Battle Lines Drawn
The All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has toughened its stand demanding the complete roll back of Goa’s entry tax on threat to stop all transportation of goods and passenger operations from May 12 midnight, setting the stage for a confrontation with the Goa government.
Both Transport Minister Sudin Dhavlikar and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who have talked tough on the issue, refusing to roll back the tax, were out of station when a delegation of the transporters association went to meet them earlier this week. The Goa government has offered concession passes to regular transporters from neighbouring districts which is being seen by the all-India truckers as a means of dividing them. It is unlikely the government which has already said its tax policies will not be dictated to by transporters will accept demands from truckers and chambers of commerce to reduce the tax by 75 per cent for pass-holders and 50 per cent for those carrying industrial raw materials, or that the four-hour long turnaround time would be be increased to six hours.
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Either way, the stage is set for a face-off, with much depending on who will blink first. With Goa dependent on its neighbours for a great deal of its food, vegetables, foodgrain, milk and even beef, besides other commodities, the inevitable rise in prices will not make it easy on the consumer. It may or may not be central to the current situation, but there are several undercurrents running through the scenario, not least that a section of minority traders control not insignificant sections of the vegetable, fruit and even the beef trade to Goa, and in the case of the latter have been hit hard by happenings on this front.
The strong regional sentiment being evoked in the discussion on the possibility of a food blockade dovetails not coincidentally with the state government’s talk of reviving agriculture, conducting a survey on fallow fields, with threats to take these over and resort to contract farming in the case of agricultural fields not cultivated. Goa’s dependence for much of its food items on neighboring states has at any rate been a cause for concern.
The Opposition NCP and Congress spokesmen have already averred to a political strategy behind the government’s handling of the Goa Meat Complex and beef issue ~ accusing the BJP government of being complicit with the petitioner in the matter. On the entry tax issue, the Congress State president Subhash Shirodkar made the claim that the entry tax was a contributory factor to the BJP’s recent rout in Karnataka. While that may be debatable, the fact that both Goa’s neighbouring states are now ruled by the Congress, as stances hardened on the entry tax issue, ought not to be lost on Shirodkar and the Goa Congress.
But the big question is ~ is there more to Goa’s unfolding politics of food than meets the eye?
