I have read that the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is trying to implement the broad-road vision of the Prime Minister because through his prism it is equal to development. And those who support PM’s dream will glide pleasantly through his imagination, enjoying many surprises of obvious effects.
In great, good Goa, the good government which delivers what people want no protest is required; but bad governance which imposes its wishes on people some correction from the public becomes necessary. This is because we understand goodness when we experience evil just as we realise the value of light after experienced darkness.
As it is, our hills are shaved due to mining, destroying our ecology and now road-widening is going to damage the peaceful living of lovely villages; obliterating many ancestral bungalows of tiled roofs built with the sweat of old folks; and also, tearing down the new houses built by senior citizens from the lump sum amount they received at the time of retirement!
The impact and effect of broad roads on ‘Amchem Goem’ will be like amputation. It will fill tiny Goa cutting boundary walls, religious halls, shops, taverns and all that comes its way; and there will be no space left in villages to constructed new houses for the victims who have lost their ancestral land. The only solution for the government, perhaps, would be, to cut trees and give flats to dislocated victims on top of hills to live in the company of the birds and the bees.
Just as the fish is attracted towards the bait in the fisherman’s hook, the deer gets fascinated due to its attraction for the shining light of the hunter’s torch and the bee gets trapped in the flower due to its attraction to the fragrance of the nectar, similarly, the whole world which is mesmerised by Goa’s picturesque and serene villages, waving green fields and graceful swaying palm trees will be bored with broad – monstrous highways, that dwarfs the beauty of the Goan villages. And tourists will be uninterested with wide roads looking like football ground. Really, it would be a big downfall of Goa’s loveliness but a little good to large cars and trucks to drive at a speed over 100Km/hr about six inches above the ground.
Tavern toppers, who are dissatisfied with the decisions of shifting liquor shops away from the main road, say: “Would it not be better for the present and future generation, if the highways are taken away from human habitation and new houses built, for victims who have lost their residence, in woods where the species that came out of Noah’s Arch live? Even the stench of Sonsoddo can be lifted to woodland by helicopters. All this would be a tourist attraction to observe wild life and certainly, it would fill state’s coffers.
It is unjust, unfair and inhuman for homes to be destroyed for right of way because it is destruction of human lives and their futures. Don’t cut trees on top of hills to make it a human habitat. Let the birds fly, and the bees buzz and the lions roar in the forest do not disturb them. We Goans do not want an artificial decoration of broad roads for fast cars. Will our democratically elected rulers listen to reason and logic?
