Goa during the 90s was a different Goa. Things moved alittle slower. At that time, villages in Goa faced a biggest hurdle from LPGcompanies because consumers were unaware of their rights and the companiesrefused to deliver cylinders at homes. Enter Joseph Vaz. A plastics engineerwho was associated with setting up industrial units in Goa, Chandigarh andBhopal, Joseph Vaz has left his lucrative career behind to fight for theconsumer rights of Navelim residents.
“Initially people had no clue of their rights and schemes available.The markets were just opening up. We put pressure with the civil supplies,began door-to-door delivery of LPG cylinders at no extra cost, created seniorcitizen cards, so that the old were benefiting from government schemes, andwent traveling from village to village to warn students of fake universitiesand preventing them from joining. There was so much awareness needed to becreated in the early 2000s,” said Joseph.
After being involved with Roland Martins at Goenkar JagrutFauz, in October 1999, Joseph was backed by Martins to start a Navelim Consumerand Civic Forum with the support of Fr Jose Anton Costa, who was the parishpriest of Navelim then. Slowly the face of Navelim began to change.
After helping locals with their day to day woes, Joseph tooka bigger step to save agriculture land and in 2006, he was fighting againstconversion of cultivated land at Davorlim outside the Margao Konkan RailwayStation to be converted as a slum rehab zone, land which was earlier acquiredby the Navelim MLA itself for a truck terminus. “I cannot tolerate injusticeagainst the innocent. Look at the food scarcity and the small number of peopleactually cultivating their fields. We depend on vegetables from outside Goa,”says Joseph, who got a square piece of land and cultivated a small portion ofthe field himself to encourage people to go back to farming.
According to Joseph, greed that makes money looksinsufficient, a reason that brought vast mega-housing projects to Navelim withpipes connected to the sewage unit that ended up leaving all their waste in theRiver Sal. This became the reason why Joseph moved court to stall constructionin the village, until there was an underground sewerage network line and thefilth not released into Saipem Lake and River Sal.
Recently, Joseph has filled another petition in the SupremeCourt against the government notification to allow projects as per the proposedroads as amended in the Land Regulation Act of 2010, in regions in the ODP andRP, despite the plans being scrapped and kept in abeyance.
“At a time when 20 houses were spread across a village andcalled a waddo, now each mega project is like one waddo over each other with nosanitary norms being met. Soak pits and septic tanks are missing from buildingsand the nearest storm water drain is being used, a reason why we have to standguard against these illegalities,” explains Joseph, who is committed to seethat people get sustainable development in Aquem-Baixo, Navelim area.
“I’ve been associatedwith Zarhak Moulders, CMM’s Wallace Pharma and a textile unit in Bhopal butbetween all this, I have always seen that the Navelim Consumer and Civic Forumcontinues functioning and have been actively involved against touts who harassconsumers,” asserted Joseph, as he prepares for another round with theauthorities.
