He said, “Democracy is a rule of the people, for the people and by the people”, which means that democracy is a form of government in which the citizens of the country elect the Government to rule the country and the elected government works for the welfare of the people.
However, in India, the ground reality seems to be furthering away from this definition by every single passing year. The governments are busy fulfilling the wishes of the corporates in the garb of development and progress.
Goa has been witnessing protests for years against the rampant exploitation of resources for the benefit of the large sharks. The latest is from the residents of Siolim, who once again marched out of their houses to stage their seventh consecutive silent candlelight protest to halt tree-cutting for road widening on Tuesday, March 12.
They knocked at the doors of the court to get justice inorder to save their village from rampant destruction and celebrated when the High Court granted a stay on cutting of trees and directed the Range Forest Officer and the Anjuna Police to maintain a vigil to ensure that no more trees are cut. The protest was held near the village school amid mounting concerns regarding the indiscriminate felling of trees and concern for the environment and unauthorised road expansion. Villagers claimed that over 30 trees have already been felled and there are plans to cut 120 more trees on the stretch. The candlelight vigil being held every night is held to focus the anger among the locals over the type of development being undertaken under the Regional Plan that they have rejected.
Earlier, against the allegation of encroachment, the government had failed to convince the villagers along the South-Western Railway line, that the land belongs to the railways, a claim that has been repeated to counter any protest. The fight against coal had seen a massive turnout of people during the midnight protest at Chandor on November 1, 2020, which compelled the railway authorities to back out from carrying out the work despite being granted ‘permission’ to carry out the work during the night hours. However, since then much has happened and the work has progressed trespassing properties and transgressing people’s rights.
On the other hand, with the work on the Western Bypass stretch passing through their village being expedited, Benaulim villagers are concerned that their long-standing demand for the bypass to be built on stilts and not embankments won’t be fulfilled. For the villagers, if the bypass is built on embankments, there will be widespread destruction to the fields, and the biodiversity, and there will be flooding during the monsoon season. The area has witnessed floods for the last two consecutive years and locals wonder why the government is failing to see reason and listen to their demands.
Siolkars fear that just like the neighbouring villages in the Bardez and Pernem talukas, very soon the village of Siolim will be given up for grabs in the name of ‘development and progress’. The rampant tourism exploration that has taken place in the adjacent villages of the coastal areas of Anjuna, Vagator, Chapora and across the Chapora river in Morjim, Ashvem, etc, is a living example for the villagers, who fear their closely-knit village will be excavated for real estate developers.
Last week, the High Court of Bombay at Goa refrained from providing any relief to the 175 illegal structures at Anjuna, whose owners were seeking de-sealing of their establishments. Some of the structure owners had approached the Court seeking modification of the sealing order dated February 13, 2024, stating that their structures were not permanent but temporary. Now to facilitate their legality, the State Cabinet on Monday, March 11, approved a proposal for issuing an Ordinance, exempting temporary beach structures from obtaining construction permissions from the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department and local Village Panchayats. However, the trade-related permissions would still be obligatory and the Department of Tourism and Environment Department will oversee the granting of necessary permissions.
These developments then lead to this important question: For whose welfare is the government working? While the villagers are averse to and protest against such ‘development’, the government is adamant about shoving down the throat its ideas on the villagers. In this case, the Siolkars want to preserve whatever is left of their village and the government has plans to ‘concretise’. Villagers claim that if the development and expansion plans are allowed to progress unchecked then tourism sharks, including casinos, will make their way into the village.
The government has to come clean and transparent on the issue and seek the confidence of the people before planning any such development projects in the State. Without a doubt, the present dispensation has a brute majority to bulldoze through its ideas against any protests, but the lessons on democracy will never remain the same again. Politicians of the day need to look beyond their tenures and work for the welfare of the people and the posterity of the State.
