There are many among you, who will remember these beautiful family outings. A trip to the beach with close family and friends, carrying your home delicacies prepared by the mother and aunts. After a swim and games on the beach, the picnic would take place. After food, you would walk through the village. In the late afternoon, most of you would have a huge craving for a cup of hot tea. Invariably someone from one of the homes in the village would ask you to stop by and they would prepare hot cups for your entire family. And even if the thought of paying for tea crossed your mind, you would be shooed away, warmly.
THAT WAS OUR GOA!
TODAY, AT THE VERY SPOTS WHERE YOU HAD YOUR TEA, STAND SWANK HOUSING COMPLEXES WTH MULTIPLE SWIMMING POOLS AND GYMS
If you happen to live in that village, can you even stand in front of those complexes, leave alone thinking of buying an apartment there? The old houses are gone, the families probably out of the village or moved to some other corner. The people who have bought homes in that upmarket apartment that makes Bardez feels like Beverly Hills have paid money for those homes, which would be enough for your family for an entire lifetime.
And when you happen to stand in front of those mega-project homes, can you even enter? Security will ask you questions, you will be scanned, CCTV cameras will be staring at you and your pictures beamed to a control room. Because those who have paid crores and crores for these acquisitions, mostly as second homes, need “security”. But from whom? From locals? From those whose generations are buried there or have been cremated there in the same land on which these modern palaces are built?
But it does not stop here. Your groundwater, in many places is sucked dry, the garbage in the village piles up, there is pressure on resources and in all likelihood, the project has been made after a zone change, or filling a field or cutting a hillock…
…AND IF YOU PROBE, YOUR LOCAL HEAVYWEIGHT POLITICIAN WILL HAVE FLATS OR AT LEAST A PENTHOUSE IN THAT COMPLEX
So where are you as a simple Goan with modest means? Do you want to know the hard truth? You are nowhere. Pushed to the edge if not almost pushed out of the very soil, where you and your family have spent childhoods. Those simple days of having a cup of tea at a stranger’s house welcomed and felt wanted are gone.
THE GROUND REALITY: FROM OPEN HOMES, YOU NOW HAVE CLOSED GATES. AND YOUR KID’S FUTURE HAS BEEN SOLD FOR PEANUTS
There is something in business called Return on Investment (ROI). But in the political business, the ROI for the politician who comes to ask for your votes runs into crores. From conversations with those in the know, a kickback from a single project, at times, can be anywhere between Rs 15 to 20 crore. Yes, a single project. Now in case the MLA has spent on you the voter through cash or freebies or given rations or food before or even after elections, that would be half a drop in the big ocean. His ROI in percentage terms would go on to billions with a corrupt deal in just one project.
And what is your ROI? Your investment is your vote. For the future of your village, your town, your State. And importantly your children. What return do you get for this? You get a loss of identity, loss of land, loss of control over your village assets like its rivers and fields. And what do you see in front of you? That big gate of the housing project starting at you, knowing that you won’t be allowed inside
BUT HAVE YOU ASKED YOUR MLA WHY YOU ARE AN OUTSIDER IN YOUR OWN VILLAGE?
Across the State, but especially in the Northern belt of Baga, Calangute, Candolim, Siolim, Arpora, Morjim, Assagao, to name just a few, Goans have become outsiders in their own village as they stare into the swanky villas and apartment complexes that they can never enter.
What flows from this, is the big question. How does this go on happening? It’s not a new phenomenon? These changes have been happening for over a decade which equals two or even a part of three previous terms of governance. But have MLAs been asked why this is allowed? Have local bodies been asked too?
MLAS NEED TO REPORT TO YOU. THEY GET PAID WITH YOUR MONEY. YOU HAVE A RIGHT OVER THEIR TIME
MLAs are not free agents after they win. The moment they are elected, their time starts and they need to report to you. But somehow, you the voters don’t seem to enforce that. But the taking away of Goa, in pieces, from the true inhabitants of this land, whose souls will never leave this place, is a heartless crime that is being committed. And the time to stop that is now.
HOW CAN YOU MAKE MLAS ACCOUNTABLE? BY MAKING IT MANDATORY FOR THEM TO DO THIS WHEN THEY COME TO ASK FOR VOTES
Remember you are most powerful before the elections. Because after that you may be in the wilderness for five years. And this is what you must do. Ask some important questions such as:
– Will you consult us before you take each and every decision regarding yourself or the village/constituency?
– Will you take an oath that you will not betray our trust and join another party and that too by not even caring to inform us or ask us?
– Will you have a clear plan and implement the plan by giving us a timetable and your everyday programmes?
– Will you spend each day fulfilling promises rather than just cutting ribbons at inaugurations?
– Will you support and fight for a separate committee of village experts who will take the most important decisions of the village especially concerning the use of land?
– Will you get every project passed by the village committee and then from key agencies like the village biodiversity committee after checking all parameters, especially the availability of water and the pressure on the village environment?
– Will you support a decision that in pristine villages, mega residential projects beyond a certain size and area will be banned?
THIS TIME DO NOT BE FOOLED. DO NOT BE TAKEN FOR A RIDE. ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Above all, make the person who comes to seek your vote pay a heavy price if he/she lets you down. And tell him that if your return on investment, which is a better Goa for your children, is not guaranteed (and will be monitored by you), you will not allow them any political space to play with your future.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. IT’S TIME TO RECLAIM GOA!
