Pernem taluka has been witnessing a flurry of development activities for the last few years. It all started with the golf course project and the Keri Tiracol bridge in 2015, after which came the electronic manufacturing cluster (Electronic City) and the Mopa airport in 2016, the land casino at Dhargalim, and now the Theme Park project (both have received the nod from IPB).
These are some major projects that are supposed to transform the lives of people in Pernem taluka, especially those living in and around the areas where these projects have been built or are proposed to come up.
But the big question that needs to be answered is the model of real development of Pernem. Some of these projects, such as the Mopa airport (now known as Manohar International Airport) and Electronic City belong to the government, and for this, projects spanning lakhs of square meters of land belonging to the villagers, mainly the farmers, have been acquired by the government by giving assurances to them that they will get proper compensation and
employment. But these promises are yet to be fulfilled.
People have lost large tracts of their lands for these projects, especially for the Manohar International Airport and Electronic City at Tuem. The land was literally bought for these projects for peanuts. However 90 percent of the affected families are yet to receive their compensation.
There are different reasons for this and one of them is that people who are tenants or land owners, do not have proper documents regarding their land. It is also noticeable that even though the taluka is witnessing a sudden surge in projects leading to rapid concretisation of its villages. On the other hand, people continue to face difficulty in availing basic facilities such as water, electricity and health care.
If one keeps this skewed development aside, the actual Pernem remains as it is. Even after so many years, the weekly market (baazar) remains in the middle of
the road.
There is only one water treatment plant of 15 MLD that supplies water to the whole taluka, which includes 20 village panchayats and one municipality. As a result, till date, the people face acute water shortages throughout the year.
The Pernem fish market structure is almost 40 years old and may collapse any time. Located in the heart of the taluka, it attracts lots of customers as it not only caters to people residing in the municipal jurisdiction, but also the surrounding villages. Hence, it poses a huge safety risk to people coming there.
Also, there isn’t any cold storage facility for the vendors to keep their unsold stock, which causes lot of wastage, resulting in heavy losses. Also, there isn’t any provision to sit and sell fish.
There is only one community health centre at Tuem and a primary health center at Purva-Casarvanem, which caters to the whole of Pernem’s population. But it doesn’t have the required facilities in place. The authorities have built a structure costing almost Rs 52 crore, which is supposed to function as a sub-district hospital. However, for the last five years, the building has been lying abandoned.
There are four famous beaches here — Morjim, Mandrem, Arambol and Kerim. But except for Morjim, none of the other beaches have toilet or changing room facilities, even though a former Tourism Minister and GTDC chairman hailed from this place.
The only fire station that caters to the entire taluka is operating in a structure that is in a pathetic condition, while on the other hand, the government has wasted crores of taxpayers’ money on the incomplete Keri-Tiracol bridge.
The roads in the taluka have not been looked after for years, while there are some parts of the internal villages that do not have proper road connectivity; an example of this is the Kadshi-Mopa ward.
This ward comes under the Mopa panchayat; however, ten families living in this ward remain disconnected for several days from the main village after the only footbridge gets submerged under river water.
The government is preparing Pernem to welcome international tourists, but what about giving a facelift to the situation of the people? Every village has at least one local ground, but none of these grounds are upgraded, and whichever are taken up for development, they are lying abandoned with zero maintenance. Importantly, the indoor stadium at Sawalwada-Pernem, which was built with crores of rupees, has been rented to GMR company, which manages the Manohar International Airport.
The Pernem taluka, which was also known as the breeding ground for artists and sports players, does not even have a proper sports ground for the youth. On the other hand, the government is talking about theme parks and casino projects to attract tourists.
While the government also has land for casinos, but there is no space alloted for constructing a Ravindra Bhavan. The administration is still identifying land for this project.
Despite laying the foundation stone for a garbage treatment plant project twice, the propose facility in Pernem is yet to take off. The project was initiated in 2013 at a cost of Rs 3.25 crore. Meanwhile, garbage continues to pile up in the taluka.
This project has remained a white elephant for Pernem taluka due to a lack of government interest.
Sharing his views on the same, the President of the Pernem Citizens Committee, Bharat Bagkar, said, “Pernem was never backward in any way, except in terms of infrastructure. It is rich in cultural heritage, natural resources and human resources. It is filled with lovely and helpful people.”
“People have been traditionally involved in farming here and it has always been a peaceful place. All of a sudden, the picture has changed. The main reason is Manohar International Airport,” Bagkar said.
“When it was announced, it was like a dream project for all the Pednekars. But now, people know that this government only wants the land of the poor farmers to be used to construct the airport. Almost one crore square meters of land were acquired and given to the GMR company. Now the airport is ready, but people who gave up their land are crying. It is like a curse to them,” he said.
“Following this one single project, all the social evils have started entering Pernem, such as casinos, entertainment city, theme parks, 5-star hotels, 7-star hotels, clubs and crimes, which will also bring in more robberies, prostitution, drugs, accidents, and so on,” Bagkar said.
Locals fear that in all this so-called development, the original Pednekar is never going to get any benefit out of it. Pednekars will only lose more and more of their land, and in return, they will not get anything.
“We will lose our culture, nature, forest, springs, birds, animal species, etc. and we will suffer more as the shortage of the basic necessities like water, electricity will rise. In the long run, the original Pednekars will disappear from the scene. Ultimately, the politicians, their agents and outsiders will run the show and the Pednekars will be strangers in their own land,” Bagkar added.
“The current situation in Pernem is painful. Our elected representatives have only looted the people by acquiring their lands for various projects such as the airport, theme parks, casinos, etc. Our villages are losing their scenic beauty due to the selfishness of these politicians,” said Madhura Anand Gadgil, a social activist.
“I am not against development. But it should be managed properly without harming people or the environment. However, looking at the current situation, it is very clear that Pednekars will be completely lost and will be rendered helpless in the coming years,” she added.
It is clear that the kind of unhealthy development taking place in Pernem is going to be counter-productive for the local population. Development does not mean rampant concretisation. It means holistic and balanced growth, which is not visible.
