As Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar moves into the business end of his first year of his new term, his performance balance sheet will be scrutinised even further. The barometer of measurement will be the fulfillment of key promises in the real and not a cursory sense.
While any state is assessed on the same broad parameters asimproving its quality of life index,which includes employment, industry, access to resources and so on, Goa has aunique parameter that outscores all else – perception. Since the mid-nineties,with the average term of a Chief Minister less than one year, precious littlewas done on both the development or the perception front.
From March 1990 when Churchill Alemao became Chief Ministerto October 2000 when Fransisco Sardinha relinquished office, Goa had 11 chiefministerial terms. Of these only two chief ministers, Ravi Naik and PratapsinghRane managed more than two years in office. The other nine terms did not evenlast a year.
Manohar Parrikar, inhis first term, and Digambar Kamat, who finished his five year term, gave Goasome scope for planning. But the Kamat government swam merrily in the deluge ofcorruption that drowned efforts if any, on development. Parrikar, with hisoverwhelming majority, can get the perception development ratio right byactually making the former an ally of the latter and not a foe. The perceptionthat he will clean the state of corruption and garbage, and take it to the pathof lasting progress go together, but he will make a critical mistake of tryingtoo hard to do both in his first year. He should manage perception first.
The Chief Ministers 2012-13 check list should include thesevitals. Display effective action against corruption cases of the previousgovernment which need no further debate. If Parrikar is in office, it isbecause Goa voted against the corruption of the Congress that has reached suchembarrassing levels even by Goa’s standards. The pall bearers of the corruptionpalanquin, have to be charged and booked in a hard ruthless manner to set anexample to others. Unfortunately, even with Parrikar at the helm, this is stillonly a positive hope, not a firm surety. And here’s why. One of the biggest areas of corruption was related to landin many forms. From the manipulation of the Regional Plan to greater access tothe building lobby through wider access roads and timely conversions of land,to allotment of plots to companies in industrial estates and SEZ plots, land inGoa has been used as a private fiefdom of the ruling party. The agitationagainst the Regional Plan, the fraudulent allotments by the GIDC and the SEZscam had a common objective – save Goa’s land from being misused.
Much of Parrikar’s success will depend on reinstating thathope in the hearts of Goans that their land will be protected. The decision of the Urban DevelopmentMinister Francis D Souza to regularise slums on communidade land has donelittle to fuel that hope. Meanwhile the dialogue on the regional plan must continuewith all stake holders, including village groups and panchayats . The essenceof Parrikar’s plan to rescue or resurrect or re-introduce the now on hold RP2021 is to keep the recoverable parts of the original plan intact and allow theplanners to restrict themselves to a broad policy framework. At the same timehe wishes to let the villages finalise micro plans like the length of villageroads and usage of specific land areas within the village. Where the governmenthas not succeeded though, is in initiating a clear dialogue with ground levelstake holders to explain this, leaving room for doubt. This is a good exampleof how perception fixing is important.
The second big issue on the perception front is his promiseto rid Goa of illegal mining and take it to a path of sustainable andcontrolled mining. On this, he deserves a plus for a mining policy which doesthat. It puts a cap on mining, levies aheavy stamp duty for lease renewals and a cess and other charges on miningdumps raking in a revenue of Rs 2500crores (including existing royalty). Moreover stringent controls have beenapplied from the mining pit to the export ship.
But the albatross of Congress’ corruption that will hangaround Mr Parrikar’s neck will ultimately be his nemesis, unless he actsimmediately. The two vigilance inquiries announced on the SEZ land allotmentscam and the PWD’s irregular tender rush should be completed and action takenas visible proof of zero tolerance towards corruption.
The common man of Goa is watching him and following hisdiscourse. He has to answer him to ensure that his rippling political muscledoes not become a parody. We wish him well.
