While refusing to condemn or ridicule the statement made by his colleague Pratapsing Rane, former Minister for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro the government needs to give employment opportunities to stop this exodus.
“I know there are huge queues outside the Portuguese consulate every day. I am one of the person’s responsible for getting the Portuguese consulate in Goa. But we have to understand why do people want to leave by surrendering their passports?” Faleiro told Herald with a sip of hot morning coffee at his old Portuguese house in Raia.
Faleiro said he does not know what Rane meant by his statement.
“He is a very senior leader, infact we debuted together in politics in the year 1971. So I can’t really comment what he meant to say,” he said.
However, Faleiro continued, it was indeed necessary to formulate a development strategy which provides employment to Goans whilst being less development on tourism.
“Information Technology enterprises seems to be most suitable for the youth of Goa in view of the rather high literacy rate in this state. IT industries require smart work rather than hard physical work. These are the industries of knowledge Society and they will continue to thrive,” he said and added that but teh government has failed to do so.
Further, he says, a growing apprehension is being voiced at the influx of migrants from elsewhere into Goa concerns are being expressed that it may destroy Goa’s demography and identity.
“To reduce such an influx there ought to be adequate employment opportunities for Goans in Goa. Our State has increasingly educated workforce and limited industrial growth. In the sixties, Tourism was identified as a key sector for Goa’s development. However, Goa being a small State its carrying capacity in terms of its size, facilities available and ecological fragility needs to be considered,” Faleiro explained.
The former union minister says ttourism ought to be managed in the manner that benefits our people not just in short term but also in long term.
“The economic benefits as well as the social costs need to be evaluated. You just can’t blame the youth for surrendering the passports,” he signed off.
