First, The Goa Bachao Abhiyan was formed spontaneously after a meeting of lots of concerned Goans who found the Regional Plan in 2006 drawn up by the then Government ridiculous and felt the wholesale betrayal by the then elected politicians would lead to the ruin of Goa and its land and none of these MLAs had raised any objections to pass the Plan in Assembly.
This group of people who formed the GB were office bearers of many NGOs, individual concerned citizens, Press fraternity and others who were there, irrespective of Party preferences. An Ad Hoc committee was formed to conduct meetings and strategise methods by which the whole of Goa could be made aware of the wholesale sell-off of Goa. Hills, low lying fields and agricultural land, eco-sensitive areas, shoreline areas were set to be converted to suit investors and made into areas where constructions could come up.
The aims of this group called GBA was 1) To make the Government withdraw that Regional plan, 2) To put in place a system by which rules could be finalised to protect Goa’s lands from being exploited and 3) A document worked out to formulate future Regional Plans that would be good for Goa giving a chance for ALL Goans to participate in the finalisation process through their panchayats, municipalities, etc. leading to a Goa Oriented Regional Plan.
The results achieved by the GBA are there for all to see – The Regional Plan 2006 was thrown out – The first objective of GBA was achieved.
Next was to set in place a methodology to formulate a new regional plan with all safe-guards in place to protect all areas that needed to be preserved.
A committee was appointed by the Government to do this – another plus point for GBA was it was a part of this committee – Painstaking work was accomplished by this Committee and people and organisations and professionals from all over Goa as well as experts in various fields who gave their inputs which eventually formed the DRAFT REGIONAL PLAN document with rules, regulations, methods in place which included sending all documents to Village Panchayats to keep in their Panchayat Ghars, showing the people of their Gram-Sabha the same, deliberating on the same and correcting any discrepancies, making a plan as per their wishes within the rules, getting it passed at the Gram-sabha and sending it to the State-Level Committee so that a final plan could be made. The second objective of the GBA was achieved.
At this point the rot started setting in. The carefully formulated methodology was sabotaged, political interference started, all sorts of rotten ways were devised to add/subtract/camouflage certain projects and they were added to the next Regional Plan which was also rejected by Public and GBA demand.
And this game has been going on without a proper Regional Plan in place and the politicians and others with similar vested interests are making merry, changing rules, adding escape clauses, forming Government agencies like the latest – IPB – who are empowered to and can give permissions arbitrarily in any areas breaking all the rules so carefully formulated.
As far as the GBA was concerned, yes, I agree, it could not and has not completed the last part of its task No.3, that of bringing about a proper Regional Plan in Goa. But its hard working volunteers, members, sympathizers and all others who made the first two aims possible and happen …They are working …Either in their NGOs or in their villages where many have formed village groups and all over Goa they are trying their best to stop illegal constructions, save low-lying fields, trying to stop hills from being razed, stopping constructions in CRZ areas, etc. Many are even going to court to stop illegal constructions by filing PILs at their own cost. This is a major victory for the movement called GBA.
Yes now some of these volunteers of the then GBA may have joined or are helping the AAP set up in Goa because they feel that only by joining politics and winning a majority can Goa be saved and the victory of AAP in Delhi has shown that people are fed up of the present politicians and parties and corruption and injustice and loot. And they feel that it’s time to do in Goa what AAP did in Delhi – get elected with a majority – then attempt to bring about a change for the better – for Goa’s sake!
I hope this clarifies the GBA side of the equation ….We did not “Walk away from the hopes and promises of a better Goa” and let there be no snide comments about “why did you not have the courage to form a political outfit and fight elections for Goa” …that was never a GBA promise …in fact it was clear from the start …the GBA was apolitical.. we did not even call politicians from any parties for our meeting … Yes, some from GBA may have opted to join political parties now. That’s their individual and personal choice and they are free to do so.
It is as ridiculous as my asking the Group Editor of the Herald group – “why don’t you have the courage to form a political outfit and fight elections for Goa” instead of just writing articles for your newspaper. Not a fair question ….Right!
(A critique of the larger issue of how people’s movements have not walked the last mile to lead and not follow is embedded in the column Fly on the Wall, on this page. References have been made to the contents of this letter appreciating some of the points while out rightly rejecting others, with due justification – Editor)
