Since liberation Goa’s politicians have turned out to be high quality liars. During the last campaigning meeting of the 2012 assembly elections at Chandor, Parrikar said, “It is good to see that Catholics and Hindus are come together to save what little is remaining in Goa for future generations.” Common Goans believed Parrikar, but it was all in vain. The Parsekar government is going full swing with Mopa airport with no concern for the locals, supporting Leading Hotels at Tiracol against its own people, stripping of the Environment Portfolio from Alina for supporting the people fighting against Marinas, passing a billing against Goa’s sacred coconut trees to make way for the beer factory etc as the list goes on.
I am not an expert to comment on the Regional Plan 2021 but it is the BJP in their manifesto of the last assembly elections which promised the scrapping of the said plan but sadly, the same BJP changed their minds and intend to go ahead with the same plan. What does this confirm? Are they not high quality liars? Some experts say that it’s a better plan provided quite a number of important changes are made. What are these changes?
Goa has witnessed enough destruction and if the people in power have got a so called Goan heart and mind, then in the new Regional plan all the remaining fields, hills, water bodies, low lying areas, forest areas, etc should remain as they are.
— Joel Morais, Cuncolim
In Agassaim, we questioned Chief Town Planer Puttaraju, about the roads to connect every house in the village and he said, “This is the time and opportunity for villagers to draw their own Regional Plan.” Hence, we put in lots of effort in drawing our own Regional plan 2021, the only village in Goa to draw its own plan. Villagers say No to the marina in Zuari River, but the Government moved it to the opposite side in the village of Cortalim. We wer able to connect almost all the houses in the village by a road network, but TCP proposed a 10 meter wide road where there are no houses at all. The TCP has fooled us big time. Mr Puttaraju, why did you lie to us?
— Rosario F Rodrigues, Miami USA
(ex-member of Agassaim Village committee for
Regional Plan 2021)
This is to highlight the lies of the present government wherein they have repeatedly failed to acknowledge that low lying areas of Seraulim fall in cultivable orchard land and not within the settlement zone as repeatedly projected even after corrections with suggestions were sent to them. The present form of the Regional Plan will bring doom to the village as the greedy builders lobby will try to take full benefit of the faulty RP and turn the village into a concrete jungle. The suggestions of the people must be taken into consideration, the geographical location of the place should be considered before marking it otherwise.
— Saturnino Rodrigues, Seraulim
A Regional Plan is just like any other plan which a knowledgeable person would do to build their house. Goa is our Mother Land and so each and every part of our land – the green fields, the khazans, the forest etc are precocious and are our wealth.If these things are not planned properly and saved, then there will be disaster in the future. So I support that the Regional Plan should be scrapped at all costs to save Goa from disaster.
— Jerry Gomes, Navelim
Political aspirants wanting to become MLAs or ministers have jumped into the election fray in view of the 2017 Assembly elections. Their talk is very interesting to hear: To serve the people, protect Goa; but once elected, they change their views and talk in different languages only as representatives of the people elected to power to feather their vested interests.
In the 2012 elections, promises made by the BJP were touching the sky. One of them was to settle the MOI issue. Four years later, we find the issue still burning and election centered while the then CM, Manohar Parrikar who was the main chess player of the election promise is now coolly sitting in Delhi. Ironically, an organization under the banner of Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch is threatening to pull down the BJP out of power if its demand to withdraw grants to primary English schools is not adhered to in fulfillment of the promise made in 2012. The Organization claims that its members worked to bring the BJP to power. But in reality, their demand appears very communal and hateful of the 128 Diocesan Schools imparting education to children irrespective of their religion and class that they become enlightened and respectable citizens of the State and the country. One wonders, if the strength of the BJP party is the BBSM and not the individual voters who can think better both in individual and collective terms. On the contrary, FORCE is also a threat to the BJP government having dilly dallied on the MOI settlement. However, the demand of FORCE is legitimate in the fight for grants to all schools that children may receive education in English medium. With 90 per cent parents opting for English medium, the possibility of the BJP being victorious in 2017 appears illusionary. Last but not the least, the government has become a puppet with day to day agitations and road morchas, the people issuing threats and demanding action on many issues be it garbage, mining, water scarcity, bad roads, health, RP, etc. The Parsekar government will be held at ransom if action is not forthcoming. Taking the present political scenario in Goa, it goes to say that no politician is worth trusting and every political party has its own ideology, the electorate remains mum and confused. Wake up Goans! Some grandmasters have been for too long in politics doing nothing for you and me and Goa. It’s time to kick the wealthy politicians out of politics to bring in the rule of the majority in democracy for inclusive sustainable development of Goa. If we don’t, then we should blame ourselves and not the ones we elect.
— Ayres Sequeira,
Salvador do Mundo
