Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa’s coastline and nearby areas are under serious attack, with new regimes such as the Mormugao Port Authority and the CZMP itself. Under such circumstances people have more faith in the courts, since politicians have failed to take up these issues.
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With the assault on the coast, allegedly planned by the state itself, the coast no longer belongs to the people anymore. These and other related issues were discussed at the Point Counterpoint debate on Herald TV and Youtube which premiered Saturday night at 9.30pm. These are some broad extracts in a discussion where several other issues were highlighted.
Panelists said that there is a larger plan to oust the coastal communities and lease the coast to crony capitalists. Finally it is the activists who are fighting hard to save the coast. They are finding the judiciary as their able ally at a time when the politicians have failed to raise the issue.
“I remember when we were called for a public hearing on CZMP at Kala Academy in Panjim and Ravindra Bhavan in the South, the officials were sitting mum on the stage. It was we who spoke and went back home. It is this same stupid attitude which carries on,” Roshan Mathias of Goencho Avaaz said.
The good part, however, is there are active citizens like him in Goa who are willing to fight the government in the courts.
“That is where justice has been seen in many of these cases. The court has knocked down the hidden agenda of this government. That is why we still continue to hold our faith in the judiciary,” he said.
“Coming to the issue of the Major Ports Authority Act that got passed, the fight started two years ago when the CZMP was being drafted. The issue then was it was still in the Bill stage, but it was included in the CZMP. That was the fight because we were trying to get the entire Bill thrown out from the parliament, hoping the MPs would have spoken and got this challenged and got it out,” he said.
Mathias added that they didn’t want that depiction to happen in CZMP because if the Bill got challenged and thrown out, it would be unnecessarily shown on the CZMP map.
“So, our aim was to get it out of the map and Goa itself. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an Act, but the depiction has been removed from CZMP. I think, this is absolute eyewash for the people of Goa,” the environmental activist said.
Lamenting that the coast does not belong to the people anymore, Olencio Simoes from National Fishworkers Forum, said that the CZMP had depicted the port limits. Now the government is saying that it has been dropped.
“But the fact remains that its jurisdiction is getting extended. Basically, this has to be privatised so that the Sagarmala plan is implemented. The CRZ has also been diverted. The latest amendment will allow oil and natural gas exploration. So, the government has made it very clear that today the coast does not belong to the people anymore. They want to make it into an economic hub and sell the entire coastline. This is like a state within the state,” Simoes said.
The question that arises here is, why are MLAs who are otherwise with the people in the constituency, who work with the people, not with the people on major issues?
“They have become selfish. They don’t want to take up these issues since they could be benefitting from these issues from behind the scenes. There is no other reason for them to ignore these issues,” said Xencor Polgi, ex-member of Goencho Ekvott.
The major issues are mainly taken up by the activists. Take for instance the three linear projects and the destruction of Mollem forest. All these issues were taken up by the activists. None of the politicians have taken up these issues.
“So, today there is a need to take activism to a different level, because only activists can save Goa, not the politicians. If politicians had to save Goa, they would have done it much earlier. Even the Supreme Court judgement on the Tamnar line to align it along with the old power line has come because of the activists. It was because they fought for the cause,” Polgi said.
The sum and substance is that politicians do not want to save Goa due to their own selfish purposes.
