Garbage is, without argument, the single most important
issue that plagues Goa. And, believe it or
not, practically all political parties, with the exception
of the Congress, have paid little attention
to this problem. All that most have promised in
their manifestos is to make Goa garbage-free with little attention
paid to the process. The Congress has passed the buck to
households by promising to supply each one with wet waste
composting units. How could political parties, who wish to
rule the State, trivialise such a serious problem? It’s because
none, barring the BJP seem to have an idea as to how to tackle
garbage. It appears that the BJP is the only political party
which seems to have a plan which was revealed while it was in
power and the first plant was constructed and commissioned
in the existing term. The rest are clueless and even if they want
to construct more plants they chose not to mention it for fear
of getting it wrong, or invoking the dreaded NIMBY factor.
While building the right plant in
the right place calls for some serious
thinking, garbage management
follows a time-tested sequence “
segregation, collection, treatment
and landfills. But this is easier said
than done.
On the issue of infrastructure, the
BJP obviously has an advantage. In the last five years it has
initiated several infrastructure projects with the construction
of the Mopa airport and bridges across the Mandovi, Zuari,
Talpona and Galgibaga river being the most important. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in his election speech promised to
build a signature bridge which will attract tourists across the
Zuari and Union Minister for Road Transport has already initiated
road works worth over Rs 10,000 crore in the State. So
when the BJP states that it requires another five years to complete
the projects it does have a point, except for the South Goa
district hospital which could have been completed in the present
term, but was not.
Transport and traffic management, which is certainly a major
issue since the State is host to over 10 lakh vehicles has been
brushed off with vague promises. Here, even the BJP appears
to be clueless. It was clueless in 2012 and this state of ignorance
continues. Goa’s cities are crying for attention. Urban areas
are running out of parking space and flow of traffic is hampered
by double and triple parking. What we have on paper
are grandiose plans with high-sounding solutions like “ intelligent
transport or comprehensive mobility plan, but nothing
really happens on the ground. The only change that Goa has
seen in the last six months or so is the erection of traffic lights
at a few places, which is a start.
This election the Mopa airport is completely off the radar with
only AAP daring to say the Dabolim would be upgraded and a
probe would be launched into land deals around Mopa. The
MGP-GSM wants to build auditoriums with 200-seats in every
municipal and panchayat area with 11 wards. What happened
to all the ravindra bhavans? The Congress promises to have
round-the-clock Kadamba bus services and the question is, for
whom? All in all, there appears to be no focused approach to
infrastructure development, just a slew of promises with no
common thread to link them.
