Jose Maria Miranda
Land is scarce, but in high demand in this small State of ours. Retired Chief Justice Ferdino Rebelo, himself an ex-MLA, slammed Goa MLAs for changing land laws and thereafter themselves buying land or allowing it to be sold, thus altering even the demography of villages in Goa. As all those who love Goa do, he rightly found this shameful and ridiculous. Goans and the MLAs of yesteryears, like Justice Rebelo, lived by some values and principles, which they considered precious and worth living for, for a land, which was their cradle, and “worth fighting for”, in the unforgettable words of another retired Justice Gautam Patel. Justice Rebelo also touched on the points often raised by many, about Goa’s carrying capacity, water availability and other infrastructure and whether any study was done on these.
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Sadly, it is none other than our own representatives, who are acting as brokers, and auctioning and selling Goa to outsiders, who are the highest bidders. They are driven by imperishable greed, insatiable love for money and power and most of all a disgusting absence of pangs of conscience and love for their land. The way laws for land use are being changed at the stroke of the pen, without any application of mind, is not only atrocious but criminal. Not only will Goa’s beauty, which we have been so proud of, be diminished or destroyed, but prices of land have already skyrocketed, making it unaffordable for Goans. Goa’s demography and its culture will be severely affected with possible serious social consequences and finally Goa’s environment and ecology might be badly affected, with landslides and other disasters occurring and livelihoods and lives being lost. If we haven’t realized what can possibly happen, we must take a cue from other States, which have learnt bitter lessons from their assaults on Nature. There is imperative need for restricting further the sale and use of land instead of converting more to settlement.
Another ex-legislator, Farrel Furtado revealed that a student of hers had paid Rs 25 lakhs to join the Police force. How shameful and how do we expect the Police and other Govt. servants to be clean if they have to pay to get jobs? The cash for jobs scam, is still being investigated without any seriousness or willingness to arrive at the truth. The appointment of a retired Judge to investigate it, would have given some credence to the Government if it desired to delve deep into it. But, it will never happen, for reasons well known to all and the knowledge of who is or could be involved.
To what levels have we descended, Honourable Ministers and MLAs? Do these entitle you to the prefixes I have just appended to your titles? The discrimination against and marginalization of Goans surely would not have been tolerated anywhere else.
I have no hesitation in crediting this Govt. with tremendous development in infrastructure, though much of it may not be meant for Goans’ benefit, and in accusing the Congress of not having done enough on this count. But to speak truthfully, we never touched such abysmal levels of lack of transparency and accountability.
Let the docility of Goans not be overstretched and their tolerance levels tested.
