anjim has become a city with paths that are broken, deadlines that have been missed, opportunities that have been squandered and the entire quagmire of politics, which is churning again and again in the streets of Panjim, has made this from a city of dreams and delight to a city of absolute disaster.
Panjim, which was at one point of time a symbol of absolute pride not only to people living here, but the whole of Goa, has now become the biggest embarrassment of the State.
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Being the Capital of Goa doesn’t make the situation any better. The biggest malice of them all is official apathy towards honouring the sentiments of the people as well as the Court orders and even ensuring that basic deadlines and commitments are met
Passing the buck is now happening between the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) and the Smart City right now, is one of the most unfortunate and despicable things to happen because this political buck passing was not at all the plan at any point of time. A plan that is cutting Panjim to size and leading to a complete sadness and disaster, which people are not willing to tolerate anymore.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who also holds the PWD portfolio had given an assurance that the bad roads will be repaired within 15 days. A similar submission had been made before the High Court by the Goa Government. But, such is the erosion of trust, common Panjim residents are not ready to take this promise seriously as it has failed to meet all its previous commitments.
Reacting to the prevailing situation in Panjim, Cecille Rodrigues, political activist, said, “This has been going on like for years now and being a Talegaonkar, and you know this coming to Panjim is really hard not only for for me as a citizen, but everyone who commutes through and fro and it’s very sad because as promises are made every year, every month saying that this will happen, that will happen. You know timelines are set and nothing is being delivered on time,”
She further said that accountability on part of the government is completely missing.
“Accountability is something we are not seeing anywhere, which is something that we have to really ponder on, because everywhere in the country the situation is the same. Things are falling apart. But then everyone is there to cut the ribbon. Everyone from the government is there to break the coconut. But when disaster happens, accountability goes missing,” Rodrigues said.
According to her, everyone starts passing the buck and this is something we see this number of times for any issue.
“But Panjim being the capital city, I think it’s ridiculous and very upsetting to see what people here are facing. The citizens have not only lost their businesses, but have lost their lives and got severely injured. Where the hell is accountability here? These government authorities should be inside the jail,” she said.
“This is the reason citizens have filed Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in the courts. But this is just going on. At the end of it, we have to hold the elected representatives accountable,” she said.
We just cut straight to the chase. Let’s look at the latest deadline of May 31 and let us not forget that there were two sitting High Court judges who had to literally get down to the streets to see what was happening. These deadlines were given to them.
Now even after May 31, we still see that there are many roads that are still not complete or roads that have been open, but not yet complete. The issue is you know very cleverly they must have said we are going to open the roads on May 31. But opening the roads does not mean completion of the roads.
The stretch from Caculo Mall to the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Tonca, the 150 m concretisation has still not happened in the manner that it should have happened. The restoration of battered roads has not happened at all, which can explain to us later.
Then there are big problems with the laying of the sewer lines. The road from the Singbal bookstore to Mahalaxmi Temple is not complete, though when questions were asked, at that time the MD of the Smart City had said that strict directives have been issued to complete it.
More importantly, the other aspect of this, which we don’t always look at the entire environmental aspect, is the entire dust pollution. There are people who are actually suffering in their homes and there was an asthma patient whose husband actually had to go to court.
Speaking about this case, Advocate Shivan Desai said, “So, the PIL was basically filed by one of the residents of Panjim. His wife is suffering from Asthma. The main issue was about dust pollution. I don’t really want to delve too deep into the issues raised there, as also since the matter is still pending and it would not be fair on my part to go into interpretation.”
“But I’ll just go on the basis of what is available in the public domain. If you go by what is available in public domain, one thing is very clear that it is only after the matter was taken up by the honourable High Court that suddenly there is some kind of momentum that has led to partial completion of work. At least we have come a long way,” Adv Desai said.
“The concerned contractors made statements before the court. There is an element of accountability, because of which we find ourselves in a position where broadly it seems like we are heading in some direction and towards completion,” he said.
Regarding the deadlines, there was a commitment made before the honourable High Court and there’s an extension application filed for completion of work by the Smart City Corporation.
