The unfortunate events, incidents and accidents, which we have been witnessing for the last several months, perhaps for well over a year, have plunged many families and people into such unimaginable pain and distress, that one wonders whether some great misfortune has befallen this beautiful State of ours and our people. For quite some time now, not only during Covid, but thereafter too, we have been seeing many young lives being cut short, some in unforeseen circumstances. If one glances through the obituaries of this daily, one observes that, contrary to what was happening not long ago, most deaths, of late, are of those born in the second half and even in the last quarter of the century, gone by. Of course, from a government, which is concerned mainly with projects, which can provide regular income to those in power, such statistics do not matter, just as the countless people from Canacona who were suffering from kidney ailments, didn’t.
To be fair to the Government, we can’t blame it for the road accidents which have snuffed out several precious lives, some sadly very young, leaving families in deep agony of losing irretrievably their very dear ones. An entire family in Sanguem, a couple in Banastarim, members of a family in Porvorim are some of the recent tragedies. But we have had quite a few similar, earlier too, where many infants and youngsters have been orphaned of both parents. While we may grumble about police having failed in controlling reckless driving and speed, we, citizens, need also to behave responsibly on the roads, respecting other people and caring for our own lives. Unfortunately, this is a sad reflection on our culture which we, so often, brag about. Perhaps, a serious attempt is needed at awakening the conscience, particularly of our youth, to impress upon them how precious they are for the society and especially for their families, that it should never happen that parents go through the trauma of burying/cremating their own children.
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If such a call is needed for the young, a more urgent and imperative appeal should go to our rulers to examine their own conscience, if they still have one, and tell us what good have the people of Goa witnessed, after they voted them to power. All we see are murders, rapes, kidnapping, drug and sex rackets, with involvement of Police, protests, agitations, etc., in short, abysmal law and order and Governmental activity detrimental to the interests of the people. Goa’s CM had the gumption of calling some protestors, people with ‘crooked mentality’, perhaps judging others by himself. The people of Bhoma need our support in their demand for a bypass to avoid destruction of houses and temples with the present road widening alignment, but our CM doesn’t always know what he says.
Notwithstanding his own demand at wiping off ‘Portuguese vestiges’, he recently boasted of Goa being the only State having Uniform Civil Code (though, in no way, it is uniform), which is a legacy of the Portuguese.
Daily newspapers are replete with unpleasant news of corruption and anti-Goan measures taken by the Government. Ministers were taken to task by the Opposition in the Assembly but for a Government which is bent upon brazenly imposing its will, nothing matters and their ears fall deaf to people’s concerns and interests. The latest is that shacks will not be allotted to those above 60 years. Perhaps this is another attempt to keep Goans away, so that extortion/bribes for allotment become easier.
When there are no age limits and much needed educational qualifications for elected representatives, why should age matter in allotting shacks?
Another bad news is that this cash-starved Government had no hesitation in roping in former Attorney General, Mukul Rohatgi, whose fees are surely high, to counter in SC, the High Court’s directive to declare Mhadei Wild Life Sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve. Do HC & SC decisions depend on who defend or oppose the petition? Is Vishwajit Rane fighting a prestige battle at our cost? Despite High Court having often stalled projects and given decisions contrary to Government directives, the Government is hell bent upon going about its agenda, always in the hope that people would hesitate to take recourse to expensive and prolonged Court cases. Recently, the HC stalled two WRD projects in Calangute, which violated environmental norms and were aimed at benefitting a private builder at the cost of public exchequer. Not alone are projects and roads constructed with sub-standard materials and workmanship, needing constant repairs and resurfacing, causing grave public inconvenience, but official expenditure to benefit private individuals and organizations, has become the norm. The Shadow Council in Margao is regularly pointing out to such cases, where a nullah was being built behind ESI Hospital in Margao and beautification of Gomant Vidya Niketan compound, which the institution could easily bear. DSS monthly dole meant for the poorest of the poor is in arrears, while the salaries and perks of MLAs have gone up.
Monumental expenditures, like the one at Kala Academy, without proper tenders, have also become common occurrences. In Pernem, an activist is booked and harassed for producing photographs in a PIL in HC, purportedly clicked by a drone, of illegal hill cutting and construction of road in a no-development slope in Morjim. The area is apparently designated as Disaster Management Site in RP 2021. Instead of being thankful for pointing out such illegalities, the police have filed FIR to know who owns the drone, allegedly to pressurize the petitioner to withdraw the case. It is strange that instead of the Government inculcating discipline into the people, it is the latter who are constrained to drive sense into the Government.
Of all the adversities which have befallen us Goans, the worst is this dumb, deaf and blind Government of the day, which follows the diktats of its Delhi bosses overlooking and despising the genuine concerns of the people.
(The author is a retired banker)
