After a lull in the protests, the linear projects are back in the news. Just days after Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant asserted that the three linear projects – double tracking of the South West Railway line, expansion of highway and power project – would become a reality despite the movement against them, six Opposition politicians came together to demand that the land acquisition for double tracking of the railway line be stopped and threatened legal action if it continues. They were accompanied by members of the Goencho Ekvott that has been spearheading the movement against the projects over the past few months.
Simultaneously, Goencho Avaaz too demanded that the Collector stop the land acquisition process for the same project and this group too warned to knock the doors of judiciary if their demands are not fulfilled. While the Opposition MLAs met the Collector and then met the deputy collector at Mormugao on the same issue, where they were kept waiting outside before they were allowed to enter, civil society members also turned up at the Vasco office of the Mormugao deputy collector to protest the hearings. Interestingly, the Opposition MLAs at Vasco were joined by BJP MLA Alina Saldanha, whose Cortalim constituency will be much affected by the double tracking.
The entry of the politicians in the protest is rather interesting. The opposition to the railway double tracking has been a people’s movement all through the last few months. On November 1 last year, when the people held a night vigil at Guirdolim railway level crossing to thwart the scheduled double tracking work, the politicians who had turned up at the protest site had been booed by the people. The politician had not been welcome, though the Opposition MLAs had been supporting the movement. This changed somewhat during the last Assembly session when the Opposition forced a long debate on the three linear projects on the floor of the House that went on long into the night.
The debate arose from a private members’ resolution that sought to recommend that the government scrap the three linear projects that threaten ecology in the interest of the public who been opposed to them. The main point raised at that time was that the double tracking was meant to allow the transportation of coal, with the question raised as to why the thousands of trees are being cut in a forest to transport coal. The answer was that the projects are for Goa’s future. The resolution was defeated as the Opposition stood as one block and the government as another. Even the absence of MLAs from the ruling benches whose constituents are affected by the projects did not turn it is favour of the opposition.
The memorandum to the Collector and the visit to the Deputy Collector by the MLAs is therefore the first public show of unity – other than the resolution in the Assembly – among the MLAs on the railway double tracking. Even at Guirdolim, when the politicians had turned up for the protest and been booed, they had arrived there and stood grouped together by party affiliation.
This brings a very different perspective to the movement as it attains a firmer base from which to lunge forward. The people’s movement has gained traction even outside the State, though the government has remained unresponsive. Can the Opposition MLAs, at the very least, get an assurance from the government on keeping the land acquisition on hold? The government has been adamant on the three projects, refusing to budge from its stand even once. The test for the united opposition will be the Budget session of the Assembly, where hopes will rest on them getting results, rather than playing to the galleries.
