In both cases, it involved a communication gap between the administration and the stakeholders that led to keeping them pending. In the case of the dredging of River Sal it was held back until there could be a site inspection where officials will put forth the Environment Impact Assessment report and the desilting plan before fishing community and explain the project to them. In the case of the municipalities ordinance, the government has asked the merchants to revert with suggestions and objections for which a month has been given.
As per the details available, River Sal needs to be desilted as the accumulated silt has resulted in the river depth varying. The desilting is expected to improve the navigational channel for the fishing community. This is part of a national project and the State has till March this year to complete this second phase of the dredging. The fears of the fishermen, who have not been told what the project entails, is that this could harm the traditional fishing activities in the river, and hence affect their livelihoods. The joint site inspection of the river will ascertain the river depth and demarcate the fishing zone areas. The Fisheries Minister, Felipe Neri Rodrigues, who admitted that the government failed to take the fishermen, who are the main stakeholders, into confidence while proposing the project, said that the dredging is important to protect and conserve marine life.
The municipalities ordinance seeks to regularise the unauthorised possession of municipal shops and thereby generate revenue to the council and further to limit the lease period of shops to ten years and thereafter auction the shops. The objection of the merchants is that there are many Goan families who are dependent on this as their traditional businesses and that since the ordinance has restricted their right to the shops to ten years, after which there will be an auction, they fear they will not be able to run the business after that period. Their fear of not having a business after a decade is justified, but if there are traders in unauthorised possession of shops, then this has to be sorted out.
In both instances there is a perceptible lack of communication between the government authorities and the stakeholders. Had the government reached out to the traditional fishing community in the case of River Sal, and to the market merchants in the case of the municipalities ordinance, there would possibly have been no requirement to hold back the dredging project and the municipalities ordinance. The association of the fishermen is firm that until the government satisfies their queries, the dredging work will not be allowed. The situation would not have arisen had the government met the fishermen in advance and communicated with them.
With a session of the Legislative Assembly already called for later this month, the government can table the amendment to the municipalities Act in the House and allow for a debate on the amendments before going ahead with it. Where the dredging of the River Sal is concerned, if as the government says the project is only to benefit the fishermen, the site inspection should allay the fears of the traditional fisherfolk. Chief Minster Dr Pramod Sawant has said that the approach of the government is ‘business friendly and people friendly’. This is an opportunity to portray that approach and settle both the issues to the benefit of all – the government and the stakeholders.
