Manohar Parrikar has been MLA of Panjim for close to 25 years, one third of an average life span of many Ponjekars. Close to ten of these years have been spent either as Chief Minister or leader of the opposition. While Panjim, inspite of all its ills remains one of the most beautiful towns in the world, it is not gaining age with grace. With each passing year, a bit of her beauty has been fading and chipped away leaving warts and ugly scars.
The untimely exit of the colossus who claimed Panjim as his right, Manohar Parrikar, seems to have left a vacuum. But this could also be an opportunity for new thought, action and energy from a new MLA who will be full time custodian of the city, devoid of ministerial and other lofty responsibilities.
For Ponjekars, this is an even greater opportunity than what 2012 gave them. The 2012 assembly elections was all about making Manohar Parrikar Chief Minister. The 2014 by-elections of Panjim will be all about putting a person we choose, to restore Panjim to its former grace and glory. By making Panjim the beautiful town it was with tree laden roads, basic infrastructure, no frills- just good facilities- and a quality of life which wasn’t congested and claustrophobic.
The choice this time will be entirely in the hands of the people of Panjim. They have to see through opportunists and device a system to choose a peoples candidate for their town. A candidate who is one among them, a candidate who will see this as an appointment by the people who will be his or her masters, a candidate who will use his term as an MLA to be one of the stakeholders taking into account local representatives, the CCP and a specially created ‘people’s corporation’, which will have a notified seat in the high table of discussion.
This may be only a by-election but this is a historic opportunity for Ponjekars to pick their person. If the present state government expects the people of Panjim to support the ruling party it should deliver the following, failing which the people have the inherent strength to work towards this by creating this system in the future
a) Ensure people based decisions by forming a ‘peoples corporation’ of about 20 people from different walks of life as domain experts to formulate a vision plan for Panjim across all spheres- social, cultural, economic and administrative.
b) Make the Mayor of Panjim the executive head of the city in charge of all projects which will touch the city. The CCP Commissioner should be a full time person reporting to the Mayor.
c) Budgets for all Panjim’s projects should be passed by the CCP and funds allocated to the CCP rather than outsourced to other agencies like the GSIDC. The GSIDC or the PWD should then compete with other private agencies for projects based on merit and cost, to be selected by the CCP
d) The Panjim master plan prepared by the very expensive consultant should be kept in abeyance and reviewed to ensure that Panjim’s real needs are first addressed instead of expensive cosmetic changes
e) The biggest headaches of Panjim, parking and the disaster of the Miramar-Dona Paula road construction should have a time bound closure based entirely on a road map set and framed by the people through the ‘people’s corporation’.
f) The MLA of Panjim needs to report back to the people and the mayor on a monthly basis though an institutionalized meeting, with representatives of the peoples corporation, for an audit of performance and deliverables for next month
In short the MLA’s chair will not be to fill a position in the assembly. His role will be to ensure real change by simply following the road map of the people in a closely monitored and audited fashion. We know that at least three people have entered the cesspool even before elections have been announced. It remains to be seen, if a single candidate will be willing to play by the rules Herald has just set. If the future MLA is not from the ruling party he or she should promise to push for these changes and be with the people till the changes are affected.
It is important for every arm of society to look at the Panjim elections in this manner. We are not electing an MLA. We need to vote an era of change which will be people centric in the truest sense.
