Whose Right is it anyway?

Civic Rights Don't Matter

Does it always have to be so overwhelmigly against the real Goemkar? Pandurang Madkaikar's defense of the stall owners (almost all non-Goans including other illegal squatters of Church land) at Old Goa whose illegal stalls were demolished by the government did not take into account the hardship they cause to the taxpaying public using the public road built with tax money. On one side of the road are these stalls, on the other a double line of taxis and tourist vehicles. In the centre jaywalking tourists, touts, hawkers and taxi drivers. It's a perennial problem, but as is occurring now with dangerous finality, nobody takes into account what the citizen taxpayer wants or, has a right to. It is always about the polluter's or in this case, the transgressor's so-called rights. It is the righteous indignation of these two that matters only in Goa nowadays. In this case Madkaikar without an afterthought said the stalls owners have to be given places where they can do business. In other words, if it means occupying a kerb, public and or even private property, so be it. Perhaps this is why the government and CCP do not have the political will to make the 18th June Road a vehicle free road. There are vehicle free plazas like this across the planet where the absence of traffic actually encourages shoppers and sightseers. Can't be done because the traders would protest. And we don't' won't to upset traders raking in the moolah, do we?

The fact that the road turning off the Panjim-Ponda highway was choked by these stall owners, and the road from the Gandhi Circle leading to the Sao Pedro ferry crossing to Divar are probably Goa's worst, does not matter. A stretch in the former is almost entirely covered by sand through the year, while the other where there are no potholes, has tourist buses, illegal stalls, hawkers and jaywalking tourists. What is important in Goa, are the 'rights' of illegal squatters and stall owners. Isn't it ironical that the word 'rights' needs to be used here? These for instance are easily the most 'righteously' protected car parks or in the case of some, public land usurped for a selfish few to ply their trade. The coal van parked perpendicular to the zone marked for parking instead of vertically, opposite the Azad Maidan. A glass trader who for years has placed two huge wooden frames outside his shop at St. Tome, so that he has free access to the public road. The garage owner near the ICICI bank at Panjim who has the audacity to place No Parking signs in the parking zone. The steel trader next to the Dhume clinic in Panjim who uses instead a trolley cart to preserve his own private car park. The stalls at the garden opposite the MES who have usurped the pavement for themselves. But the prize goes to Soul Of Asia which has even laid out a green carpet on the road and stationed a guard to prevent cars from parking in front of the shop close to the Education Department. If you have some of your own 'landmarks' to expose do write in giving exact details and find them mentioned in this column next week.


Rewind

Remember the Central Library your government is building for you at Patto Plaza at a cost of Rs 15,95,00,629.70. The Plaza is the place that looks like an Olympic standard steeplechase course with dangerous potholes, broken concrete drain covers, drain covers that could break anytime with your vehicle on top, vehicles and pedestrians fighting for a place on the road because the pavements disappeared a long time ago. I didn't forget. I promised to tell how conscientious successive governments have been about propagating the arts and culture in Goa. Trust me, there's money to be made in every nook and corner in Goa, under every stone. Figure it out for yourself. I did the donkey's work, you do the thinking.

Expenditure for the last 5 years:

Kala Samman Scheme - 2003-4 Rs 87.17 lakh, 2004-05 Rs 152.22 lakh, 2005-06 Rs 157.51 lakh, 2006-07 200.26 lakh, 2007-08 Rs 222.16 lakh

Grants to cultural institutions -2003-4 Rs 19,15,974, 2004-05 Rs 32,44,585, 2005-06 Rs 31,58,298, 2006-07 Rs 35,32,594, 2007-08 Rs 40,88,498.

Scheme to provide special financial assistance for organizing cultural events – 2003-04 Rs 27,02,500, 2004-05 Rs 30,85,000, 2005-06 Rs 69,40,000, 2006-07 –Rs 1,91,06,400, 2007-08 Rs 1,54,35,179.

Dhalo Fugadi Festival -2003-04 Rs 3,00,000, 2004-05 Rs 4,21,344, 2005-06 Rs 6,35,000, 2006-07 Rs 58,945, 2007-08 Rs 6,63,752.

Deepotsav festival -2003-04 Rs 54,230, 2004-05 Rs 63,677, 2005-06 Rs 29,460.

Mahila Sanskrutik Melava – 2003-04 Rs 1,85,250, 2004-05 Rs 1,88,675.

Kalakar Kritagnyata Nidhi -2006-07 Rs 5,10,000, 2007-08 Rs 6,00,000.


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