Government of Goa version 2017 is an interesting one. They may have certainly started on shaky ground, but a few recent incidents are definitely praiseworthy. Recent visits to government departments caught employees on the back foot, and many heads had to defend their employees’ absences; others were reprimanded for shirking responsibilities. Recently, Goa Forward Party’s Vinod Palyekar decided to announce the implementation of the Sunday Dialogues, something that has been taking place in Fatorda for a few years now.
The premise of Sunday Dialogues is to understand the people’s problems. So soon you’ll find meetings being held every Sunday across different places in Siolim and Anjuna where the common man gets a chance to meet his MLA and apprise them directly about any issues they are facing “ be it water or electricity problems, or any other issue plaguing them. This is a good initiative and falls in the category of good governance.
The Aam Aadmi Party tried something similar during the run up to the elections, called Goa Dialogues where they tried to understand the different issues across constituencies. Those dialogues formed the foundation of the constituency specific manifestos that the party came up with. While AAP fell by the wayside when the results were announced, this doesn’t mean that the idea was faulty. Perhaps the people of Fatorda are better placed to talk about how Sunday Dialogues have helped them.
Good governance has many facets and one of them is taking the people into consideration on decisions, and also listening to them when it comes to fixing problems within the constituency. After all, an MLA is but a representative of the people. This is but the first step to creating an atmosphere where the people don’t just feel more confident about approaching their representative but also knowing that there will be some decision. Of course, all outcomes may not be favourable, or some things may not be fixed but that is what administrating of a constituency is all about.
In the past, many ministers turned a deaf ear to their constituents and only focused on what they believed to be ‘development’. Maybe things like the Sunday Dialogues and even the reprimanding of government officials proves that the little change that we noticed during the election results has been for the better.
Of course this praise comes with a caveat. Let this not be just the flurry of activity in the first year of the term. All actions must be sustainable. Do that and you will set a new standard of governance, and even perhaps breed a new kind of politician, one that realises the people can make or break him or her.
