Patto Plaza at Panjim was meant to be the most exclusive business address in Goa. It was conceived that way and also constructed with that aspect in mind. It has broad roads, systematic and ample parking facilities, glass fronted commercial buildings and some of the top-most companies, firms and various other professionals operating from there. That gets it a thumbs-up. But there is one aspect that has clouded the atmosphere in the plaza – it is the stink that pervades over all of Patto Plaza and the surrounding areas. It is not an ordinary stink that comes in a whiff and disappears, but one that has been hanging heavily in the air for years, leading to a situation that children from a school from across the Ourem Creek once marched to the Corporation of the City of Panaji demanding that something be done about the garbage at Patto that has been creating the stink. While the fastened windows of the air conditioned offices at Patto Plaza keep the stink away from the business and professional community, the students in schools across the creek haven’t been so lucky.
The stink has been going on for quite some time, years in fact. Efforts have been made to control it but most have gone to waste. It was only late last week that the Goa State Pollution Control Board directed the Corporation of the City of Panaji to clear the solid waste from the site behind the State Bank of India building by May 31. The directions were given as the massed up garbage at its solid waste management facility was leading to environmental pollution, purely because the facility is not functioning effectively. And the city corporation, instead of treating the waste is merely dumping seven tonnes of waste at the facility daily. Though rather late, these directions should now lead to people breathing a purer air at Patto Plaza and the surrounding areas. The broader issue, however, remains unaddressed and that is how an area that was planned as a high-end business district ended up with such a foul stink.
The city corporation has been experimenting with its garbage treatment plants in the area for years, with hardly a thought given to the people who work in the area or those who visit the place or those who cut across it to reach from the bus stand to the city centre. At any time of the day there are people walking on the streets of Patto holding handkerchiefs to their nose to block out the stink. But while the noses of the people are stopped up, the eyes of the city corporation officials and the city fathers have not opened to the environmental pollution that is not only visible to the naked eye, but also hits the olfactory nerves. And so Patto Plaza continued to suffer from the pollution, as no efforts were made to put an end to the malfunctioning of the solid waste treatment plant.
Patto Plaza is an example and a victim of the faulty planning in the State. There have been lots of projects that started out with good intentions and that were welcomed by the people, but somewhere after the project left the planning board and got to the implementation stage something changed. There were glitches, there were problems, there were, as in the case of Patto, stinks. The State needs to focus on its planning to avoid the pitfalls that come with sloppy preparations and development. In the case of Patto it was not enough to plan a business district, it was also necessary to keep in mind that the area should have been free of anything that could create environmental problems. A solid waste management plant by itself does not create a problem, it does so only when it is mismanaged. And in this case it has been messed up, just like so many other government projects.
