Lies PACK 1 EDUCATION- MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
MOI: Got has allowed a communal agenda by depriving parents
a) Lie told:
“Amicable solution”, to the issue of giving grants to primary schools on
the basis of language
b) Vision Document
2012 extract: However, keeping in view the problems faced by a number of
schools due to the faulty and legally inferior policy of the Congress government
and sentiments of certain sections of the population, BJP assures an amicable
solution to the problem
c) Extract from Goa School Education (
amendment) Bill 2014: Provided that the State Government may consider providing
grants to minority schools having English as a medium of instruction and
imparting education at the primary level subject to compliance with other
provisions of this Act.
d) Reality: GOA
BACKSTABBED: An amicable solution was promised in March 2012. In December 2015,
Uday Bhembre of the BBSM a front backed by the BJP with Manohar Parrikar even
taking to the streets wearing a BBSM T-shirt, said that the Church in Goa was
acting like the Portuguese dictator. Far from amicable, Bhembre and his ilk
have sought to divide this issue communally while the government has shamefully
not honoured its commitment to pass an amended on Medium of Instruction bill
giving grants to schools of all languages including English.
The Government does
not even have the guts to implement its own draft Goa School Education
(Amendment) Bill, 2014. The draft cleared by the cabinet awaits a formal
introduction in the assembly, which the Parsekar government refuses to for the
fear of a backlash among BBSM supporters and the RSS parivar. Governance is
being held hostage to a clear communal agenda where the choice of parents
across faith is being ridiculed and branded as a Church sponsored agenda.
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Lies PACK 2
REGIONAL PLAN & PARTICIPATIVE GOVERNANCE
Lie told: There would be participative planning and the
Regional Plan would be de-notified
a) BJP Vision document extract
* Participatory governance to ensure that planning is done
at village-level by local self-governments as envisaged in the 73rd & 74th
Amendments
* Regional Plan 2021 to be scrapped. A new RP to be made,
keeping in mind Goa’s identity and a green, clean and an eco-friendly Goa, in
consultation with all stake holders, including NGOs, Gram Sabhas and
Professionals
* PDAs will be confined to urban areas only. All areas under
PDAs will be taken into consideration while framing the new RP
* New construction projects shall be approved only after
confirmation of availability of infrastructure such as electricity and water
supply, parking, sewage and garbage disposal, etc.
b) Reality: Allowed a
notified plan to be temporarily in abeyance prior to de-notification has become
a permanent exercise. The bluff of de-notifying the RP 2021 has also been
called with the government now against de- notification. Rampant permissions
have been given taking advantage of this plan being kept in abeyance.
Participatory governance has been the biggest casualty of the BJP government in
2015. As 2015 closes, gram sabhas after gram sabhas across Goa have condemned
and rejected the manner in which the government is giving lip service to the
participatory planning, which has become a mere exercise in land uses changes
to accommodate big businesses.
Lies PACK 3
ENVIRONMENT
Lie told: The govt would be pro- environment and forests and
do all it could to protect them
Extract from vision document
* Prevent deforestation and encourage afforestation in the
catchment areas of the rivers and tributaries using local varieties of forest
trees
Reality: The forest department has become a tree felling
department with permissions granted to cut a massive number of trees for
projects like the Tiracol Golf Course, Electronic City in Tuem. The government
then took away the status of a “tree” granted to Goa’s revered and loved
coconut tree, thereby allowing unscrupulous businessmen the right to fell
coconut trees without permissions. Coconut trees in more than 1.2 lakh square
meters in Sanguem will be destroyed by “Vani Agro Farms” for an alcohol brewery
* Ensure
implementation of CRZ to protect the traditional occupants of the coastline
From Golf courses, to five-star hotels to gated mega
projects, all have been cleared inspite of massive CRZ violations and often
bypassing serious recommendations of the
GCZMA, like the need to protect sand dunes which are getting destroyed.
Paddy fields, khazan lands and hills & slopes have been
destroyed by not curbing illegal construction when the vision document promised
exactly the opposite
* Identify natural
heritage areas and protect them from uncontrolled development
Goa’s museums,
heritage sites and heritage areas under severe threat with protected sites
violated by new development
Pack 3
Industry, IT and employment
Lie told: To develop gainful employment opportunities, with
emphasis on tourism, entertainment, service industry and self-employment
Reality: The bull-run to the Portuguese consulate and the
escape from Goa and India with Portuguese passports nails this lie for good.
Gainful employment is possible when gains are accrued to politicians
controlling departmental appointments. With skill development not linked to
industry and industries with employment potential not created, employment has
been generated purely through the private zeal of start-ups and other
innovative entrepreneurs.
An investment policy was introduced with a promise of a Rs
25,000 crore investment and 50,000 jobs over five years. It took them a year to
appoint a new CEO. But they did what they really wanted to, introduce an
investment promotion bill which allows the board to pretty mush identity any
land an investment area and subvert each and every act which governs land use
in Goa. If there can be the BIGGEST LIE about participatory planning by
villagers of Goa it is this bill.
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URBAN & RURAL
DEVELOPMENT
Lie: Goa would be on
the swach Goa track even before Narendra Modi coined the ‘Swach Bharat’ phrase
Extracts from the vision document
* Goa to be plastic free within a period of three years (Dec
31 2015 was the deadline)
* Garbage Management for the entire state within 18 months
in consultation with all stakeholders
* Major cities and upcoming urban localities to be covered
by underground sewage facilities
Reality: Three years and nine months later, Goa is choking
with plastic, the garbage management policy has not yet been drafted in 45
months against a promise of delivering garbage management in 18 months. The
biggest achievement on the garbage front has been a cross Europe junket to
supposedly study waste management where MLAs rode gondolas and threw coins in
water fountains. After this trip a plant effectively costing Rs 560 crores over
ten years in Saligao and another white elephant in Curtorim was cleared, but
the government said it had no money to fund Margao’s door to door garbage
collection at a cost of a mere Rs 2.11 crores annually. Talk of lopsided
priorities.
This is surely not a complete list but we believe that it is
list that matters. We now ask readers to contribute to this list and give us
their their take on what issues should go into this government’s bag of lies.
