As one drives down the National Highway No. 17 the huge filled multi-color plastic bags placed on the sides of the roads cannot be missed. This is a commendable mission the State has undertaken to rid the highways of filth by employing garbage pickers at regular intervals. A good start indeed to keep our State clean. But this exercise is apparently reserved only for the main Highways. As you leave the Highway and go into the inner streets, one cannot miss the filth on both sides of the street.
Then you have the village fairs which leave such a lot of mess around. The tourist areas of Siolim, Morjim, Mandrem and Arambol are not spared of this menace. I have personally written to the Chief Minister, Tourism minister, Sarpanchs, etc., in the past about cleaning the streets of Mandrem and Arambol but like the usual government bureaucracy, delayed instructions are sent to tourism department and the Panchayats, but in the end no action is being taken. Every village junction called the ‘Naka’ instead of being a showcase of the village is a mixture of garbage piles, hawker menace, squatting cattle, wayward parking, and chaos.
We should bear in mind the tourists, mostly foreigners, who visit these places are not accustomed to seeing any dirt on their streets. I have seen in some European cities even cigarette butts being picked up with pincers. Many of our tourists and government officials have on State cost enjoyed foreign jaunts under the guise of study tours. One wonders whether they were too busy shopping for personal items rather than observing the standards of cleanliness maintained there. Our ministers and people in public offices make a big show of wielding the broom on some national holidays, but this is just an ostentatious and meaningless display.
One can understand some of the towns in other states being dirty; but Goa in general has a much higher percentage of literacy and yet we have not learnt the value of cleanliness and have no pangs of conscience to mess up our towns, villages and streets everywhere. Is this the culture that we want to boast about? When we emulate so many things Western why don’t we practice their cleanliness standards? Let us stop always blaming the tourists and reform ourselves and aim to clean and beautify our lovely State of Goa thus trying to beat Mysuru to the cleanest location in India. Yes we CAN.
