There is another term for it – sell-out. And these acts resemble the oldest profession in the world, and are not the acts of government committed to making Goa a truly welfare state.
But the people of Goa will not be congratulating him. Vested interest groups to whom his government has sold Goa, will.
His government pushed and passed the Goa Preservation of Trees (amendment) Bill 2016, which reclassifies the coconut plant as a palm, thereby ensuring that agencies both government and private, which seek to cut trees for road widening or more importantly for projects that are cleared by the Investment Promotion Board by earmarking an area as an investment promotion area, have no hurdles. Companies like Vani Agro to set up beer factories in Sanguem, for instance.
On the same day it passed a bill to allow eco tourism projects in eco- sensitive areas, which in simple terms means opening the government’s arms to more groups like Leading Hotels to enter places like Tiracol, or groups like Ozone to enter Vanxim or Rahejas to enter Carmona.
Herald has explained in great detail to its readers in its edition of Thursday, how draconian the amendment to the tree protection act is and that the real beneficiary of this will be fat cat businessmen and project developers. The government’s explanation that this will protect trees flies in the face of facts.
At the same time the Goa Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill 2016, allowing eco-tourism activities in eco-sensitive zones benefits the same category of businessmen and in fact the very same projects, like in Vanxim and Tiracol
The bill grants powers, where the project developers will not have to obtain any permission for conversion or change of zoning of land for undertaking activities. The bill supersedes all other Acts, including the Regional Plan 2021.
These two bills combined with the Investment Promotion Act will serve as a killer blow to Goa, altering the template of the legislative process where anti-people legislations are, and will be,allowed to supersede laws made in public interest.
The Investment Promotion Board Act and the Amendment to the TCP Act allowing eco-tourism projects, are geared to supersede the Regional Plan itself. So even as gram sabhas are demanding people’s participation in the formulation of a just people- centric Regional Plan, the government is pushing legislation to make the Regional Plan redundant in areas where private players will be allowed to do major construction, by cutting hills and destroying trees, at people’s cost.
This government is not getting more draconian but dictatorial too. It refused the demand to refer the bill to the Select Committee nor did it agree to make the amendments to the Tree Preservation Act only after bringing the Coconut Protection Act. The pattern is clear. When it wants to delay taking action on an issue and push it indefinitely to the backburner it chooses the Select Committee route, like it has done in the case of the Goa Education (Amendment) bill to decide on grants for English medium primary schools. When it wants to clear legislation to smoothen the path of big builders and businessmen, it pushes legislations like it did on Thursday.
The need for a never before experienced democratic people’s agitation, has never been greater because no law can take away the people’s right to peacefully protest. The erstwhile groups which led the agitation against the flawed Regional Plan of 2011, which prepared the ground to sell Goa to the builders- the Village Groups of Goa and the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, need to spearhead another Goa wide people’s movement. The danger to the identity of Goa and the interest of Goans has never been greater. Therefore it needs a democratic people’s response that Goa has never seen before.