“From the standpoint of compliance, we are very close to that but in terms of incomplete works, there is a lot that needs to be done. But if you’re going to now look at the entire issue and then come to some conclusion, I would say we cannot jump the gun. I think a lot of data needs to be collected by the concerned citizens so that the overall issue regarding forensic audit of the works or how the contractors have not complied with the deadlines, what has led to this situation, can be revealed,” he said.
“One thing we know from the information in public domain is that work was inordinately delayed, the execution was very poorly planned, there were different agencies and there was lack of coordination amongst them. But today the High Court is also looking at just getting things done and then possibly at some stage this issue can be taken,” Advocate Desai said.
There are four contractors whose names have come up for different projects. One is Bakya, the other is Nar Infra from Telangana, the third is the Sky Group from Bengaluru and there is one Prasad Shet, a local from Salcete. Now which of these four contractors are a part of the petition?
“No we have not filed the petition against any particular contractor. But all that I will say is that it’s available in the public domain. The honourable High Court is also at this point of time considering whether the aspect of incomplete or defective works and the contractor liability should be considered or not. In that context, the information is being passed on,” Adv Desai said.
“As petitioners or even lawyers for the petitioners, we don’t have all the information as on today,” he said.
Sahish Mahambrey, Advocate, speaking about the similar issue in Ribandar, “The mess in Ribandar has happened because of the Sewage Treatment Plant the government wants to set up there and the sewage lines are being laid right now for that. They thought that March was an appropriate time to dig the roads, without looking at the challenges at the site. They were more concerned with digging the roads and laying the pipeline.”
“A public meeting was called, in which the project was explained to the citizens. Now in that particular meeting, certain questions were raised by the citizens as regards to the topography. Now there are basic issues in Ribandar regarding even the putting of this project,” Adv Mahambrey said.
For example, if one goes through the stretches of Ribandar, numerous houses are on the river side, there are septic tanks somewhere 7-8 m below the road level. The sewage lines are being laid on the road level.
“How do you pump that sewage on top? Such specific questions were put forth even to the MD of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd (IPSCDL), Sanjit Rodrigues. He had no answers. Yet, in the month of March, he thought that it was an appropriate time to go ahead and dig the roads. The digging happened. So, he was questioned, when we will see the rainbow of good roads by May 31 or not. Instead of giving the answers, we got superficial cosmetic roads that got washed away in the first rains” he said.
He said the blame lies in execution. “You know there are certain loud mouths who think that they can do anything under the sky. Now they have been taking this smart City Mission like their personal fiefdom. Sanjit Rodrigues thinks that he can run the Smart City Mission like an anarchy. It doesn’t happen that way. At the end of the day, he’s a government servant, working in the system,” he said.
“We need to get completely into the politics of it because either lack of political will, or deficiency or incompetence or one-upmanship has ultimately led to this total disaster. Let’s clearly say it as you cannot have a situation where you have the Mayor of the city Rohit Monseratte, the MLA of the city who is also his father, Babush Monseratte,” Adv Mahambrey said.
The point is Babush as the MLA, also plays a part in the Smart City ecosystem. He cannot delink himself to it officially and otherwise. So, obviously there has to be somebody to fix this. Now there are certain quotes by both sides to show how deep the divide is.
CCP Mayor, Rohit Monseratte said: “What has happened in the first rain, we do not want it to happen again. For no fault of the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP), we have to listen to the people. We have to carry out cleaning the mud from projects that have gone back into the drains. The shopkeepers are irritated and so are we.”
One can imagine how much Smart City officials care about the problems of the people. This is the mayor talking about the Smart City. The Smart City officials will have to complete their projects and clear the flood points.
Sanjit Rodrigues in his response said: “This is not the time to blame anybody. The Mayor has his views and we respect that. We are working together and all agencies have come together. Panjim has to get the benefits of this work. I say that we are putting in the best efforts and we’ve understood the gravity of the situation.”
