Sancoale, Nauxi, Tiracol, the villagers of these three quiet and serene villages are spending sleepless nights. They have not harmed anybody, but their peaceful existence is under threat. And so, Goa is back in fighting mode and the latest battle revolves around the two proposed marinas and a golf course. Nobody wants them. Well, the government wants the marinas and the golf course, nobody else does.
This government’s attempts to set up marinas on the River Zuari at Sancoale on the Southern bank of the river and Nauxi on the northern bank of the same river have been met with a firm ‘no’ by the residents of the affected villages and the local elected representatives. This is not the first time that a project or projects proposed by the government have been deposed by the people. In the past decades, especially since the early 1980s, very few projects proposed by the government have met with the approval of the people. Some have been bulldozed through despite opposition and others have been scratched from the planning board after some long and bitter agitations. The Nylon 6,6 project and the Special Economic Zones are examples of the latter.
Against this background of agitations, it would have been smart on the part of the government to first take into confidence the people on any project and then give its approval for the venture, rather than push forward its plans and agendas without knowing the mind of the people. This would portray that the government was sensitive to the wishes and opinions of the people and that this was a government that would act positively only on such projects that met with the approval of the affected people. But this is just not happening in Goa. At regular intervals the government will propose a project that the people will oppose and then the fight begins, as in the case of the marinas at Sancoale and Nauxi.
Till date there is not much clarity on the marinas in the River Zuari. Herald has published the plans which it obtained from its investigations, but the government itself has preferred to go into a shell on this issue. The marinas are not about development of the villages, a carrot that the government always dangles before the people, but about a sea change in the area they will come up in. The people want development – they want motorable roads, uninterrupted water and power supply – what they don’t want is an abrupt change in their lives wrought about by a project that they are unlikely to ever benefit from.
In the case of the marinas, it is not just the residents of the villages but also the MLAs representing those areas who are opposed to the projects. Very interestingly, both the MLAs are not occupying the opposition benches in the State Legislative Assembly but the treasury seats and one of them is a minister. Since, the resistance to the marinas is coming not only from the opposition parties but also from its own party members, it makes it even more imperative for the government to take another look at the projects. The government cannot brush aside the arguments against the marinas as an opposition party’s lament or a disgruntled people’s grouse. Its own people are complaining against the marinas, that is an aspect for the government to ponder upon.
Almost similar is the situation in Tiracol where a golf course and resort are planned. The people have been fighting it but there are few listening to them. Here too the area is represented by a BJP MLA, the chief minister himself, but he has kept out of taking up the people’s issue. Most regrettably last week the proponents of the golf course brought in some bouncers to the village to quell any protest from the villagers. This is not just a tactic meant to intimidate the residents but a challenge to the government and its law enforcing agencies. If this is allowed to happen once, what’s to stop promoters of other projects elsewhere from bringing in their bouncers to intimidate the people? The government’s impotence has been exposed in the case of the Tiracol golf course and hotel project. Will Goa see an encore of this when it comes to the marinas?
