Wasted tour?
Despite reports of the State being financially grounded due to mining closure and the general economic downturn, a 38-member Goa delegation is off on a European jaunt to study garbage treatment plants. The government which had mouthed pious platitudes about tightening its belt and initiating austerity measures in the aftermath of the Supreme Court halting mining in Goa, will generously relieve the public exchequer of Rs one crore for the visit. The nine-day trip, which the representatives of the people, government and comunidade officials, and media persons will undertake and which the common man can only dream of but will pay for will cover Italy, Austria and Germany.
After having evicted the colonialists, it is an irony of history that third world minds are so colonized that they have to learn from their erstwhile colonizers even how to get rid of their garbage and waste. The question which arises in the minds of the common man is why the magical number of 38 persons constitutes the delegation? Why these particular 38? Is it due to their technical competence on the subject at hand? And how effectively and dedicatedly will these 38 work to rid Goa of garbage woes after they return from the jaunt and who will monitor whether they will work at all and whether they will be given designated zones to take care of and whether they will be asked to draw plans of how to rid these zones of garbage? If it is just purchase of the machines or adoption of technology, five technical personnel should have been adequate given the fact that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has already seen the working of the technology. The question which our readers would like answers to, is why so many ministers and MLAs are required to be on the foreign trip. In fact, some of the ministers and MLAs have recently been exhausting themselves for the common man by being continuously on foreign trips.
Secondly, all the politicos are from one party itself. The village panchayat and ZP representatives also happen to be sympathizers of the same party. The question therefore is whether only MLAs, their wives and sympathizers of one party understand the complex intricacies of garbage recycling or whether these are perks for the ruling dispensation and its votaries. Comunidade officials have been roped in ostensibly because the land needed for waste disposal will be sourced from these village communities. However, there is a big question mark whether the comunidade will part with its land for any garbage project. Internal comunidade politics will make it very difficult for the body to sanction the transfer of land for the garbage recycling plant within the jurisdiction of the Saligao comunidade for sure.
As for the local government representatives who often cry hoarse over non-delegation of powers to them, has it not struck them that a 38- member jumbo delegation would be seen as superfluous?
Politicians have always held a fascination for foreign jaunts at the cost of the public exchequer. In the past, when the opposition has been exercising its vocal chords in the House over foreign trips by the ruling party, they too have been given a ticket to splurge. If the way to achieve consensus on contentious issues in a democracy is to buy an air ticket, fully paid for by the common man who is himself already reeling under soaring onion, petrol and LPG prices, then foreign jaunts have become a unique and valuable contribution of Goan politicos to the fascinating project of evolving democracy. No matter that the issue pertains to the hallowed task of studying the intricacies of foreign garbage!
