09 Aug 2021  |   06:09am IST

Goans want MPs to protect their interests in the highest temple of Democracy, the Parliament. This was not done when the Major Ports Bill was passed

Goans want MPs to protect their interests in the highest temple of Democracy, the Parliament. This was not done when the Major Ports Bill was passed

1 Nothing personal. An MP is our voice in Parliament. All we want is accountability

The South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha decided to reach out to Goans, finally, on the Major Ports Bill after your paper raised pertinent questions on why the only opposition MP (North Goa MP Shripad Naik and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar are both from BJP) to justify his silence on the Major Ports Bill, which will hand over the control of most of the coastal areas of Goa to a Major Ports Authority with no power to local bodies.

The MP advised all to understand how Parliament functions and stated that often when Bills are introduced, they are given to MPs on the same day with barely two hours to read them. And then since the Bill pertained to the ports all across the country, the party often decides to field senior speakers from other states, when it comes to such bills.

When the bill was introduced did the MP ask for Goa to be excluded from such a bill with valid reasons

In the Lok Sabha Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Hibi Eden and Trinamool Congress’s Saugata Roy opposed the Bill at the introduction stage, saying the government should go back to the drafting table to bring in more clarity. Did the South Goa MP join in and say that the bill should be redrafted to exclude MPT from the list of ports which would have jurisdiction over Goa’s interests? Goans would like to know and if the MP did that, Goans would like to congratulate him.

Did he also issue a statement and then get back to Goa to speak about the developments in Parliament and highlight how Goan interests would suffer the most and back the MPs.

The bill was finally passed in the Lok Sabha on September 23, 2020. The South Goa MP had six months to express his stand. Understandably this was during the COVID period but both the media and his party had not stopped functioning. In his press conference last weekend he remarked that he was fine with the Bill but not with the jurisdiction of MPT as per the bill. We would like to know why he didn't mention this either in Parliament or anytime between September 2020 and now either in the media or party, to raise public opinion. 

When the bill went to the Rajya Sabha look at the strong remarks made by the Trinamool Congress MP Sukhenda Shekhar Ray in Parliament. He said “This is the first stage of corporatisation and the next step in the offing is privatisation. Parliament is being taken for a ride.... I strongly oppose this bill on behalf of the TMC. He said according to the bill, a state government will have no authority in either the sale of land or change of land use. So, the State governments have no say in the future use and sale of such lands.”

Goans would have loved if they heard their own MP speak so strongly in the Lok Sabha since there is no Congress MP from Goa in the Rajya Sabha. We would have welcomed and hailed such statements and congratulated the South Goa MP for standing up for Goa. But we are saddened that it did not happen.

 At the same time, the Goa legislatures did not speak upon such an important issue. From March 12, 2020 to Feb 10, 2021, the bill was in both Houses of Parliament. Did either the ruling BJP or the opposition in Goa show any real intent of moving the Union Government and the Ministry of Shipping with an appeal to at least move it to the standing committee for a deeper study, even though it knew the dangers of the bill.

2 Govt gave the same reply in January and July that it knew the implications of the Major Ports Bill. But for 6 months it did nothing

On January 29, 2021 (29/01/21), the Town and Country Planning Minister of Goa, Babu Kavlekar in his answer to a Legislative Assembly Question (LAQ), no 12A by Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco (Congress MLA, Curtorim) stated that the government “has examined the like impact (of the Major Ports Bill) on the powers of the State and local bodies. The likely implications include redundancy of (the) Goa Town and Country Planning Act and the Regional Plan/ODPs prepared thereunder, the Goa Municipalities Act, Goa Panchayat Raj Act, Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations 2010 and Goa Land Revenue Code in respect under the ownership of the Board, constituted by Major Ports (under the new act), and consequent revenue loss on account of the same.”  This was 14 days before the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha.

 Exactly six months later to the days 29/07/2021, the same minister answered the same question from Luizinho Faleiro (LAQ 095) in exactly the same words. This time after the Bill.

 So basically, before the bill was passed and after it, the government, aware of the disastrous implications of the Bill, did nothing.

3 Congress workers want ‘LEADERS’ not ‘DEALERS’

Genuine grassroots Congress workers want their bosses to be humble, and not think they are bigger than the party

Herald received many calls and messages after its Insight on how the ones running the Congress organisation and the Legislature party along with the AICC desk in charge. There are hardworking party cadre who have worked selflessly without any hunger or greed for power and positions for years. Hurt by reports for how deals are being made at the topmost levels and the party and the state is being sold they say “What kind of examples are the bosses setting. They are dancing in someone else’s hand”.

 Some workers are also taught to do something wrong. Leaders have become dealers, they say. Multiple ticket distribution by the ‘Conductor’ has led to infighting in so many seats.

 Grassroot workers just want to save the party and the state and want strong leadership and fresh reliable faces after the ‘dealers are thrown out’.

4  Fishermen, the real ‘bhumiputras’ are losing all their fish to ‘outsider’ fishermen with LED lights

 Fishermen are not just sons of the soil. They are the ones who contribute to Goa’s economy, were self-sufficient and worked very hard to ensure that Goans had fish on their table as their staple diet.

Fishing was never a business but a way of life where each one contributed. The Goan economy enjoyed the fruits of the land with a good rice crop and plenty of fish.

 All that is completely gone. Barely 5% of Goa’s fish is caught and used in Goa. Outsider fishermen, mainly from Karnataka come in mechanised trawlers with LED lights and enter our waters just from outside and literally catch all the fish in sight in one swoop leaving hardly any fish on Goan waters.

 They go out to sea and struggle to get a catch. Their economies have suffered and the absence of fish has made many fisherfolk economically weak. And then with the coastline threatened and the Major Ports Bill set to destroy their fishing villages and their way of life, a traditional occupation which is synonymous with Goa is getting finished.

Who benefits? The formalin lobby

The lobby of major fish traders import fish laced with formalin in trucks. Hundreds of trucks enter through Goa’s borders. While there are check posts to check the fish, this is just a formality. No serious checks happen according to those in the know either at the check posts or at the Margao wholesale market.

 No political party has been serious about this. None has spoken of an urgent need to have cold storages to store Goan fish and put a cap on sending our Goan fish and keeping the majority for local consumption as well as to businesses in Goa.

And if any consignment of outside fish is tested for formalin (after increasing the efficiency of checking), the trader should be fined, banned and arrested.

 We need to protect the Goan way of life, our fishermen’s family and keep outside traders who want to loot our fish and scoot by doing deals with Goan businessmen and politicians, out of Goa.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar