A vision and a mission for Panjim
The CCP administration must be made transparent and accountable, says DR JOE D’SOUZA
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The elections to the Corporation of the city of Panjim will hopefully bring home new faces in charge of the already choked and suffocated civic body. Ever since Panjim Municipality has been converted into a Corporation, the woes of the residents of Panjim have increased manifold. While it is amusing to witness many residents of Panjim embark on mission such as Goa Bachao Abhiyan and the Chaka Chak campaign, through the tacit help and blessings of the Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Panjim sadly continues to reel under acute problems of parking woes, garbage imbroglio, open urination and illegal washing of cars, loud music from cruise boats, disposal of wastes in rivers by casinos and the growing menace of corruption and nepotism in the civic body.
Strangely Panjimites, while trying to address problems facing the state of Goa at large, have failed miserably to counter as well as check the ‘Chek-Chek-Pek-Pek’ (murky) mess around their own backyard. Why should Panjim be a Corporation and not a Municipal Council? The Panjim Corporation has been eating into the savings of the residents of Panjim. It is a question that voters of Panjim must address its candidates.
In Panjim, we pay higher taxes as compared to Santa-Cruz and Taleigao. What is even worse, the garbage of our neighbouring villages and panchayats is taken care of by the Corporation of City of Panjim. People of Panjim feel that that the remote control to Panjim administration is operated from outside the city limits. Panjimites pay for the goods and services of all those businessmen who come to Panjim to grow and prosper, thus allowing Panjim to choke and deteriorate. There are hardly any resident businessmen from the city. The major woes of Panjim is that the residents of Panjim pose as prophets on the Chaka-Chak mission, leaving Panjim in a quandary. Panjimites have failed miserably to see as to why the illegal car washing continues unabatedly, all around our Municipal gardens. Why casinos from the River Sal were brought on River Mandovi by the missionaries of Panjim, is a million-dollar question.
When Kabir Pinto Makhija and Manoj Patil, the candidates of Ward XI visited me for advice and my vote, I asked them to stop the illegal washing of cars, as well as open urination outside tavernas and bars and around city gardens, before the day of election. I explained to them that the quality of life in Panjim is degenerating, due to parking woes and garbage menace.
The illegal washing of cars in Panjim is thriving because of ‘black money’ by migrants who undertake this illicit activity of car washing, which is shared with the administration. The parking problems are causing traffic chaos as ‘No parking’ zones are not implemented. Since shopkeepers and vendors pay money to those who are supposed to introduce pay parking system, the cars, buses, vehicles of business houses are parked 24×7, thus choking Panjim streets and pavements.
The bars/restaurants are given licenses without toilet facilities, so open urination and defecation is rampant. Inspite of the Honourable High Court issuing an order that open urination is a public nuisance, and has to be stopped forthwith, the administration is not activating the ‘Nuisance Squad’, as directed by the Honourable High Court. Liquor sales and food licenses, illegal or legal, is a means of big black money to tap and exploit. No corrupt civic body would ever venture to place in service, the action of the ‘Nuisance Squad’ as directed by the High Court, since the arrest of drunkards urinating in public would lead to decreased sales of liquor, beer, soda, etc., leading to lower commissions and gratification fee for those administering the civic bodies. Today, garbage mismanagement through contractors offering commissions and ‘haftas’ from commercial units encouraging nuisance in public of their staff and customers due to disposal of shop garbage on roads, haphazard parking of vehicles, while doing business and using road corners as public toilets, have made officials of civic bodies rich with commissions and black money, while the aam admi and Panjim residents continue to suffer due to mounting pollution and degradation.
Panjim is battered, tattered and shattered more due to lackadaisical approach of its residents by their ‘chalta hai’ attitude. Panjim has been identified as a beneficiary town under the Jawaharlal Nehru National urban renewal mission, of which I am a steering committee member. In the manifesto of the last election, Atanasio Monserrate gave an impressive list of activities his panel would dare to undertake, should they be given an opportunity. In March 2006, Sadanand Thakur under the Monserrate panel won with 19 out of the 30 corporators. Under Monserrate’s patronage, several meetings were held, decisions reached and breached, but the woes of Panjim still continue to haunt us. My letter to Monserrate dated 24 September 2009 still remains unanswered, and it deals with Panjim woes. Surely, Monserrate knows that five years ago, solid waste management was an issue and it still is. Five years ago, St Inez creek restoration was an issue and still is an issue. Parking, pay parking, mobility, sanitation, pollution, corruption, nepotism, neglect, illegal licenses, car washings, and flouting of building rules were the issues addressed.
Five years ago, and Panjim today, is in far greater mess. I had personally written to Monserrate about Panjim woes in the letter mentioned above, as he happens to be a fellow member on the steering committee of JNNURM as well as a leader of the panel which was in charge of CCP. Unfortunately, as Monserrate did not attend any meeting of JNNURM subcommittee constituted by the Chief Minister, I could not fathom out his vision or his plans or concerns for the capital city of Panjim. It is further disastrous for Panjim that the solid waste Management Plant plan as well as the details of revitalisation of Panjim worked out by Manohar Parrikar, Carolina Po and myself as subcommittee members together with the ambitious water and sewerage scheme for Panjim is yet to be approved finally by the State level steering committee, headed by the Chief Minister. I have appealed to the Chief Minister, the Urban Development Minister and all officials in the State Administration to help convene the much desired meeting to help forward the three hundred crores projects to the sanctioning authorities in New Delhi, but to no avail.
All my personal efforts seem to have gone in vain. It is the same old story of government files going in circles. In the meanwhile, Panjim continues to degrade and we are now in the process of electing new members for the CCP.
The scams must stop, and development must begin to usher in quality living for the residents with a scientific approach. Buildings should be constructed with car parking facilities. The conversions of car parks into shops must stop. Vendors from outside Panjim must pay taxes for maintenance of the city and keep private vehicles from congesting the city. Administration of the CCP must be made totally transparent to root out corruption and be accountable. We must elect educated candidates, who think solely of Panjim’s development.
13th March 2011 would reveal what Panjim is destined for. Let us wait and watch.
+
See-see TV
By Adelmo Fernandes
It must be said the television set has invaded our drawing room, our bedroom, our dining room and probably even the kitchen. As a matter of fact, television has invaded our very lifestyle. It will probably be difficult to imagine a life without the all-prevailing television.
There was a time when the television used to be called an ‘idiot-box’. Now it is nothing less than a ‘smart-box’. Probably, the only serious rival to television, in the world of communication, is the internet. I recall with nostalgia, when I first set my eyes on a television program. It was the 1982 Asian Games, which was being held at Delhi. From the days of the black-and-white viewing, television has come a long way. The television sets have become slimmer over the years, and now you can hang it on the wall just like a live photo-frame. With TV shows being aired live, indeed this form of entertainment is alive and kicking. And with the advent of cable TV, the choice of programs for the viewers has just become limitless.
“Some television programs are so much chewing gum for the eyes” wrote John Mason Brown. But then it must be said that a form of the television that is beginning to have an impact on our lives, is the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV). In today’s world, one encounters the CCTV almost everywhere. Be it at the shopping mall, the railway station, banks and even on the road, during a public function. In a world where one hears of terror attacks all too frequently, the CCTV has become an important tool to combat this evil, as it keeps an eye on the movement of suspicious elements. In shopping malls CCTVs can dissuade would-be shoplifters from carrying out the act, as the very sight of TV cameras can be very discouraging. But then, there is a negative side to having Close-Circuit television installed. There have been instances when TV cameras have been installed in changing rooms of readymade clothes shops and the owner has been caught red-handed watching ladies change their clothes. The CCTV may also not go well with the working section of society, if they have been installed in their work place.
If things go on as planned The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) may have CCTVs installed in the offices to keep an eye on the staff. If CCTVs are installed in the offices, many of the employees, specially the ladies, would regard it as unfair, as it would mean that the boss could pry on their personal matters. There would be absolutely no privacy, especially for the members of the far sex. It is true that by installing the TV cameras, the boss can keep a close watch on the movement of the employees to see whether they are really working or engaging themselves in other activities, just to while away the time. The question to be asked is whether it is morally and ethically right for the employer to keep a tag on every movement of the employee? Some workers have even argued that if the boss can keep a watch on the employees, why shouldn’t a TV camera be installed in his office as well, so that employees can see if the boss is actually working or not? This way it will be a ‘see-for-all’ at the work place.
Indeed a CCTV (which I prefer to call as a See-See TV) can be a blessing to some, and at the same time, a curse to others depending on who is keeping a watch on whom.
