Goa and development

There have been plenty of champions in Goa in recent times taking the extra burden of saving Goa and educating the masses about what is best for Goa. For the record, most of them as per my viewpoint are doing a fair job.

After all mega projects were always a corrupt bureaucrats' mega booty. Carelessness in drawing an infrastructure parallel with rising concrete gardens has never been their consideration. For them it always meant a pleasant trip to the bank. Environmental damage and balancing the ecosystem are terms they scoffed at. They still do. They will claim that they are riding piggyback on numerous other anonymous beneficiaries.But who cares. Overall we were pushed to our own fate while the the muddy pool of deceit, loot and lawlessness was steadily growing.

SEZ's were another joke on Goa. Our 40 strange bedfellows in the assembly are more concerned about their next plot, next government , next 5-star huddle ( to save from poaching) and the next ransom accompanied with the next lame excuse for the switchover . Goans have been for far too long taken for granted to digest any excuse to change parties. After all they know that all that we are capable of is the little suffering of standing in long queues to give them their gleeful vote without protest.

The regional plan 2011 thankfully saw its death before it could rise and terrorise the citizens of Goa with its anti-Goan agenda. The new plan is currently being introspected throughout Goa and is already finding faults galore.

Now the bureaucrats and the aggrieved legislators seem to be crying foul. They use every senseless forum in preaching that Goans are against development. They may be right. Some Goans have reached to such a chronic level of opposition to development that they have started painting banners the moment they see some government officials at any village field or hill or riverside or even public playing grounds.

But who is to blame for this blind opposition? Isnt it is the legislators themselves? Are they not the ones who have helped to ransack our greenery and our sense of Goanness by their brand of development? Despite being from Goa, our legislators seem to have no care for the land . Their excuse is probably that if they start thinking about Goa like honest lambs and not pay heed to their pockets, then what guarantee is there that the next party in power will do the same and not tear down Goa to make money. Why lose a golden opportunity?

Blaming Goans in the name of haphazard development is the latest weapon that our leaders have unleashed to show their own compatriots in bad light. Instead they should reflect on their own deeds and tear their conscience to solve the imbroglio. That is if they ever had it in them.

Goans have learnt to fight back. And unless politicians in Goa become smart and understand what is the current pulse of Goa and Goans they are planning their own doom.