It was with great pomp that the State government announced its Common Minimum programme underlining its tagline of Goemkarponnn with an emphasis on the xit-koddi which every Goan is synonymous with. It was here the government promised to subsidize prices of coconuts, fish, rice and bread in a desperate and subtle attempt to win over the confidence of the common man.
While a major part of 2017 passed off with Goans negotiating the high prices of coconuts which rose to as high as Rs 45 per unit, it was only in February 2018 that the government caved in to pressure from various quarters and announced a subsidized coconut scheme. However, the story doesn’t end there. It’s now a little over a year since the CMP was rolled out and subsidizing fish, rice and bread appears to be long forgotten. In fact, the government now appears non-committal over its promise on fish and bread and it took over a year for them to realize that it’s not going to be easy to walk the talk. If there’s a wider debate needed, why did the government not initiate it till now?
This yardstick of a consultative process was never applied to other sensitive decisions like reviving the regional plan 2021 and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai never thought it appropriate to call for a debate. This despite the fact that he had spoken of working on RP 2030 in place of RP 2021, and even after concluding that there’s “no meaning in RP2021” in the middle of 2017. Neither did anybody in the government think of a debate before carving out new PDAs, which were done at the own sweet will of the powers that be.
Nothing much is heard from Fisheries Minister Vinoda Paliencar who once upon a time threatened to withdraw part of the subsidies to regulate pricing and also tax exports. The government has been dragging its feet on its fish promise only because it doesn’t want to trample upon the big ‘sharks’ which are involved in mass export of fish. Goa’s fish has been showing a steady increase, at least on paper, but over one third of the catch has been exported to other Asian countries and the Western world. Swanky fish markets along the lines of Dubai are not going to help the cause of the common man, they need fish on their platter.
If the government has learnt its lessons on imposing its mind on the people and decided to change course with a consultative process, it’s surely a welcome change. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s decision to go to the people on choosing between dredging and disilting of River Sal reflects just that. But it can’t take forever to open up a debate with stakeholders involved.
If the common minimum programme is a mix of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and ‘Goenkarponn’, neither of this is visible on the Goan platter. One year later if Sardesai feels that some of the promises are impractical, why is he waiting to start a debate? Is this going to be an unfinished agenda for the next elections?
