If a child was born around 2014 in Panjim, by now the growing infant would have celebrated his or her 7th or 8th birthday and achieved a degree of awareness and smartness.
However, the City of Panjim which wanted to be SMART with a ticket price of almost Rs 2000 crore, has managed to get some smart money, used and spent by some smart people. But the jewel of Goa, its capital, remains in a pitiable, pathetic state. The Centre decided that Panjim would be made into a SMART CITY. But did the fathers of this plan know what a Smart City actually means?
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Ostem Ekegren, Chairman of IVL, which is implementing Smart City in Sweden and training many other countries says that Smart City means “sustainable development and making things easier”. The planners of Panjim have done exactly the opposite.
Free WiFi, traffic and solid waste management etc are still languishing. Rs 72 crore for 24×7 water supply through PWD, also got sanctioned during the Mayorship of Surendra Furtado, but both water and supply for 24 hours remain a pipedream
The people of Panjim also need the accounts for the Rs 20 crore for St Inez creek, Rs 20 crore for e-governance, Rs 100 crore for Bainguinim Treatment Plant. Where has the money been spent?
Don’t we deserve better? Who is accountable for thousands of crores being spent of our money and we are left with potholed filed roads, a stinking St Inez creek, the restoration of which is all talk and no action, a market area which should is a big shame with no decent parking or proper arrangement of shops, the once beautiful Miramar road, which is now cracking again at its seams, and yes the decision of constructing a monument to Manohar Parrikar
right on the middle of the Miramar beach when there are clear rules against such construction.
In their hurry to pay rightful obeisance to their leader, they decided to throw all rule books to the winds, forcing a public-spirited citizen to even approach the courts against the building of this monument.
– It is 2021. Do we have a garbage treatment facility that is localised, simple and effective without having to send Panjim’s garbage to Saligao or anywhere else?
– Do we have efficient public transportation system?
-Do we have any activity around our water bodies for cafes, music and entertainment?
Why is no one held accountable for the white elephant which the multi-level parking facility is, a massive contract was given without any thought to how people who park their cars will commute to their endpoint in the city. Is there an intra-city moving hop on and hop off bus service as promised?
The number of crores that are spent on pipedreams which are never completed could well have been used to make a brand new city from scratch rather than destroying pour most beautiful capital town.
EVERY GOVERNMENT HAS A CONTRACT WITH THE PEOPLE. WHICH IS MORE VALUABLE THAN A RS 2000 CR CONTRACT.
Here is a government cannot fulfill its basic contract with the people, which is to give them basic facilities like mobility, hygiene and civic convenience. From a beautifully planned and well laid out city, with all its charms, in the 19 and 20th century, Panjim has faced not the blessing but the curse of lopsided and greed-based development. It is greed-based because decisions are taken to fulfill the greed of those in power.
In April 2016 after the Centre selected Panjim for the Smart City project, the State immediately formed a Special Purpose Vehicle called IPSCDL.
The project cost amounted to Rs 1,750 cr Rs 1,250 cr would have to be met by the State. Till 2019, Goa received Rs 180 cr from the Centre and Rs 80 cr from the State.
Then the pipedream Smart City got killed due to the manner in which the project management was handled, the absolute control that the City Fathers of Panjim wanted over the organisation mandated by the Smart City mission IPSCDCL. While the IPSCDCL was way behind its targets, politicians, realising that projects are equal to cash cows, did everything in their power and even beyond their power to completely take over the IPSCDCL and bring all projects under the homegrown GSIDC, with its set systems and people to carry out projects according to the pre-decided protocol which has a mind and pace of its own. “There is no need of so many technical cells in IPSCDL as can work under GSIDC for tendering and contracts. The GSIDC has better expertise,” the Panjim MLA said.
GSIDC does have “expertise” but many believe that this may lie outside the realm of construction.
There were inordinate delays in the delivery of promises made by the IPSCDL too but administrative blockages from departments under State control also played a part in these delays
But by now the first phase of the project should have been completed. Deadline for underground cabling was extended from January to October 2020. In November 2020, Panjim MLA Babush Monserrate was in the saddle, who declared that “Smart City projects need to be rethought”. He also said CCTVs and other projects was not the answer. “St Inez nullah, Panjim market etc are a priority. (And) I can assure you that all roads will be repaired by January 2021,” said the MLA. The St Inez Nullah is an eyesore and getting worse with waste and defection its daily additions. The Panjim market’s old problems remain and a daily commuter, especially on a two-wheeler knows how bad the roads are in June 2021.
The government and the administration of Panjim have not fulfilled their basic contract with the people, a contract where they need to pay the people with services in lieu of the taxes they pay. And when this contract defaults, their right to serve the people is taken away.
The people of Panjim, reserve that right.