“We had Assembly elections in March 2022 and some funds were left with Smart City Mission so that they don’t go back to the Centre. This sewage project was sanctioned without any planning or proper consultation so that the money remains with these people and they make merry out of it. Let me make a clear allegation. It is not just the father-son duo, but the trio of husband, wife and son, who are responsible. They are MLAs of Panjim and Taleigao and their son, who is the Mayor of CCP, who also represents 10 wards of Taleigao.”
“The administration didn’t have any action plan for Ribandar. They didn’t know the topography. Even that is not an excuse I’ll tell you why. Because in 2010 the same family executed the sewage project for Taleigao constituency and we are in 2024. Now, they very well know the soil challenges, what is the groundwater level etc,” Naik said.
“They started digging in March. It was very clear that this area can only be dug in March and April because the groundwater table in this area is so high that you cannot lay the pipes. We have to go really deep down. So all these challenges were faced even during the construction of the Miramar-Dona Paula road concretisation and Sanjit was in-charge of CCP that time. So even Sanjit cannot wash off his hands,” he said.
“Sanjit also very much knew that these are the challenges over there. So they should have taken all these things into account. They should have not hurriedly sanctioned the sewage project. They should have probably waited for a year or so, done the proper planning and then executed it,” he said.
“The main problem with Panjim which we were again seeing before the Assembly elections is, the city has an existing sewage line. Taleigao didn’t have an existing sewage line, sSo they were laying new pipes there. Taleigao is literally a green field project and this is a replacement of the existing sewage line. While replacing, they have again damaged the pipes across Panjim and that’s the reason we are seeing sewage overflowing, especially in St Inez,” the independent politician said.
“Nobody is bothered with the efforts of citizens like Cecil or Shivan. Cecil was making videos and taking press conferences. But there’s no accountability. It’s not that Shivan is having any issues. He is representing the people of Panjim in the court with all his efforts. Now the persons who were actually supporting the current MLA, are also fed up with what’s happening. They are talking about it. It’s pretty evident that the residents of Ribandar as well as Panjim who are supporting the MLA, also have become fed up,” he said.
“But what’s next? Every time we talk about appealing to the Chief Minister for action, but nothing has happened. Now let me make it very clear that there won’t be any more appeals. We have to say this is a total failure from Pramod Sawant. He is the head of the State and these are his students – the husband, wife and a son. So, he is a bad headmaster,” he said.
The Smart City project was launched in Panjim on October 14, 2015. Now almost nine years have passed and in these years, it has actually been an absolute disaster and disappointment.
The point here is that we have had debates, discussions and a few agitations here and there. But at the end of the day, when we complete the ninth year and move into the 10th, what has given Panjim and what have we taken away and if you do this whole audit, the result is very clear. The balance sheet is completely in the red and Panjim as a city has really sunk, irrespective of the number of film festivals we have had.
If this could happen to the most important city in Goa, then we shudder to think what’s going to happen in other urban centres. So this is also reflective of very inefficient urban planning and management or no urban planning and management, riddled with the other very serious and perhaps credible allegations of absolute corruption and using the funds that are coming into Smart City.
The biggest allegation that has been made is that the Smart City funds have been used and misused to fill private pockets and not repair the city or to take it to the glorious standards that it deserves and this is where one just cannot sit and watch the proceedings as a mute spectator.
The law is still an enabler, even though it may be slow at times. Even though it may take time at times and we may feel that justice is getting constricted and restricted, the law is a huge enabler. It just needs to be knocked and knocked properly and the right doors need to be knocked for it to be opened up.
There are so many inherent reasons why society doesn’t come forward and do what is the natural thing to do and that also needs to be taken into account and we need to understand why this is not happening.
None of us should be proud when we analyse this situation. It’s a matter of shame that it has led to this that people are afraid to go and the whole vision that, we recently had of people standing in knee-deep water by their homes getting flooded, are not willing to open up and speak a word, these are the signs of a society that needs great repair and that is something which can happen of course in a democracy.
The electoral system can only make it happen. Of course you have the other pillars – the judiciary and the press – to all work together for effecting this change.
