By the end of August Goa was to be open defecation free and was also to have repaired all the potholes on the roads. Well, neither has been fully met. In a bid to claim the ODF status, the State has installed community toilets in various places that are a temporary measure and there is nothing permanent about it. Similarly, where potholes are concerned those on the main roads have been filled up with cement and with mud and with stones, again all provisional means, which can get washed away with even just a little rain. But, the potholes on the interior roads have not been repaired. They still exist, as bad as they were when the State promised to repair them before Ganesh Chaturthi, and some have even turned worse.
The most important August 31 deadline that Goa missed was in presenting to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change the Coastal Zone Management Plan. The draft plan was rejected by the MLAs and then by the people. Villages are now preparing their own plan. A few already have, but others are yet to start. The government has sought six more months. Given the nature of the exercise that is ahead for the State, these are going to be a very busy six months. The success of drafting the plan and having it ready to present to the Ministry, depends on the cooperation of the villages and the people. This, therefore, is yet another uphill task for the State, and success will rest on the readiness of the people.
There’s a perceptible lack of planning in government. Goa, only on Saturday, learnt that it will host the National Games in October-November next year. The Games were to be held in March-April this year but were postponed for various reasons. For the past few months there was absolutey no clarity on the Games. It was like groping in the dark on the Games, but finally there is some clarity now. But there’s more. On Friday, with just a day before the State had to handover land for the construction of the Indian Institute of Technology, the cabinet approved the transfer of 10 lakh square metres of land at Guleli, Sattari that belonged to the Revenue Department for the IIT campus. The deadline was a day later on Saturday. The IIT was another long delayed decision. Land was identified elsewhere – at Sanguem – but opposition from the local community there forced the government to look elsewhere resulting in the delay.
The temporary nature of most acts that the government gets into and decisions it takes, the last minute rush to meet the deadlines that propels the government to act is indicative of short-term measures without the long-term perspective. Take for instance how every six months the cabinet renews the stay of the casino boats on the River Mandovi. This has been going on for years, and the alternative site has not been identified. A minister may say that he is ready to take them to a different location, an aspiring MLA may promise to shift the casino vessels within 100 days of getting elected, but these are statements that are never followed up with action.
Goa has plodded along for far too long unable to wrest the initiative and soar. While other States with longer coastlines have been able to complete their CZMPs, Goa has not. While other States have attained the 100 per cent ODF status Goa becomes the last with temporary toilets. Is this the Goa that we dreamt we would be living in one day? Few would have thought the State would have descended into a disorder such as this.
