As we look ahead to Goa 2025 with an eye on multidimensional growth, we envisage a world-class Mopa airport taking off, a state-of-the-art cable-stayed Mandovi Bridge standing tall, super-highways running through the length and breadth of the state, a signature Zuari bridge and the list goes on. Besides all of this, the government spends over Rs 700 crores on its people towards various social welfare schemes. This looks to be a picture-perfect Goa. What else could a State ask for?
But under this glitzy picture that the State basks in, there is a grim shadow of the common man who has watched haplessly all along. A man who has never travelled in an aircraft, for whom the bridges and the super-highways and all the high-end infra that the State is envisioning has never been a priority. A man whose vision for Goa is blurred by the hard day-to-day struggles which he continues to encounter “ from water and electricity to garbage disposal.
While looking at Goa 2025, it’s important that we introspect on what we have achieved and where we have failed. It’s time to open up debates and bring our focus back on the common man. It’s time to work out tangible solutions and set targets and draw a perfect template for 2025. We must bear in mind that the journey is equally important as the destination.
One of the key issues that Goa is grappling with is its land. The state is in desperate need of land reforms with tenancy and mundkarial cases piling on every passing day. There is a pressing need to bring in a legislation banning sale of agricultural land to outsiders. Lest we forget, such a bill was sent to the select committee in 2012 but found no takers to carry it forward. Land has been a very emotive issue for Goans and this was well amplified by the stiff resistance shown to reopening of Regional Plan 2021 and an equally ferocious opposition to PDAs.
The people of the State should be major stakeholders in any development that the State foresees. They have a right to question anything and everything that affects their identity. The fast fading Goan identity is in peril with migrants rising in menacing proportions. There is a constant threat lurking of Goans being reduced to a minority in their own land. Our legislators should shed all political leanings and draw a line somewhere. Wide
debate is the need of the hour. The vow of Goem-Goenkar-Goemkarponn has till now remained only a very enticing political
tag line.
Third is the kind of tourism we are selling to the outside world. Goa, once a paradise known for its virgin beaches, has lately ventured into the unknown. Goa tourism’s dark underbelly now has a potent mix of free flow of booze, casinos, drugs, spas that double up as prostitution dens, late night rave parties and all that is possibly depraved. Once known as Rome of the East, the Europeans have long dumped the State for other enticing destinations. Looking ahead at 2025, our tourism needs a huge makeover.
Employment generation has been another worry for the government even as there is a mass exodus of youngsters eager to migrate in search of job avenues and even settling overseas. Moving towards 2025, the biggest challenge for the government would be to arrest this trend. We must create jobs in sync with our standards of living. Industries setting shop in Goa are attracting migrants primarily for cheap labour, thereby defeating the very purpose of making Goa an industrial hub.
While Goa talks about giants leaps in development, the basic infrastructure has failed to live up to the expectation of the common man. Our government has a vision of Goa being the next IT hub, but we are still struggling with our internet. Even after 56 years of liberation we hear cries for basics of life like water and electricity. We are still partially dependent on water from other states and we are spending a whopping Rs 115 crore per month for purchase of electricity. That’s not all, even after several decades we haven’t been able to streamline our distribution and our underground cabling plans have always remained buried underground. Then what are we boasting about?
Let the people of this State, more especially the common man, be the focal point of government’s vision for 2025. Looking back, there is a lot that the State has failed to achieve. While we speed up the development superhighway, let’s take a breather and tie up these loose ends. And lastly, in all the fitness of things, may our legislators stand solidly in body and mind to lead us into a new era.
