For years, Goa dreamed of becoming like Singapore. Now it has been forced to look at Indore, in Madhya Pradesh for inspiration. The results of a nation-wide survey by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, which was conducted to give clean-city rankings to 500 cities, placed Panaji at 90. The cleanest city rank went to Indore. Last year, Goa failed to make it to the list of top 15 cities which were considered as leaders, but the city was considered as ‘aspiring to be leader’. This year it was toppled by 89 other cities and to think that all this happened while the BJP was in charge of the city and the State is disheartening. And if Panaji cannot make it to the top 10, one can imagine where the other cities in the state would stand.
If there ever was a prize for number of plans made for a city, Panaji would have scored high because all that it is good at is making plans and preparing beautiful coffee table renditions of what the city can become. In the meantime the gap between the plan and reality increases. The State government is not the only one to make plans, every panel that aspires to rule the Corporation of the City of Panaji also chalks out plans which are condensed to fit in colourful brochures. Everything is forgotten after the election and Panaji is left to its own devices. The last big move to revamp the city came with the launch of a Central scheme to create smart cities. Even here, Panaji missed the first list and had to be included in the second, by merit or sleight of hand.
What this survey has brought home is that the city comprises much more than D B Road, M G Road and 18 June Road. There are parts of the city which are invisible and forgotten and if the survey is any indication, quite dirty. Panaji has a garbage collection service, but it is streets behind what Indore has put in place. It does not have a garbage treatment plant and open defecation is still the order of the day in some parts. Reams and reams of newsprint have been wasted on the St Inez creek, which could have been a beautiful waterway, but for the lack of imagination and will on the part of the CCP.
Even though there is a disconnect between the CCP and the state government and this has been the situation since 2012, the blame for not making it to the top 10 lies squarely at the doorstep of the CCP. The 29 corporators and the mayor are responsible for cleanliness of the city, not the state government and they all owe the city and the State an explanation. They also have to work twice as hard to prove that Panaji can be as clean as Indore or resign, if they fail.
