EDDIE VIEGAS
This refers to the headlines of O Heraldo of January 2, 2025, and the earlier articles during the last few weeks where one reads of more of infamous news items than something to be happy about in the tiny state of Goa.
Some six decades ago, Goa was a heavenly State with a small population of less than half a million not so rich but a contented (real susegad) people. Agriculture being the main occupation supplemented with a fair portion of mining activity we had our own resources of fisher-folks, toddy tappers, cobblers, potters, artists of all sorts, tiatrists and musicians, quality tailors and bakers, taverns and restaurant operators with a good proportion of educated Goans running the government at various levels with honesty and no corruption.
Indeed, immediately after the Liberation thousands flocked to Goa to enjoy the pristine beauty of our beaches, the hospitable culture of our people, the quaintness of our religious structures, the unpolluted village atmosphere and ambiance and so on. Our houses had no grills, our doors had no locks, our compounds had few or no walls or gates, robberies or even small crimes were almost unheard of. Rapes and murders or even suicides were almost non-existent. Security guards were an unknown entity. To many it was known as Golden Goa.
So what went wrong in the last two or three decades or so? Rampant construction, illegal occupation of our lands, uncontrolled cheap tourism with a large majority of ill mannered tourists who strew broken glass bottles on our beaches, cook food by the road sides and leave their garbage behind for our panchayats to clean, hill cutting and destruction of our green cover, an agriculture gone to the dogs, pollution of our inland waters including rivers and lakes, poorly planned and organised industrial estates resulting in very little or no potential for the local youth or investors, clandestine flooding of major employers such as the ports and ship-building facilities and the bureaucracy with non-Goans even for such posts as sweepers and clerks are some of the few events that come to one’s mind without much effort.
And now we find that Goa has become a hotbed of crimes such as drug abuse – a recent but sad death of a young budding IITian is a stark example, rapes and murders have become daily news. Poor civic sense on the roads have resulted in accidents and fatalities on a regular basis. Many of our leaders and bureaucrats who are expected to be exemplary in their behaviour with regard to social relations are more busy amassing wealth by hook or by crook, not only by taking bribes for jobs which they are supposed to do but also by acting as agents of money making activities. One often is forced to think whether our elected members know their job. To quote an example, while the elected members are expected to legislate and make rules for the betterment of our society, we find that they assume the position of providing jobs and act as agents to the unemployed from their constituencies irrespective of their eligibility – even at the cost of taking heavy bribes directly or through their cronies, often depriving qualified youngsters from being employed and forcing them to seek employment outside the State or the country.
It is time for our people who have the good of Goa at heart to put our minds together and introspect as to how this rot that we are headed towards can be stemmed and stalled in the little time that may be left to us. High rise construction in villages, pollution, deforestation, poor water supply, road accidents, crime, drugs, employment to the deserving, proper training to the service providers, a code of conduct to the tourists specially domestic tourists are some of the subjects that need our urgent attention. Otherwise soon from a Golden Goa that was, we run the risk of being on a down slide to a GUTTERPRADESH GOA.
