There was a lot of tom-toming and tom-foolery about Goa being a premier destination for medical tourism, with facilities with international standards made available to foreign visitors, seeking health care needs at affordable and competitive price in the world market. At the Vibrant Goa summit few weeks ago our Chief Minister projected Goa; to be the destination for information technology and health care.
Pramod Sawant asserted that his government would concentrate to propel Goa as a salubrious and tranquil holiday destination for both the foreign and Indian guests. Sadly intelligent visitor to Goa during the “Vibrant Goa” summit would be able to smell all the “cock and bull” yarns spun by the host. As the Chief Minister spoke there were news about urban and rural Goa being starved of water, with Panjim, Mapusa and Margao receiving muddy red water through the PWD pipelines. The potholes on Goan roads is still a challenge for all commuters at large. The stink at Sonsoddo, and the bitter Panjim-Calangute sewage and garbage woes and challenges is yet to die down.
With casinos reigning supreme and Mandovi under throttling seize, the health and safety of the capital city is looming large. To cup it all, needless to assert; if garbage, sewage, traffic and water woes aren’t good enough to nail down Panjim and the Panjimites to the lowest ebb of existence; we had hundreds of residents of Goa coming down with dengue, malaria and chikungunya. Looming large and staring starkly are the fears that encephalitis, hepatitis and cancers are steadily making their presence in our home-land. Whilst Goans at large are drinking, dining, dancing and sleeping over the grave health threats promoted by our administration, it is only the judiciary that is up in arms to protect the interest of the Goans and Goa. How many of us Goans revolted and stood against the Goa government suicidal decision to use the “abandoned mining pits” to put and dispose our garbage and other wastes, just a month ago.
I have written many articles in my last forty years, clearly indicating that mining regions of Goa are aquifers, extremely rich in water and essential minerals. Let alone the illegal and unsustainable mining in Goa has not only covered our agricultural fields with rejects from mining operations which highly toxic, but also the toxic heavy metals have biomagnified in the food chain an our bodies. No doubt cancers and respiratory ailments are the order of the day in our state. The advocate for Goa, Fawia Misquitta asserting before the NGT in New Delhi, that the abandoned mining pits be allowed to be used to dump garbage was pathetic and the final nail to Goan existence. Have I to repeat and again assert that garbage in mining pits would totally destroy the ground water table of Goa and Goans by and large would force us to die as poisoned rats from Pednem to Canacona and from Panjim upto Mollem. It is ridiculous, that Goans by and large, are a relaxed and a lazy lot, ever willing to succumb to poisoned death, rather than confront the half-baked politicians, who, are in governance over us. When would we realise, that as people we have to be medically fit to take up employment? Again, we have to have a basic qualification for jobs in the government. To ever get a job we have to pass entrance test and interviews. Do Goans remember that no Goan passed the written test for accountant post some years ago? Again we hardly see, just one or two Goans, qualifying both the written and orals at the UPSC and GSPC. The purpose of this information is not to expose the low IQ of Goan youth, but to needle fellow Goans that we never question the IQ of the politicians, who rule and those who have ruled us for the last 60 years. I am sure they all would fail miserably if only a written test is made mandatory to all politicians, who aspire to be our representative. No doubt not only Goa, but the entire country is going downhill in terms of economy, social index and general welfare of our people. Our politicians would only stand high if corruption and manipulation index is accorded a rating. How can we ever aspire to make Goa vibrant with men of straw leading us?
Our former Chief Minister and the Deputy CM and other politicians, who died recently, had made us cough off over Rs.10 crores on their treatments in foreign hospitals. And now we aspire to make Goa a Medical Tourism destination?
If Vishwajeet Rane and Pramod Sawant are unable to make their own colleagues in the Goa Assembly comfortable in Goan public hospitals, how can they, be able to ever win the confidence of foreigners to the “Medical Tourism” venture promoted by them in Goa? Today we are struggling to keep our air, water, soil, food and feed free of pollutants, adulterants and the contaminants which are all around and killing us.
The Health Minister, Rane thinks by distributing dengue kits; he would be able to control dengue. Goa is losing lives due to dengue is due to poor sanitary practices. The kit supplied by Vishwajit Rane is not a treatment aid but a pure diagnostic tool.
We have eight IIT and engineering colleges but we do not have a single Institute of Virology to tackle AIDA, dengue, hepatitis, and other viral ailments. We need to cultivate and use viruses from Goa to immunize our people and not depend on imported kits which are not specific to our ailments.
Let us all rise up to the future challenges to Goa over its ambition to make Goa a destination for “Medical Tourism”. The nosocomial disease in Goan hospitals is alarming too.
In the past I have written extensively aspects of hospital borne diseases and also tourism related morbidity.
In this essay, I have just delved on the challenges the dengue fever could pose before us all. The challenges to make Goa a destination for Medical Tourism is enormous and challenging.
(The writer is a retired University Professor and an environmental activist)
