DR JOE D’SOUZA
Has Goa again missed the bus on ‘Sustainable Economic Development’ by being the last state in India to present its developmental plan to the 15th Finance Commission of India?
When the members of the committee for planning and devolution of funds from the 15th Finance Commission visited Goa on 23-24 January under the chairmanship of Dr N K Singh, our Goan stakeholders did not make very forceful presentations requesting finance for our state’s holistic and overall development.
Sadly, even MLA Rohan Khaunte and almost all panchayats and autonomous bodies were crying hoarse that the state government in Goa did not carry along with it, the views and requirements of the local people at large. Neither the Commission nor the state government took this visit of the National Finance Commission seriously.
In the two days, the visiting members heard the views of the professional bodies, entrepreneurs of commerce and industry, the mining dependents, the members of political parties in Goa, including the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary. Now they will submit their report on Goa needs and requirement annually for the next 5 years.
The approach was overall pathetic, as there was no focus on the actual needs of Goa and Goans in its entirety for posterity “ we stating that we require more funds because tourism in Goa has slumped and that mining revenues are now down is a sob, sob story, which is stale and unimpressionable.
Goa cannot afford to give Ladli Laxmi and Griha Aadhar as doles and expect the national finance commission to fund welfare projects which parasite upon the taxpayers money. Goa shockingly does not even have its own State Finance Commission to address and present our needs to the Central government.
The Finance Commission should have been impressed upon by the state government, that Goans are burdened with a floating as well as tourist population of nearly 80 lakhs per year which is rising to five folds that of the resident Goan population. We need to have 24x7 water supply as well as overhauling of our water harvesting systems, and the outdated PWD water supply network which breaks down practically on a daily basis, especially in Panjim, where the commercial complexes have put huge sumps to help the gambling industry. Locals struggle to get water which is available at very low pressure, and released for only half an hour
each day!
There was absolutely no mention made to the Finance Commission that in Goa, higher education and research is at a all-time low. There is no research on the health of our rivers, the Mhadei water basin is crying for attention and help for its very survival. Goan scientists are starved for funds and unable to carry out work on biodiversity, gene pool, climate change, water potential and ingress of salinity in fresh water bodies. Let alone Mopa - plateaus, plains, coastal reaches, forests, beaches are facing rampant destruction and degradation.
Why then didn’t the Goa government plead for funds to fortify our ecosystems and stimulate bio-resource conservation and sustainable usage for now and for the future?
We have ample solar energy, winds, and biomass but we have failed to plead with the planning commission and the 15th Finance Commission that funds must be allocated to Goa on a priority basis, on better management of our fisheries, promoting organic farming, scientific garbage composting, technologically driven agriculture, mariculture and multi cropping systems.
Goa is a very small state; we joined the Indian union in December 1961 and lost the benefits for the first two five-year plans. We are considered as gentle people and Goa is accepted as a jewel in the Indian crown. We have kept our population low and healthy.
However in the last decade, Goa has lost it way due to migration of unskilled labour and surge in crime due to criminals infesting the state due to growth in gambling, drug peddling, prostitution and other vices. Tourists raped, drugged, murdered at music and other festivals and on our beaches is today a routine. Suicides or murders to abet shady land deals is growing at a sickening pace as we are obsessed with selling Goa to the highest bidder.
The quality of life of the average Goan is today at an all-time low, deteriorating rapidly. Hence, it was imperative to plead before the Finance commission to allocate funds for meeting the community challenges of AIDS, alcohol abuse, drug addiction and social degradation due to unscientific tourism. This was totally missing.
There were renowned scientists in the team visiting Goa along with Dr. N. K. Singh, who would have been pleased to hear scientific presentations of Goa’s ecosystem.
We just lost tigers in our Western Ghats to man-wildlife conflict. We totally failed to address this issue of a wildlife corridor needed for sustainable economy. We have been disturbing the food chain not only in our seas but also in our forests.
By dumping garbage and pollutants in water bodies and in our forests, we have destabilized and invited hazards to our own lives and livelihoods too. We inadvertently are eating and drinking poison through the contaminated food chain we are promoting.
Why haven’t our political parties, bureaucrats and the business community, who deposed before the Finance Commission as stakeholders forcefully requested the members to allocate us special funds for genetic scaling up of our bio reserves with wild-fruit bearing trees, wild animals like fowls, bisons, pigs boars, deers, stag, etc which formally would constitute the food chain in the Western Ghats.
Successive governments in Goa from 2009 to date, in particular, have never given any emphasis on human resource development, promoting health and happiness index of the people.
