Coastal Bardez is getting tired of the ‘development’ that it has been doled out. Opposing the plans of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority, the villagers of Nagoa, Arpora, Parra, Calangute, Candolim and of the surrounding areas protested peacefully on Monday afternoon. The slogans that were shouted out at the protest by the school children and the elders, the housewives and the professionals and even some religious, brought to the fore the sentiments of the people. It was a no to Planning and Development Authorities and Outline Development Plans, no to drugs and prostitution, and a yes to the land and to Goenkarponn – the Goan identity.
What emerged from the protest, based on the speeches made, is that the people have lost confidence in the government, and the planning that comes from the top down. They want it to be reversed, with suggestions to come from the grassroots. Villagers are now getting increasingly involved in the planning process and demand, with reason, that they be taken into confidence. Take the case last week when the Candolim Village Development Committee (VDC) got down to preparing its development plan. It printed the village survey map on a large flex banner and placed on the ground inviting villagers to then identify their wards and what exists and what is needed to create a social resource map which will incorporate all the public places, religious sites, ponds, rivers, etc. The video of the meeting uploaded on a social media site went viral.
While the opposition to the PDAs is not entirely new – villagers from Tiswadi got their village dropped from the Greater Panjim Planning and Development Authority some months ago – the devastation caused in Kerala by what is increasingly being described as ‘manmade’ floods with nothing to the contrary that can refute this claim, does appear to have wrought some fear in the people. The Goa next warning is still fresh in the minds of the people and the threat to the land is igniting protests. Sad for Kerala, but that disaster is strengthening the case to save the fast-disappearing green that remains in Goa. Whatever action is required has to come now, as any delay could prove disastrous.
The people today are a generation that is very aware, and there is a lot of discontent with the planning process. There is also today a display of unity that even a year ago may not have been seen. A day prior to the protest at Calangute, the village gram sabha ran into a marathon meeting as villagers sought to have their way and spoke out against the number of drug and prostitution related cases that come up in the village. Tourism has taken the villages from obscurity to international repute, but brought along accompanying ills, that the people today realise they can do without.
Democracy today is not just about voting in elections and then sitting back and allowing the politicians to plan for the people, democracy is all about people participating in planning at the local level. Candolim is preparing its development plan in one manner, and Guirdolim in the South has done so in another. And look at Guirdolim in Salcete, it was not just the concrete development of a panchayat ghar that the villagers sought, but they also put forward requests for farming equipment, soil testing facilities, self-employment schemes, gymnasiums and yoga classes, and also garbage management.
The fight is, as one of the activists at the protest meet put it, not against any political party or any particular politician. While politicos will come and they will go, Goenkarponn once gone will not return. The battle is to save Goenkarponn, and it will be saved and will survive when the warriors from the villages take up for it.
