BAINA: On a hectic Wednesday evening, Vasco residents assembled at Ravindra Bhavan, Baina, for the Herald-HCN ‘Battle for Vasco’ and spoke their hearts for three hours and twenty five minutes, as solutions and what really ails the city were debated.
A panel consisting of Savio Messias, Alka Damle, Francisco Nunes, Paresh Joshi, Nazir Khan, Deepak Naik, Fr Gabriel Coutinho and Jennifer Luis Kamat took center stage along with Herald Group editor Sujay Gupta, who moderated the debate.
The debate highlighted the inefficiency of the Mormugao Municipal Council, which seemed like a toothless tiger in dealing with illegalities, lacked vision in creating and maintaining infrastructure, and failed to coordinate with other State government and Central government agencies. Citizens blamed this mainly on the interference of the local MLA and the lack of will of the council.
“Vasco city, though historic, has never seemed to get any priority from the State government. Many foundation stones have been laid in Vasco, but no project has been implemented. Vascokars have been fooled by the MMC. We need a full-time chairperson, and not one like in the previous council, where the chairperson changed every six months. The chairperson, supported by councilors, needs to care for Vasco,” asserted Nazir Khan, a businessman, local politician and convener of Mormugao Against Pollution (MAP), a civic forum that has been fighting coal pollution in the city.
The major thrust of the debate was on coal pollution and dumping of coal at Berth No 10 by companies like Adani and Jindal. Since it’s done in a haphazard manner, coal dust has been in every home of Vasco, thereby affecting the residents.
Adding to the discussion on coal pollution and deliberating on the court guidelines on the issue in Vasco, MMC Chairperson Deepak Naik stated, “If the people of Vasco are with me, then I’ll stop coal pollution even if I have to defy government orders.”
But football administrator and All India Football Federation’s consultant, who’s also a resident of Vasco, Savio Messias, stated that the coal handling by Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) cannot be stopped since the players involved are too big. He said, “We need to maintain basic cleanliness and air quality at least. The coal needs to be covered and watered to prevent dust pollution.”
Businessman Paresh Joshi, whose family has a 180-year lineage in Vasco city and celebrates the famous Saptah Festival, pointed out that it was a political decision by then Chief Minister in 2002 to bring coal handling to Goa.
“It needs political will to resolve it and Parrikar has done that before and stopped it when it was a menace,” said Joshi, adding, “Vasco is sandwiched between the MPT, the Navy, an egoistic PWD, Transport Department and an inefficient MMC. There are too many authorities in this small port town. The operation at the port berths has to be done in agreement with the guidelines, using hoppers and other equipment. MPT has failed to do so and should be pulled up by the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB).”
Similarly, a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, Jennifer Luis e Kamat stated that there was no proof of the GSPCB sending show-cause notices to coal polluters. He added that the Board had failed, which is Goa’s problem.
The gathering also discussed and debated issues like traffic congestion, parking, lack of parallel roads to ease traffic, bad markets, the dilapidated municipal building and encroachments. But the core focus of the debate was the garbage menace.
Fr Gabriel, who was an assistant parish priest at St Andrews Church, Vasco, in the nineties and who was here in a second stint as parish priest, blamed people’s lack of civic sense and the municipality’s failure to sort garbage at source as the reason why the city was ailing of this menace.
While Savio Messias chipped into the argument and blamed people for opposing everything, including garbage treatment plants, moderator Sujay Gupta stated that the Goans and the media don’t oppose garbage plants, but have a problem with large expenditures, like Rs 400 crore for a garbage plant.
“Segregation at the source of garbage is very important. We have managed to do it successfully in Chicalim. Chicalim is garbage-free and even dust-bin free, but still there is no garbage. The success in dealing with garbage is by taking everyone, from councilors to citizens to helpers to workers, into confidence and creating a civic sense to stay garbage-free,” said former sarpanch and current panch Francisco Nunes.
“Ban production of plastic below 20 microns. Encourage self-help groups to make cloth bags. Cooperation of citizens is of utmost importance,” stated Alka Damle, a professor in mathematics and statistics who quit her career and works tirelessly to beautify Vasco city and rid the city of large garbage bags. She added, “We need to stop the blame game on garbage. No government alone can make a city smart.”
Facing flak on garbage, the panelists and audience felt that the chairperson and councilors were not doing enough to sensitize people and they should walk door-to-door like they did for votes and explain garbage segregation.
“The MMC chairperson needs to motivate his staff. Things shall fall into place,” stated Messias, while Jennifer Luis Kamat strongly felt that better infrastructure, transparency and upgrading of systems in the MMC would raise the bar for Vasco city.
Vasco citizens, the panelists and the MMC chairperson worked out a 13-point ‘Vasco Declaration’, which Herald will follow-up and highlight on a regular basis for Vascokars.
