Srinivas Kamat
The fiasco like that of the Lucky 7 casino ship that has been washed ashore will only happen in Goa. This is because ship owners, particularly those of casino ships who are prone to cut more corners, know that in Goa the people and more so the government are easy going. They can get away with murder and more as Gopal Kanda, the director of the Golden Globe Hotels, owners of the Lucky 7 casino ship, knows. The precedence of the Silver Princess disaster is before them where the removal was done with excruciating delay that turned to be agonising for the Candolim beach visitors, the local fishing community, the people residing near the beach and lastly the beach and the marine environment. In similar circumstance over the last year in Karnataka, there have been two cases of ships running aground. One near Karwar and the other at Panambur near the Mangalore port. In the first instance at Karwar the ship was removed from the beach in three working days. At Panambur since there was also oil leakage it took a little longer but the ship was taken away within a week, while with the Lucky 7 ship we are coming close to a month and still there is no solution in sight.
If the new salvage operators are to be believed though there is no confirmation yet that anyone has been appointed, any salvage operations can begin only after Sept 15 when the ports will re-open after the monsoon. Also as per reports given by them considering the big hole in the bottom of the Lucky 7 ship, it is safer and better for the ship to be dismantled at the Miramar beach. This will surely mean that the ship will remain as an eyesore at Miramar beach for another two years and the usage of the beach will be limited and the dismantling operations will further damage the beach and the facilities nearby. All this while, the owners of the Lucky 7 ship will be sitting pretty with no worries.
It is time therefore that a lesson be taught to the owners of the ship by jailing them on grounds of deliberately spoiling Goa’s environment and irresponsible behaviour post the grounding of the ship. On this matter one was aghast to read last week in the papers that until the election code of conduct imposed because of the Panjim by-elections is withdrawn nothing can be done about the Lucky 7 ship. This is stupid since with an environmental disaster looming over the city because of the ship we cannot do anything because an election code of conduct is in place!
So if a tsunami hits Goa’s beaches now or a natural disaster occurs, is it that we cannot implement protective and relief measures because of the election code of conduct! Cast these things aside and get cracking on removing the Lucky 7 ship and taking punitive action gains the ship owners. These fellows seem to dare to do these things only in Goa and no other place.
