THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Standing along the tracks and opposing the project were hundreds of people, who were joined by activists demanding to know the purpose of the doubling of the tracks. There is somehow no answer forthcoming to this question. There is a real fear among the people and they are out protesting mainly because their houses, in many cases their ancestral homes that have stood alongside the tracks, are at stake. And, if they do not get an answer to the question of whether this project is absolutely necessary to the State and what are the benefits that will accrue to Goa and its people, then the protests to the double tracking are not likely to abate.
There exists already a massive problem in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic that has thrown normal life in the State, and the country and the world, completely out of gear. This itself should have been reason enough for the government not to burden the people with additional issues and problems but instead work to make the people’s life easier. But that is not happening in the State. The protests by the people of Cansaulim, Majorda, Velsao and villages along the SWR track to the doubling of the railway line is a stark example of how the government remains oblivious to the concerns of the people who fear the loss of their homes, some of which are centuries old. On Tuesday, railway officials were shown the heritage houses which will be affected by this project. One wonders whether the officials were in any way ‘affected’ by what they saw and will have a change of mind.
While this is one instance of projects being taken forward during the pandemic, in Goa there is apparently no concern of taking into consideration the prevailing situation and people’s feelings when deciding on projects. There are various examples of how the government is working on its own agenda in this time with scant respect for the people’s concerns. Later this month, there has been scheduled the public hearing on the marina project at Nauxim. Now this is one project that has in the past drawn opposition, so one can expect that it could draw a large number of people. Remember that Section 144 of the CrPC is still in place. Months ago, a public hearing on the project had been cancelled because the government wanted to concentrate on tackling the ship NuShi Nalini that had run aground off Dona Paula. Isn’t the COVID-19 pandemic a much more difficult situation that the government has its hands full with?
The government has been cautioning on mass gatherings, yet for the railway line inspection there was a large crowd. At an all-party meeting last week, it was unanimously decided to curtail the sittings of the State Legislative Assembly that is to be held later this month to just one day because of the pandemic. Government offices are currently not taking in visitors unless their presence is absolutely necessary. How, when there are such restrictions in place, does the same government go ahead with planning inspections of railway lines for their double tracking and also public hearings on the marina at Nauxim? Are there two sets of rules that are being followed here?
These projects are not urgent. They can wait for a time when the people are more relaxed to deal with them. The urgency now is to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The least that the government can do is postpone these unnecessary exercises to such time when normalcy returns. These decisions that will have long-term implicatins cannot be taken in haste.
