Waste dumped
Is waste created only in municipal areas? Why isn’t there any arrangements for waste collection and treatment in panchayat areas? Is the focus of the Swachh Bharat mission only in city areas? The government has failed in its duties to monitor garbage collection in panchayat areas. In the absence of any arrangements to collect and treat garbage, people dump their waste anywhere possible. Sometimes, this garbage even lands up in municipal areas. In 2010, the High Court had directed all village panchayats to create composting facilities within panchayat limits for bio-degradable waste and make provisions for collection of non-biodegradable waste, which includes plastics. Our elected representatives have been sleeping. Now the problem has become even more acute with the sprouting up of residential buildings in villages. Why is the flat owners’ fault, for dumping garbage on the side of the road? Should they store garbage in their flats? Why isn’t the Goa State Pollution and Control Board doing something about this? Now there is no progress on the clearing of the Sonsoddo garbage.
Rene Cruz, Colva
Clean society
The arrest of a local Goan involved in the prostitution and trafficking trade should open the eyes of those who keep on blaming ‘outsiders’ for all the rot that has come into Goa. Goans are involved in the prostitution and drug trade, but are saved because most of the focus from the locals and the police are on other people. Even now in Anjuna there are shacks being closed because they do not have proper licences from the required departments. These shacks are owned by former panchayat members and are illegal. But the people turn a blind eye to them. It is high time that we as a society start cleaning up our towns and villages. We need to stand together against all wrongdoing. The politicians and their cronies may try and ruin this state but if the people stand together, like they did in other countries, they can bring down this corrupt government. It is high time that the people show their might.
Arvind Rodrigues, Arpora
Vicious circle
Former CM Manohar Parrikar has rightly said that Goa’s obstructionist behaviour is possibly ruining the state. But there is also enough proof that the governments, past and present, are also responsible for this. The situation at Betul regarding the Def Expo has taken on new levels of politicization with almost every party and independent voicing their opinion about it. Everything that the government has to do cannot be voted on by the public. Then why elect the government in the first place? If the people have to decide, then nothing will ever get done in Goa. For example, see how the regional plan agitation fell apart because all the groups wanted different things from it. Now we have the GBA, the VGG and other groups. At the same time, the government has also undertaken projects which have destroyed the area around and also ruined livelihoods. Take the Mopa airport project, for instance, which is to be built on fertile lands which are declared as fallow just to ensure permissions are given.
Sanjay Naik, Mapusa
