Furtado needs to give Panjim-ites their Panjim
For most of his political life he has been a “City Father”, obsessed with Goa’s capital, Panjim. To most who come here, especially those who get a first aerial view of this gorgeous little town from the Mandovi, with fishing boats stacked up at Betim and other yachts bobbing into the horizon, Surendra Furtado’s Panjim looks so good that she doesn’t need fixing. Furtado though, has, inspite of “higher ambitions”, remained Panjim’s dedicated “fixer”, even after his elevation from a city father to its First Citizen.
The First Citizen, also holds the keys to a town which is the political base of the Goa’s Chief Executive and in the coming week, he hopes to get those keys for yet another year, another term.
Keeping the politics of panels and parties aside, if ever Panjim needed fixing to give her a semblance of the glory she had as the seat of Estado da India Portuguesa, it is now. Sadly — for a town steeped in history and magnificence that Panjim is, the finest of all towns governed by the Portuguese — she is a caricature of her past, growing not gracefully but decaying from the edges to its edifice, brick by brick, road by road, lane by lane.
Panjim’s turn around may happen with monies and schemes and funds, but it can have a chance for all this if only led by a First Citizen and City Fathers, who wear the “City First” sentiment on their sleeves. And if that is the yardstick alone, Surendra Furtado has worn this sentiment on his sleeve for virtually the entire duration of his term, even at the risk of being Kejriwal-esque, taking on his Chief Officer Sanjith Rodrigues, issuing letters asking him for explanations and issuing them to the press simultaneously, publicly opposing projects passed by the CCP like the new jetty on the banks of the Mandovi, and asking for a full time Chief Officer.
After a tumultuous start to his term when the Chief Minister played his hand through his Chief officer to stall the election on March 20, 2013 on the pretext that there was a demand for Mayor from the weaker sections, before Furtado went to the Court to get his election underway on April 4. He won, albeit on the strength of Babush Monserrate, his one time opponent and very much the man who changed Panjim from tree lined leafy colonies with bungalows to a sea of concrete that it is now. In fact much of the challenges Furtado will grapple with to get Panjim back her glory, have been created due to his benefactors “vision” of development.
However, to his credit the Mayor emerged from being a Monserrate accolyte, unlike like others before him, like Caroline Po and Tony Fernandes, who surrendered not their thinking and vision (if any) to Monserrate but their dignity as well; to a hands on Mayor with a heart. As he wrote letters to his officers to give directions and to the Chief Minister to give funds, it was clear that he meant business. And some results are clear. The unthinkable of securing funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission under the following happened. Rs 20 crores for E Governance, Rs 72 crores for Solid Waste Management, Rs 20 crores for de-silting and restoration of the St Inez creek, Rs 10 crores for the rehabilitation of the urban poor. Another Rs 27 lakhs have been sanctioned for the rehabilitation of hutment dwellers under the Rajiv Awas Yojna (RAY).
But, if Furtado’s passion should give him another term as it should, he needs to realise that with funds coming in he will go down in history as an efficient Mayor. But if he hopes to leave a legacy behind, than Panjim needs a serious bout of fixing, challenging even to the “fixer”. He needs to leave stamp of development which is antithetical to what Monserrate has made this town. We need a Panjim with less high rises, better roads, adequate parking and above all, world class garbage management. We need a mindset which keeps Panjim the small beautiful town she was, not the urban slum this town threatens to be.
We want the First Citizen to give Panjim-ites back their Panjim.
