Successive governments in Goa —whether Congress or BJP, have sought to thrust public projects down the throats of locals, without prior consultation, in the name of “development”. The right of the people to decide the village plan is evident on paper in the Goa Panchayati Raj Act (GPRA), but has been throttled in reality (by giving powers to the BDO and the Director of Panchayats,) by overriding all objections from the gram sabhas and the Panchayat council.
Planning such has Regional Plans, ODPs are centrally given out to so called outside expert agencies, who are bound to please the government and draw up plans totally unsuited and alien to the needs of the people of Goa. The District Planning Committees which are legitimate bodies under the GPRA, which are mandated to agglomerate the village plans, have cleverly not been constituted, by the Governments of Goa since 1994.
Examples of governments riding roughshod over the people’s will are plenty. The agitations against the setting up of the IIT, the SEZ, the casinos, mining operations, the three linear projects including coal transportation, against the Marina first at Sancoale and then Nauxi, are few recent examples.
The Constitution mandates through the passing of the 73rd Amendment, that the gram sabha and the District Planning Committee plan for the village including projects through public consultation. Secondly, the projects are funded by the people’s money. Third, the people are in a position to decide what is good for them and what kind of development is acceptable to them. In fact, they have the right to determine the kind of development their village should undertake though the village panchayats. Planning and development should be bottom up and not top down.
The ongoing work on the Unity Mall at Chimbel plateau, despite the High Court’s directives, is virtually contempt of court and against the wishes of the people. The government of the day has not consulted the people of the village of Chimbel whether they would like to have a Unity Mall in their vicinity. Just because Central funds (public funds) are available, so called “development” cannot be forced on the villagers of Chimbel.
If the project is in public interest, it is but logical that it should be acceptable to the people. That is exactly how democracy works. When a project is sought to be thrust on the people, it may be implied that the interest of the Government is involved and some “setting” has been done, to derive benefits. In the words of the American political scientist Harold Lasswell, “Politics is who gets what, when and how.” In the Goan political context, it could be interpreted to mean, that when a project is already decided from the top, they decide in advance “who will get what, when, and how,” with due apologies to Lasswell.
In the case of the IIT in Shell Melavli, it was clear the government was adamant to have the project at the location against the wishes of the people, who had to brave lathis and had cases filed against them. Thereafter there was a game between some politicians of the ruling dispensation, depending on their interests, to take the IIT to their constituencies, but the people opposed the IIT in all the proposed locations.
Public projects have become an opportunity for land grabbing especially Comunidade lands. Unlike other States, in Goa due to its small size, land is at a premium, since usable land is a miniscule part of the tiny territory. Secondly, in cases such as the Patto Plaza, the land was purchased from the farmers for as little as 25 paise per sqm for setting up government offices, but was subsequently sold by a bankrupt Economic Development Corporation for lakhs of rupees per square metres to private builders and corporates, reaping huge windfalls. The Mopa land too has been “bought” by the government at Rs 30 per sqm and now leased/sold to private bidders, depending on who among the political class gets “what, when and how.”
In the case of the Unity Mall, the villagers of Chimbel had in the past fought off attempts to develop an IT Park at the very same venue. The Goa Foundation, the Gauda Kunbi, Velip Dhangar Samaj and public spirited people participated in the protest. The villagers went right up to the High Court and got the project scrapped. Now the IT Park has come under the guise of the Unity Mall. As the villagers themselves have argued there is no consent from the gram sabha, the Panchayat has been overruled
and the proposed project is on a highly eco-sensitive area.
The First Pramod Sawant government (2019 to 2022) and the second Pramod Sawant Government ( 2022 till date) are perhaps the governments which have faced the maximum number of public agitations with regard to location of projects in villages, since they have no prior consent of the people.
Will the government bow to the Chimbel tribal people’s democratic will? Before the agitation intensifies, it is high time that the Government gracefully retraces its steps, rather than face embarrassment later, for the greater good of the Goans.
Public projects sould have public consent
