There is none who does not know the story of “The Goose with the Golden Eggs”. Do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg is the popular proverb rooted in this story. This fable for kids registers the lesson that anyone who feels entitled to and tries to extract more than he is already receiving, is most likely to get nothing at all in the future. Today’s mining crisis in Goa and all attempts to restart mining are turning futile primarily due to the reckless and illegal operations of the lease-holders, owners and truck operators with regulatory authorities stealthily ignoring patent violations by each and every stakeholder, who today raise the banner as mining dependents. The entire blame for the current mining impasse should fall on the mining dependents and the government, none else.
If the lessons of the depressing story of mining are not learnt, similar gloom could descend on the naturally fertile tourism industry of Goa with casino, drug and prostitution dependents taking the driver’s seat to share the eggs of tourism. The speed of Goa turning into a jungle of concrete and all-round visible solid waste coupled with the attack on Goa’s coastal resources by land sharks and speculators are bound to make Goa competitively less attractive in contrast with other destinations. It is now abundantly clear that the six rivers of Goa have been brought under the purview of the National Waterways Act to convert the state into a corridor for coal transportation. The proposed relaxations to Coastal Regulation Zone are actually to facilitate infrastructure in the form of docks, warehouses and ancillary services for coal movement and concretisation of the command area. In addition to challenges and handicaps to the tourism industry, the adverse spillover would be on the fisheries industry and the traditional fishermen community of Goa.
What is marketed is that the Coastal Regulation Zone relaxations are to protect the fishing community and traditional settlements in the CRZ areas. If this be so, why can this not be done directly and specifically to existing habitants? Blanket dilution of CRZ is invitation to capital from metros of India to bulldoze Goa’s coast.
Sentinels are anti-development!
The Goa Traffic Police launched the traffic sentinel scheme terming it as Community Policing in traffic. However, any similar policing done by NGOs and public causes individuals in mining, environment and protection of Goa’s rivers is not welcomed. On the other hand, such individuals and groups are categorised as anti-development and if the issues are consistently pursued they are elevated as ‘Naxalites’. Instead of grappling the problem, the ruling politicians question credentials of the sentinel and raise suspicions about the source of funds of such public cause organisations. The mere word ‘foreign’ is enough to discredit any individual or group and dump the man and his work as anti-national.
Claude Alvares and Goa Foundation stand out as the sentinel of responsible and sustainable mining and the promotion of intergenerational equity in the distribution of the non-renewable and free natural gift of Goa. However, the mine owners and those who lobby as dependents regard Goa Foundation as the villain. The Chief Minister of Goa had even hinted that it would not be the government’s responsibility to protect such activists if people who have lost their ‘bread, butter, and livelihood’ turn violent. Whatever this government boasts of collecting supposedly from illegal mining operations to the tune of around Rs 1200 crores is all due to the work of Goa Foundation. These funds in the coffers of the government should have been utilised for providing relief to the retrenched workers, the dependents and compensation to the victims of mining rather than on salaries of government employees and the infrastructure works unrelated to mining. This revenue is a resource unearned by the Govt. of Goa. The toil and labour is put by Goa Foundation and other similar activists. The unexpected bonanza is reaped by the public exchequer which needs to be utilised for the welfare of the affected occupations and families.
A symbolic, peaceful and non-violent protest by Claude Alvares to draw attention that the Mines Department is dead or on ventilator provided by the mining lobby charges the wires of the police department to demand custodial investigation. As a contrast, when a casino locks the foot-path and appurtenant public property with semi-permanent structures, all departments are silent till people protest. In the current Assembly session, the Chief Minister used the opportunity to comment that he would not reveal the plan to restart mining because it may be sabotaged. This is a dangerous spark than the over-advertised ‘wink’ of Rahul Gandhi’s in Parliament, which could be clubbed as childish.
Rewriting dependency
All the 40 MLAs seem to be in unison on any route to restart mining, even if it means amendment to the archaic Portuguese Law to give the next 50 years lease-rights to the existing holders, when in the rest of the country a more equitable route is proposed speaks of collapse of Goa’s assembly as an institution of democracy. It also indicates that those who struggle for sustainable and equitable mining in Goa do not have a constituency and a representative in the apex legislative chamber of the state. This is a democratic loss to Goa and Goans.
It sounds vulgar for Goa to be known as the land of dependents mining rampage, gambling, casino, drugs, prostitution and polluting coal. This Goa will no longer be Goa. Maybe, we cannot put total halt but certainly not take pride in the army of dependents in these activities. It is for Goa’s civil society and public men to rewrite the state as a location of higher education, performing arts, IT, Horticulture, Handicrafts, Health, Fisheries and Tourism.
(The writer is an educationist and political commentator)
