The drastic curtailment of the Assembly session to just 10 days has been criticised by the Opposition, on the right grounds. For the people, the success of the Assembly session is not how many days the session runs but what their elected representatives achieve each day of the session.
However, a session of the State legislature is an Assembly of the people since MLAs are people’s representatives. If MLAs want this to be a people’s Assembly, then they should do ten things right in 10 days.
Discuss, Resolve and Execute the following:
1. People-centric mining not mining by barons
The future of people-centric mining controlled by a people-led corporation rather than the contract-led one like the GSIDC where private and not public profit is all important.
Mining workers should not be running from pillar to post trying to retain their jobs with the mining barons but become stakeholders in the mining ecosystem where the Mining Corporation will control mining operations with professional management and manpower. Mining engineers trained in Goa will be contracted to or employed by the corporation. The machinery, labour, and allied workforce will be drawn from the out-of-work mining workers.
Meanwhile, compensation for mining workers can be paid after recovering at least 3400-odd crore from mining barons, identified by the CAG report and the committee of Chartered Accountants.
2. Reclaim the farms
Goa’s productive agricultural map is shrinking. The transformation of rural areas into haphazard urban landscapes is evident. ODPs have allowed conversion of low-lying swamps, marshy lands, and even khazans. Our flood plains and farms now have buildings above them. While our farms grow less, we are dependent on almost everything from food to fish on our neighbouring States.
Then debris from all construction projects chokes farms and blocks water canals leading to the destruction of farms and crops. Other mega projects like the Mopa airport have led to the lifelong loss of farms and cashew trees of locals in the vicinity of the ill-planned Mopa link road. On the outskirts of Panjim, the remaining farmers in the erstwhile agrarian village of Taleigao are experiencing raw sewage being pumped into St Inez creek which then seeps into farms.
3. Joblessness & Unemployment. It’s double the national average. Is any party talking about it?
The Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy (CMIE) which released the countrywide employment data sometime in May noted that unemployment in Goa is double the national average and it is steadily rising. In January it was pegged at 11.6% which rose to 15.5 % in May. The national average in April was 7.8% 1. 4 lakh Goans out of an employable 9 lakh Goans (20 to 59 age group) remain unemployed.
Self-employment, the ability to attract the manufacturing industry, and most importantly skill development through training to create entrepreneurs should be priorities to bring done Goa’s unemployment.
But is there anyone ready to discuss this?
4 Disaster Management, Compensation, etc
Goa is facing one of its most fierce monsoons in the recent past. The infrastructure is giving way. Across the State, people have lost homes, livestock, and fodder. Even as they are rebuilding their lives, they are still waiting for compensation to rebuild homes, and buy new livestock and fertilizer and seeds.
On the other hand, will those in the Assembly remember the families of COVID victims in Goa who are still in mourning and haven’t received the basic compensation due to them to restart their lives?
5 Throw some light on LED lights for our fisherman brothers
Our traditional fishermen are facing one of their toughest times with fish sticks depleting to such an extent that our waters do not have fish. Massive trawlers with LED lights are illegally taking away our fish even during the spawning period when they lay eggs. The coastal policy doesn’t have a single boat in working condition in South Goa to chase down and nab rogue trawlers with LED lights. The ban on LED fighting is not implemented. Can any MLAs talk about Goa’s interests if the truest sons of the soil, our fisherfolk are in such pain.
6 Strengthen the panchayat system, don’t allow the State to hijack the authority and power of local self-government
The repeated attempts to undermine local self-government by trying to delay the panchayat elections and run 186 panchayats through administrators. All MLAs cutting across party lines must hold the government accountable for defying n Supreme Court rulings on holding panchayat elections on time especially since the goalpost of excuses for the delay has shifted through the period of litigation in the Court.
7 Reduce massive water and power bills and prices of domestic gas cylinders
The water bills have gone up by almost 400 per cent, electricity bills have to see an upward spiral and while the prices of commercial cooking gas have gone down, the price of domestic cylinders has increased. The mess in home finances has hit the middle class and lower hard. They will not understand progress if they can’t afford to cook their food at home.
8 Sustainable tourism
Look at the state of our beaches, littered with glass bottles and debris and garbage floating up, our “tourist belt” looks like a bloated slum. Our North Goa beaches have become concrete jungles, there is no public transport system and no app-based taxis.
At the same time, our waterways have been taken over and will increasingly be used for commercial coal transportation and not for tourism. The double-tracking of the South Western Railways in any case will impact tourism activities in South Goa.
Goa needs to go back to the simple sustainable model of village tourism not by building five stars in the hinterland but encourage the community to host tourists and make them understand the landscape.
9 Civic Infrastructure and Town Planning
The Outline Development Plans not only in Calangute, Parra, etc but across the State need to be relooked at if not scrapped entirely, The ODPs have become FAR increasing plans and not holistic plans for the development of an area. Our planning needs to move away from being real estate lobby centric and give gains back their No Development Zones, their hills, and their slopes
If we protect our slopes, khazan lands, hill slopes and low-lying areas our water aquifers will get revived, monsoon water will have space for run offs and there will be less load on our urban infrastructure
10 With each price of heritage lost, a slice of identity goes
The illegal villa constructions in the old Goa heritage precincts next to the St Cajetan Church have been the cause of a prolonged people agitation well past four months and counting. If the elected representatives listen to the voice of the people since villagers from across Goa joined the campaign and sat on relay dharnas one day has to be set aside not only to get an assurance from the panchayat minister not to oppose the local panchayats in order to demolish the structure but later a full investigation into how this project was cleared in the first place.
Not surprisingly there has been no discussion on the protection of our heritage precincts and heritage buildings in towns and villages.
Will the people we chose, dedicate one day to each of these issues which could fix almost all that is wrong with Goa today?
