incumbent MLA Siddharth Kunkolienkar, unless a last minute strategy nudges him to St Andre, a possibility which is remote at this stage.
Last month, St Cruz’s unattached MLA Babush Monserrate dropped a bombshell by announcing his candidature from Panjim constituency,
AAP has fielded Valmiki Naik while the Congress is yet to indicate who its candidate will be or whether there will be an understanding with Babush Monserrate. But as far as understandings and misunderstandings go, Monserrate can be in any camp.
Furthermore, if MGP breaks ties with BJP they might also try their luck, or back the Goa Suraksha Manch which may field Raju Suhkerker, a former BJP insider who is now with BBSM chief Subhash Velingker, whose presence against the BJP, for the latter, will be a worrying factor, in Panjim.
A one sided cakewalk for the BJP, is therefore out of the question in 2017.
