22 Oct 2021  |   06:37am IST

Can MLAs really afford to smile after their performance in the past five years? Let people judge

Can MLAs really afford to smile after their performance in the past five years? Let people judge

On the last day of the two-day Assembly session, all the MLAs stood on either side of the Speaker for a group photo. It marked the end of the last session of this Assembly as Goa readies for the next elections. But did any of them ask this fundamental question?

How did you make a difference to the lives of the common man in Goa?

An MLA’s duty is to legislate, which is why he or she is called a legislator. How many of them can really say they contributed to making a law which was good for the people of the State? Also can a single MLA talk at length about any of the bills that have been passed and recall their role in making a point about the bill either during a debate or outside of the debate through letters and representations or any other legislative tool that an MLA has?

Goans also ask MLAs how have they raised the voices of Goans on key issues like coal, floods and roads, mining

People’s issues cannot be based on parties. When the massive people’s agitation against the three linear projects was taking place, the strong voice of support from the MLAs was not heard. Apart from a couple of MLAs from South Goa, it did not appear that the MLAs reflected the sentiments of the people of their constituencies who turned up in large numbers, sat every peaceful protest, a candlelit procession or  the long marches to Mollem.

Wouldn’t Goans have been proud if the Assembly had passed a joint resolution to unitedly fight as Goans, both in the Court and on the streets for the protection of Goa’s water rights in the Mhadei?

When Goans were gasping for breath and literally dying in their cars for want of beds during the peak crisis, Goans did not see the collective strength and will of their elected MLAs coming out as saviours.


The government promised the restart of mining in three months. That period ended on October 20. But just restarting will not do. State-controlled mining done by the sons of the soil and ore exported by the government is a philosophy that should have been expressed and debated. Just saying mining will restart doesn’t show the path of restarting, Goans would like to be sure of these things

a) Mining has to be sustainable

b)  The same companies which have officially looted our resources should not be players again either through the front door or the back door 

c) The role of the mining corporation should be defined and it should include managing, running and regulating the mining scenario with sons of the soil as stakeholders

d) The recovery of money due to illegal mining as defined and calculated by the State which is approximately Rs 3500 crore (without counting the Shah Commission figure of Rs 35,000 crore) is non-negotiable.

Is there any use celebrating 102% vaccination when those who have lost family members to COVID have not yet been compensated? Then look at our COVID warriors. Did a single MLA ask why the increased salaries for COVID workers announced, has still not been disbursed?

In hundreds of homes across Goa, people have and never will come to terms with the death in their families, each of them saying “only if” there was a bed available on time, or “only if” the oxygen levels did not drop and there was enough oxygen for their loved one.

What is an MLA’s role? To reflect the sentiments, feeling of their peoples and fight for their rights

Goa deserved a full seven-day Assembly session only on the handling of the COVID crisis. No one asked for it and the ruling party obviously did not want to answer inconvenient questions. What was deeply missed is that the cry of the people was not heard through the voices of their elected representatives. It is their duty to take the sentiments of the streets to both the treasury and the opposition benches. Goa’s fishermen are crying with no fish in Goa’s waters and no government help to maintain their livelihoods, the farmers are crying due to insufficient produce and their destroyed fields. 

Did anyone even think of raising the issue of a police force that is truly politically independent? 

 Police reforms is an important subject. The Goa Police need to be independent of political interference. One would have expected at least a discussion on this. But no political party wants to do this and reduce their power over transfers and postings. If the police become independent, then no father will have to roam for months for justice for his daughter, as Siddhi Naik’s father did who, he feels has been killed, while the State tries to dismiss this as “drowning”. Naik, a 19-year-old from Nachinola, was found dead on the Calangute beach in August, a day after she went missing from Mapusa.

This is not about ruling or opposition MLAs. Even opposition MLAs should be asked what they had done when they were on the ruling side.

What should Goans look forward to?

As we look ahead, Goans would expect that departments that are linked directly to the people like TCP, PWD, Health to have subject experts with an aim to improve people-based land planning, good construction and world-class roads. Above all construction needs to be planned and should not affect the land and its people.

The delivery of services is a fundamental right and denial of services should attract criminal penalties

Offering to resign due to non-delivery or any other matter which involves the State, is heard of in countries like Singapore, Malaysia etc, but never India. Goa can take the lead in making non-delivery and delayed delivery of services as a criminal act with penalties and punishment given to those in the department and the government.

Goa just hopes for the people-centric Assembly, which is as important as a people-centric government

People can demand services from their MLA and government only if they have not accepted any gratification for their vote in the first place. If “gratification” is accepted, then the politicians will always behave as the master and not the servant of the people, which is what he is, she is. Does it help to be “gratified” before elections only to suffer for five years? Do you want that to happen for yourself and your children? Then choose wisely.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar