Goa’s pothole syndrome

The widespread menace of potholes on Goa’s roads during this monsoon season, and several accidents caused due to such dangerous road conditions, is not a normal phenomenon in Goa. Such road conditions were commonly heard of only in neighbouring States, even occasionally accompanied with horrific news reports of two-wheeler riders falling in the potholes and coming under the wheels of a heavy vehicle. The Goa government is treating the dangerous road conditions very casually, either by blaming the incessant rains and promising to fix the potholes, or shamelessly denying that potholes can cause road accidents. The public too has responded with nothing beyond making a joke about its own miserable plight. There is hardly any doubt that once the monsoon season is over, the citizens from this 84% literate State will settle for the cosmetic patch up of potholes and below standard road conditions. Life will once again be about shamelessly hovering around unscrupulous politicians.

The casual attitude of the government, to such dangerous road conditions, arises from several associated factors ranging from criminal and corrupt governance to conflicting and enabling public behaviour. Mocking at thick-skinned politicians through videos, or filing criminal complaints against them, only reinforces public apathy which takes consolation in shooting from someone else’s shoulder. Such populist modes of protest get nothing more than a cheap response of a mobile app from the government to keep the public entertained in reporting about potholes. The widespread dangerous road surface conditions and the criminal waste of public funds in undertaking cosmetic repairs of these roads will not stop. 

There are several questions when it comes to the menace of potholes. How can the public expect quality roads in this country when it cheers the daredevil targets of 45 kms per day, as set by the Union Government, for the construction of new National Highways across the country? If road foundations, which have well settled over the years, get repeatedly and haphazardly dug up every few months for laying of various types of cables, sewerage, power and water lines, and that too, without following the prescribed engineering codes for cutting and restoration of such roads, can the rains and the road contractors be blamed for the deterioration of the road surface? When periodic road maintenance is neglected by the government and only taken up to woo the voters in select constituencies just six months before every election in order, is it justified for citizens, who reward such cheap gimmicks with votes, to expect good roads? Citizens first need to introspect on their own negligence of their fundamental duties as enshrined in the Constitution of India before attempting to discipline the government.

The reason a minister in government or a senior cop is emboldened to shamelessly deny that potholes cause road accidents, is only because there is no record of criminal complaints registered with the police by victims of accidents arising from such road conditions. Videos of dance and song in the midst of potholes which go viral and trending on social media may offer cheap entertainment and political publicity, but will not help arrest the criminal negligence and the waste of public funds by officials in governments. 

The same question, “how many more litres of blood will you spill?”, which was posed by the Madras High Court to the Tamil Nadu govt in a recent accident case involving a young techie, needs to also be asked to the Goa government by its people. Goans opting to make fun of their abusive social and political condition and finding scape-goats to divert the blame for their misery rather than adopting rational constructive action, and repeatedly ending up electing these same abusive and incompetent politicians, is symptomatic of a dysfunctional society.

The proverb ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ is very much applicable to both the government and the people if the problem of potholes is to be solved. There is much hue and cry about potholes, but not a whimper of protest when it comes to puddles of water accumulated on the ‘Atal Sethu’ and newly constructed flyovers and rest of the roads due to the absence of proper drainage, which contributes to the damage of the road’s surface. It is not just potholes on roads. Drivers and riders have to negotiate their vehicles through ridges, furrows, craters and humps. Some enthusiastic citizens volunteering to plug potholes are only enabling criminal governance. Any meaningful protest from the public against the road conditions has to be about insisting for an independent inquiry to fix responsibility, and for the restoration of the potholed and washed out roads as per the prescribed road engineering code. The compromise by the public to settle for below standard road conditions from the govt, which brags of zero corruption and high efficiency, makes it (public) equally culpable for the current mess.

Political abuse has come to be considered as normal by Goans. Potholes on roads are a reflection of that Goan hypocrisy which curses the politicians but elects them back to power. Goa’s roads are technically unfit for two-wheelers and three-wheelers, but the civil society groups which protest against human and consumer rights violations are resorting to lip service when it comes to the dangerous road conditions. Potholes could well become the new normal on Goan roads during the monsoons just like the vulgarity in tourism. The situation could only get worse as long as Goans do not change their political outlook. A govt which wastes public funds on construction of memorials for politicians, state-of-the-art bridges, tourism road shows and fat perks for MLAs, deserves zero tolerance from the public for its criminal neglect of the roads.

(The author is a Social Activist who has worked in creating awareness on the issue of local self-governance)