The ‘swachh’ switch has clearly been pressed during Chief Minister Parrikar’s forays into the country side for his frequent connect visits. But it’s getting clear that ‘sweeping’ efforts, though much needed, is indicative of the kind of electoral push and focus, which will be on display, to try and break the clutter of other issues.
Chief Minster Parrikar is moving out of Panjim far more frequently. And he has South Goa on his mind picking, Canacona for a major visit (and there will be more) and of course Margao where he has been showing up often, as he did for the entire first half moving into the second, of Wednesday. Incidentally both happen to be Congress constituencies but that’s the fine print. The big picture is getting formed if you look at the sample of his big ticket programmes and statements in the past two weeks.
He flagged off Goa’s first electric bus, said he would build toilets in 70,000 homes which do not have one, and then raised their daily wages of garbage collectors from Rs 350 to RS 500 in one shot, besides giving panchayats additional waste management grants to ensure door to door garbage collection and segregation. So what is the big idea? While the motives and the moves are a genuine need for Goa, and is an issue which has been plaguing Goa and crippling its progress, the pin pointed focus led by the Chief Minister himself is interesting and politically significant with an eye on Lok Sabha 2019 where every seat will count.
Importantly waste management is not being seen in isolation but as an important element in cleaning up the eco system of Goa. And here, any element of debate and opposition is unfathomable. Of course the checks and balances should include doing projects which are economical and without a trace of irregularities. However getting panchayats and towns devoid of garbage, making Goa open defecation free and having a bus system that runs on the bio-gas produced in four waste management plants, would have been seen as utopic, till recently. These haven’t yet seen the light of day, but the stage has been set to kick-start multiple projects that will come together.
But this will only happen if the effort is bottom up. Right now it is top down with the CM himself pushing it. If villagers need to see their villages free of garbage, if every home has a toilet and if the buses they ride to get to work or schools are either electric or run on bio-gas, heroes have to be found in the villages and not in government offices.
This cannot be a Chief Minister’s programme.This has to be a people’s programme and driven by grassroot institutions like the panchayats. What the government needs to do apart from sensitisation, is to create a workforce of trainers who will work at the panchayat level with village level bodies, on waste management and sanitation. The tract record of panchayats delivering on waste management, as harsh as it may sound, hasn’t been exemplary. And if 70,000 households do have toilets, local bodies need to own up responsibility.
For a coordinated grass-root response to the government push on overall cleanliness, panchayats, the health department, the PHC, the bio-diversity board have to work together at the village level. And to do that, a massive training workforce needs to be created to help in implementation professionally. That is simply because the quantum, significance and seriousness of the work needs professional help. Quite simply elected local body representatives have limited scope of a grass-root revolution though they may have the best intentions.
Operation ‘swachh’ may be borne out of political needs, but people have to seize it for Goa’s needs.
