12 Dec 2020  |   05:42am IST

Every Goan is an interested party in preserving Goa’s ecology, ethos and identity

Every Goan is an interested party in preserving Goa’s ecology, ethos and identity

Sujay Gupta

There is a basic connect between those who govern and those who get governed in a democracy. And when governance becomes an albatross around the neck of the governed, there is a fissure of the proportion that the Modi government is facing at the centre, with an outpouring of farmers from Punjab who have made their way to Delhi to force the government to rescind the draconian and anti-farmer farm legislation which will basically pave the way for private players to have greater access and control to procure and trade.

The Goa government and the South Western Railways, the project proponents of the double tracking project, perhaps the most visibly opposed of the three linear projects set to tear into Goa’s ecology and rip it apart, should actually take lessons from the sifting sands in the farmer's agitation Delhi. The South Western Railways, a government institution needs to look beyond the letter of land acquisition and see the spirit of people’s needs.

In its “rejoinder” to a full-page Herald story outlining in detail the depth and extent of the people’s refusal to give consent to their land acquisition, the SWR wrote that it was a government organisation which had the "highest respect and regards for the Goan people”. Let us respectfully state that the jury is still out on that claim, i.e. in the jury of the people. 

The Railways has disputed the locus standi of about 2800 objections raised by the people to the notice of the Railways intending to acquire land in 103 survey numbers from Kalem to Vasco. It will be pertinent to note here is that the notice was issued by the SDO and Deputy Collector of Mormugao showing intent to acquire lands for the double tracking project as the Competent Authority. While it did ask landowners whose lands were intended to be acquired across 103 survey numbers to raise objections within 30 days, the number of objections that were received were close to 2800. It is clear that this is an overwhelming figure and certainly includes also those whose lands were not going to be acquired. The Deputy Collector of Mormugao, in a rare display of sensitivity, not visible in other arms of the government has taken a position that all objections, including those received by mail from Goans, needs to be looked at. In a sense, the Competent Authority has broadened the scope of - at the very least- looking at the objections, perhaps to see if there were compelling reasons for non-land holders to raise objections as well.

For the South Western Railways, it is clear that all it is concerned with is whether the process of going through the motions of land acquisition, which it had hoped would happen by now. It is also a fact that at least 50% of the land-holders out of the 103 survey numbers, the “interested parties” according to South Western Railways (Herald has in its possessions details of objections raised by landowners of 48 survey numbers) have raised objections. That is a high percentage and cannot be seen as a minor impediment to the entire might and will of the Central government's non-negotiable confidence that the project would be completed in ‘national interest’ without much opposition.


For the purpose of this discussion, since the scope of all facets of the claims of South Western Railways as opposed to ground realities is too vast and complex to be dealt with in one column, and we will keep this discussion going, let us examine the scope and depth of an interesting phrase that the Railways used in its letter to Herald. It stated “In the present case, the Competent Authority (has received a) total of 2785 objections out of which only 65 have come from ‘interested parties’. If 65 interested parties out of 103 survey numbers have objected that is surely a lot of interested parties. But let’s leave that for some other day. The term “interested parties” needs closer examination.

When there is a people’s movement against government projects perceived to be anti-people, and anti-state, by the people, the axis of opposition includes groups leading the people’s movement as well as the larger universe of people who have voiced their opposition. Anyone voicing visible opposition through marches, protests, slogans, statements is an interested party, because the State’s natural resources are at stake, resources on which every Goan has a claim. In a manner that all mineral wealth of the state belongs to the people, with the state as custodian of that wealth but not the owner, the state’s forests, trees and natural resources belong to the people of the state, with the state as a custodian. When the state miserably fails to be a custodian and squanders the State’s interests by fast-tracking permissions for these projects without due diligence, people will rise against the purported custodians. That is a tenet of democracy.

The people of Goa are therefore interested parties because they are challenging the custodians of their forests, their trees and their resources.

The Railways is not the custodian of these interests. It is merely a project proponent. And therefore has no bandwidth to decide who the interested parties are. If the railway track passes through the front gate of an ancient family home, without the land of the family being taken, blocking all access, that family may not be an interested party in the eyes of the Railways but is a crucial and interested party in the eyes of that family and the local society at large. People who live in homes whose walls have cracked, or their children have respiratory problems are interested parties even if their land is not getting acquired.

Therefore this situation calls for patience, calm, understanding and dialogue by the custodians. The projects proponent doesn’t matter here.

In the farmers’ agitation, a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi has agreed to negotiate, sacrificing his aura of non-negotiability about anything. He has realised that this agitation is not just a farmer's agitation but has the backing of many non-farmers who are interested parties because the pain of the farmer traverses to the rest of the polity which survives on the produce they cultivate.

Goa must adopt the politics and principles of accommodation. Its rigidity will give rise to more 

'interested’ parties who will peacefully, legally and consistently fight to protect their land and resources.

Sujay Gupta is the Consulting Editor Herald Publications and tweets @sujaygupta0832

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