Last week, the TV arm of Herald, HCN observed and celebrated its tenth anniversary and it was the right occasion to take stock of the decade gone by and the decade ahead.

It is in these ten years since HCN’s birth that the goalposts in Goa have changed with the landscape. This, once upon a time fledgling channel, seen more changes to Goa in its ten year old journey that Herald has in its 117 years old travels first as a Portuguese and then an English daily. And it is to discuss these changes and look at a Goa ahead that we invited a some of the more serious stakeholders of our land (of course there are so many more) to simply dwell on what Goa needs do to be re booted.

We all agree that there are humongous changes, and sadly, most of them detrimental to the idea of Goa you once had, lived by and dreamt of. If Goa’s identity, its control over its land, its changing deteriorating environment, is getting out of hand, then perhaps we need the equivalent of a system shutdown and a reboot. And if that doesn’t work, we need a new software and a system to make it work.

The debate went on for over two hours, almost close to three, and while there were heated arguments, surfacing of political rivalries (imagine Goa Forward, the Congress, the BJP and fiery activists on stage together), what emerged were some early positive strokes  on the  canvas of change.

One idea that emerged positively is that we need to address the system of planning and that should begin with how we plan our land use. In fact even before the government announced that the next regional plan would be the 2030 one, this is a suggestion that was indeed raised with the proviso that the Eco sensitive zones earmarked in RP 2021 should be frozen and maintained. It was agreed that unless we determine land use through the prism of preserving and not destroying, no regional plan will ever be successful. And it was here that the importance of ensuring that our forests are protected was raised. It was clear, across political lines, that surrendering more of Goa’s forests for so called development, is a disaster with a capital D in the making.

Along with the forests, the sanctity of our rivers is non-negotiable. And while we fight to save our beloved Mandovi, from the clutches of our neighbouring states, we must look at other tributaries and rivers, ensuring that they can be used for traditional occupations as well as for hinterland tourism.

Over the two hours, the structures of the topic were often crossed but we did not mind. And over time we realised that all right thinking Goans, deep within, are concerned with these. Our land, our water, our forests and our traditional occupations like farming. It is then that it dawned that re-booting need not mean that we need to do different things. All we need to do is run Goa with the spirit that we used to run it before, the true Goan spirit of honesty, sincerity and above all take decisions for the people. Decisions earlier, had to go through the litmus test- will this be beneficial to the goenkar, the common man?

We need to do is to apply the litmus test before every move we make. That alone is the only common minimum programme we will ever need to give every Goan the maximum he and she deserve.