Goa was once a very beautiful place with beautiful open minded people. If one goes by the history of Goan politics, our own elected successive governments always turned out to be Goa’s worst enemies. The first elected government after liberation had plans to sell Goa to Maharashtra. Then the Congress introduced the ‘Loot’ Policy. The BJP came to power in between but their dirty intentions showed them their true place and the Corrupt Congress was voted back into Power. The last Digambar Kamat government was the most corrupt government in the history of Goan politics and the present Parsekar government is all set to break all the ugly political records. Almost all politicians in Goa, right from the Panchayat level to the Lok Sabha, according to me, believe in the ‘loot and ruin’ policy.
Goa is a very easy place for the rich and the powerful. Ships get aground on our beaches, tonnes of oil pumped out in our seas and our law protectors are hardly concerned. Now a pontoon got grounded at Arossim beach and the owner cares a damn to the deputy collector’s order to start work on the removal of the same at the earliest. At my place in Cuncolim, we are immune to the dirty smell supposedly coming from the Fish meal plant from the Cuncolim industrial estate, Carbon deposits in our homes is nothing new for us and the list goes on. The police fines the two-wheeler riders if valid Pollution check certificate is not carried but the top class people creating high level pollution are free to pollute. Pollution check certificate for vehicles is just a paper exercise and it is very strange that our concerned authorities are very much concerned about the same and not at all concerned where their concern is very much required. The destroyers have now entered our villages to destruct with the blessing from the people in power. Power fluctuation is a daily affair in my village of Cuncolim, some villages have water problem and if this so called developmental destruction continues, the day is not far when power cuts will be official and water will be rationed in our Goa.
Taking the present traffic in Goa into consideration, I totally agree that Goa needs bigger roads but the way they are destructing nature to make way for Eastern/Western/Northern/Southern and what not, bypass roads can turn out to be disastrous. Work on third Mandovi Bridge is in full swing whereas a second Zuari bridge should have been prioritised. Goa has got enough beer and there is no need to cut trees to make way for a beer factory but our government thinks different. The govt even got a bill in the assembly against Goa’s sacred coconut tree to make the way clear for the owner of the beer factory. Can such a government be called as government of the people?
Last but not least, we Goans have lost out ethics; most of us are after money. Some of us even went to the extent of selling our old ancestral houses which our forefather has protected for ages. We come with nothing and go with nothing but hardly anyone of us thinks about this truth. How much do we need to survive? Let us at least safeguard our identity by not selling our old ancestral houses so that our future generation has got something to say their own. The people whom we elect will continue to sell Goa but let us not sell what we have of our own for money. Let us preserve and protect what little is remaining in our State, Goa.
