New Year is celebrated worldwide with the utmost excitement and fun. It is a special day for everyone, and many celebrate the coming year in their own way. People celebrate it with dance, music, sweets, firecrackers, new clothes and other rituals. Overall, it is a festival that brings happiness in people and spreads it everywhere.
This time around – year 2020 was as though it was non-existent due to the pandemic. With almost 2 million deaths worldwide, the world mourns for a better tomorrow. We can be saved only by a successful vaccine and a miracle by the heavens above – something that we await to see in the New Year 2021.
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I’m not writing this article in joy of being alive to witness another year. I’m writing this in love for our Goa – a beautiful state surrounded by such beautiful beaches, historic structures, 15 lakhs population, and greenery all around which is dying slowly. I am not much of a politics critic but our beautiful Goa is crying every day. Piece by piece being sold to the greed of our politicians for a few monetary gains.
SAVE MOLLEM: The central government along with the Goa Government has approved three projects that is :-
1. Laying of a 400 KV transmission line in the village of Xeldem.
2. Doubling of railway line from Castle Rock to Kulem and stretch of South western railways from Kalay to Margao.
3. Four laning of existing NH4A in Anmod- Mollem region.
This will lead to a large scale destruction of wildlife of Mollem National Park & Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and will also affect Goa’s waterways. It will spell permanent damage to the tiger’s habitat, as path of the project was already marked as tiger reserve by National Tiger Conservation Authority. In this region other than trees, there are 5000 flowering plant species, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species, 179 amphibian species and 325 globally threatened species of wildlife reside here. The doubling of railway lines project is set up for coal transport across states and in order to connect with the Mormugao port which will bring out a lot of pollution. The project work of setting up of electric transmission lines has already been started. Around 50,000 trees are marked to be felled in order to set up these projects. If these projects are set up then along with the wildlife the greenery of Goa will be completely lost.
Other than Saving Mollem we have other issues like mining to be resumed, unemployment of youth, lack of medical infrastructure, no proper roads/lighting, and increase in prices of daily commodities electricity and fuel etc.
Is it really a happy new year for us Goans? We were promised of “acche-din” but I see the opposite of it happening. If this continues, in future we will have to face the drawbacks along with our future generations. It’s not at all a HAPPY new year for me, we need to raise our voices and stay united if we really want to be happy. ONLY WE THE CITIZENS can make a CHANGE.
