Panjim is a strange heritage city with over 300 years of history. First it had the colonial history up to 19 December 1961 and then with liberation by the Indian Army we have the Indian government, which oversaw the rule of the State government under the federal system of governance, under the Indian Constitution. In the process of integrating Goa into the Indian system of governance, we Goans missed the planning process for nearly three terms. Thus as late starters, we had to bear the brunt of delayed and deficient economic growth.
Goa being a small state, we had a variety of dubious distinctions of both, slow industrial and commercial growth as well as stunted development in the fields of manufacturing whereby we failed to cash in the field of higher education, skill development and promoting our core competencies. To give examples, we produced rice, vegetables, fruits, coconuts. But amidst plenty of produce, the translation of the raw materials in highly priced and durable finished products was totally missing or absent. To just give one example, amidst hundreds of them, let me state that we allowed millions of coconuts to rot and decay. We failed to produce coconut based biscuits or premium coconut oils.
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We Goans have failed to add value to our raw materials and give it value and create skill manpower. Look at mining in Goa, it is amongst the most destructive industries, which has destroyed agricultural fields through siltation. It has depleted our ground waters with its extraction and contaminated magniferous clays and immobilized the nutrients, specially the phosphates and made minerals unavailable for plants as essential nutrients. Could we have added value to our rice by preparing dry porridges, cookies, cakes, sannas, chappatis, poies?
Commercial food manufacturing in Goa is a very subdued industry. Except for pickles, sausages and cookies, Goan value added foods are a rarity except for our dried fish usage during the monsoons. Excess fish is often dried and used as manure in Goa. We have made our hills bare, butchered our verdant green slopes just to extract low grade iron ore and allow China and Japan to produce steel and steel based technological products.
Look at our State capital. We have not developed good paid parking system to capitalise on tourism. Our government-run Santa Monica boat was a white elephant. We empower incompetent men as our tourism ministers, who use public monies to go on international jaunts squandering the taxpayers’ money. Most of house tax collected by CCP goes in garbage dumping on virgin land or agricultural fields. Garbage strewn across Goa has given our State a bad name. COVID-19 too has had Goa tourism push its back towards the wall. With halt to entry and exit of passengers across borders, our tourism suffered in Goa. Few Goans have not only revived our tours and travel business but even as of today, Goan business houses are helping those who lost jobs to sustain themselves by supplying groceries and preventing starvation and hunger around our state.
Being from Panjim, I am a witness of the poor as well as displaced migrants waiting eagerly for food to be handed over to them during lunch and dinner times. Even as of today, hundreds of poor stand and wait for food packets to be delivered to them during lunch and dinner.
The voters of Panjim in particular and Santa Cruz and other Tiswadi constituencies would like the virus of defection to be killed. The voter votes for one party ideology but the legislator once elected jumps to the party offering him or her money. This has dampened the mood of the helpless and the hapless voter.
The bugle for the battle has been sounded and both positive as well as negative methods are in full flow. Will the Goa police and the election commission pull up their socks and ensure a free and fair elections 2022? Only time will tell. But what the voters now want is the virus of defection after elections to be trampled upon.
Let us all wait and watch the drama as it unfolds.
