The incessant rains that hit the State on Friday morning flooding streets and highways, with water entering houses and business establishments, underlined what has been felt and said over the past few years – we have at the helm people who lack vision, who are unable of strategic planning and for whom mediocrity passes as excellence. We have people at the helm for whom development does not signify making people’s lives easier, but denotes building concrete structures without concern for how this will affect the area around it. We have people at the helm who mess with the environment unconcerned about the future. That is the lack of vision that is plaguing the State today.
Across the State on Friday, people suffered. Many vented their fury on the local administration, but they did so with friends and colleagues. Throughout the morning and even later in the day and the next, people uploaded pictures of flooded streets, videos of vehicles whose drivers grimly ploughing through the swirling waters, of rivers overflowing. This is the maximum reaction that the flooded roads drew. And who do we blame? Of course the finger is pointed at the local authority, at the government, at the local elected representative. And is that wrong? When the planners have interfered with nature, it will hit back, and what we got on Friday was just a brief idea of what the future could have in store.
Where was the urban planning on Friday? A State capital that is on the path of being tagged a smart city, displayed with irrefutable evidence why the planning of the future is wrong. A little over a week before Panjim was flooded, Herald had pointed out why each of the programmes being undertaken as part of the Smart City project will not benefit the city when there are other more pressing issues that need to be addressed. What Panjim is getting is ‘a cosmetic changeover’ that ignores the basic needs of the city and its long-suffering residents.
The Smart City is prioritising security with CCTV cameras, a city smart card, cycling tracks and free cycling service, parking plans. What Panjim needs is adequate water supply, continuous electricity, motorable roads befitting a capital city, and a clean and hygienic market. It’s over a decade since Phase II of the Panjim market has been completed, but Phase III still remains on the drawing board. Can we look at what the city needs at the present time, before giving it what it will need in the future? We are actually planning for a futuristic city, though we are not even on par with facilities that cities in the rest of the country offer, and building this city of the future on a crumbling infrastructure. Where is the planning and vision in this?
And, unbelievably, Bambolim hill got flooded that Friday morning. It is still difficult to imagine this. But there is a reason for the flooding; the new concrete highway being built. The road, well highway, was flooded to the extent that a couple of young men took a kayak ride on the flooded road. This activity was video filmed and posted online. The video went viral. It appeared on at least one national television channel, and as thousands around the world had a laugh over it, here in Goa it should have embarrassed the authorities. Mismanagement is the reason for this, and displays lack of vision in the leadership, the lack of far-reaching foresight that brings with it studied and strategic decisions for the benefit of all. This absence of strategic planning has been getting exposed in Goa on almost a regular basis.
Many who read the headline of this column may find it similar to the title of Nandan Nilekani’s book Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation. This has been done with a purpose. Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys and the man behind the Adhaar card that he initiated when he was chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, discusses the past and present of India and then talks of the future, asking some key questions. One of the ideas that Nilekani stresses in the book is that the future of the country does not depend entirely on its economic growth, but that there is need for reform and innovation in all spheres of public life. That is what we in Goa should also aim for, reform and not merely a higher purchasing power that comes with economic growth.
Take for instance mining, where today Goa’s political leadership keeps asserting that it should be restarted immediately as it affects the livelihood of thousands of people. Admittedly it does, but what about reform in the mining sector? Why has that door been slammed shut, despite there existing court orders for a change in the way mining is handled in the State?
Incidentally, addressing the gathering at Goa University’s convocation ceremony on Saturday, President Ram Nath Kovind said, “Education is empowerment. It not only helps us to know our world better, but also enables us to think of ways of changing the world for the better.” And it is that changing for the better the President spoke of that comes with a long-term vision, proper perspectives and planning. Empowerment comes through education, but we need schools, colleges, institutions of higher education that don’t just provide an education but also create visionaries.
There are several gaps in our development process that require to be plugged. Can we expect these widening chasms between vision, planning and execution to be filled? Much of it has to do with the thought process. To start with we have to accept that development does not signify only concrete creations, whether buildings, roads or bridges. After being clear on that, we need to imagine, perhaps even re-imagine, Goa in the far away tomorrow and build the path leading to it, rather than hurtling towards just a mirage of an idea by skipping laying the foundation to it and making do with superficial and nonessential changes that add little comfort to the lives of the people.
