Goa is caught up at the crossroads of multiple contradictions. Part of its populace, especially the educated elite, aspires for premium quality lifestyles, shifting from suburbia to upmarket artificially peppered neighbourhoods, fuelled by real estate developers. They holiday abroad and drive ritzy cars. A section of Goans are selling their ancestral properties and embracing better rule of law and employment opportunities promised by an European citizenship or migrate to Australia or Canada. There are some who are paying a fortune to educate their children at educational hubs within India and elite institutions in Europe, Singapore, Australia and the USA.
Amidst all these cataclysmic social transformation and angst, which will define contours of the future Goan society, one fundamental question social thinkers and government needs to pose to itself is –are these symptoms of a deeper systemic dissatisfaction that educated Goan families are dying to overcome, by paying any price?
Though the government has passed the Goa (Right to Time-Bound Delivery of Public Services) Act, 2013, it touched merely three departments and has not been extended to other departments. The standards of public services including infrastructure services — power, roads, water are low. Medical and emergency services which are critical to save lives are lackadaisical and if one survives with their help, it is indeed providential. Most Goans avail of better medical services in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai, despite government ‘efforts’ to upgrade the Goa Medical College and Hospital. Mostly deprived migrants avail of the government’s medical services, public distribution services and BPL schemes. Corruption is growing in leaps and bounds. The government has to realise that even Goans with moderate incomes and lifestyles have a great sense of self respect.
Even the Portuguese who came to Goa to ‘civilise’ Asians, found that Goans were a civilised race, such that Afonso de Albuquerque told his men to intermarry with locals. They retained Comunidades and Afonso de Mexia even codified the practices, of these relatively advanced village republics with good socio-economic structure, justice system, and administration. During the ‘Goa Dourado’ period, Goa rivalled Venice and Paris.
Therefore today, the question is how has administration come to such a nadir, that people are going to great lengths to show dissent towards the system by voting with their feet –either leaving the State for better pastures either temporarily or permanently or creating their little private paradises within Goa. Political parties are engaged in their one-upmanship games as people suffer silently. The collapse of governance is starkly reflected in the case of residents of entire Tiswadi who have to beg even for little joys like 24×7 water supply. The 48 hour water drought was endured by people because of rupturing of a pipeline due to power shut down and resulting extreme water pressure. The problem is that people have come to expect such poor quality services that even though citizens used to march to the chief minister’s office in Altinho with buckets and toothbrushes in the 80s, today they have simply stopped complaining. Tuesday, Fontainhas residents narrated that no one attended to calls for PWD water tankers and they had to buy at least five bottles of five litres, each costing Rs 50 for cooking and drinking, which alone added up to Rs 250 for a day. This is more than the average monthly water bill. They complained that they receive restricted water supply, daily. Instead of focussing on business or service, they have to fight for their day to day living and hound for water.
Private sector network companies constantly monitor their networks on an hourly, weekly and monthly basis because, unlike government, they do not run monopolies. Can this be said of the PWD, which only runs helter-skelter after a pipeline bursts? Is there any preventive maintenance which PWD or any other department does, before any breakdown or tragedy occurs? Is there a ready vehicle to attend to breakdowns? PWD Minister Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar must learn from high standards which advanced countries, including Singapore and Japan, have set for public services, to which Goans are getting attracted and which he should emulate. He must learn that there is much more to them then bikinis and short dresses. Since half his term is already over, Dhavalikar has to be behind his officers and workmen and set high standards in water or roads networks. The MGP is now only a footnote to the BJP. Hence he should steer clear of culture or other needless controversies and deliver. The people of Goa are watching.
