Down the (clogged) drain
The rains are here and so is the stuff that floats to the top in yet another demonstration of: "We know you don't care, so we don't either." This and more in this week's edition.
Welcome to yet another edition of Gerard’s Gazette, a weekly newsletter in which I attempt to break down the events of the week gone by and offer a bit of context, as well as a dose of news you may have missed and news behind the news.
If this is your first time here, thank you for signing up, and I hope you stick around!
Down the (clogged) drain
It’s been one hell of a week. And what most politicians of the day will try and sell to you was that this was an act of God. That the rains were earlier than expected and heavier than expected.
Sample this -- portions of buildings collapsed in Margao and Mapusa damaging at least half a dozen vehicles. Roads cave in at Cuncolim, at La Campala colony in Panjim as well as at least half a dozen other places where vehicles sak into the soft earth that was recently excavated for trenches to lay underground cables but not properly compacted after completion.
Four people died -- an electricity department linesman at Usgao of electrocution, another 34-year-old man at Socorro for the same reason, another 34-year-old two wheeler rider at Mandrem after a tree fell on him and a fourth who drowned at a temple pond at Santa Inez Panjim.
This is not counting the countless tree falls that occurred outside the office of the north Goa collector and district disaster management authority damaging a dozen two-wheelers in one go, tree falls at Calangute that damaged another half a dozen, in Mapusa where five cars were damaged, in Chimbel where three cars were damaged besides trees falling in at least a dozen places damaging houses and other structures with Ponda, Sanguem bearing the brunt of such high winds.
Then there’s the issue of collapsing infrastructure. The newly built Ravindra Bhavan in Curchorem resembled a scene from Inception with water dripping through the roof like it didn’t exist. It was the same story at the Goa College of Pharmacy, though the latter is a significantly older building. There was leaking at the Kala Academy too.
And of course flooding which was reported from Guirim (again), Khorlim Mapusa and at Casarvornem Chandel (water from the Mopa airport). Panjim was largely spared the furry largely thanks to the fact that it didn’t suffer as much rainfall prompting mayor Rohit Monserrate to term the smart city works as a success. The jury is still out on that one.
But that was not all. There was flooding (or water logging) at Porvorim, where work on the elevated corridor is currently underway, as well as on the elevated corridor itself at Siridao (Bambolim) and at Carrasco vaddo (Mapusa). Now, I don’t know about you, but for as long as I’ve lived, I’ve never heard of roads atop a hill getting flooded. I’ve heard of roads passing through fields getting flooded, which has been happening for as long as I can remember, but it takes a special kind of incompetence to succeed at getting roads passing through places like Porvorim that lie at an elevation to get flooded. And to get a flyover flooded? Most engineers wouldn’t be able to pull that off even if they tried. Not our engineers though, their default settings are something else altogether.
And then there is Mapusa, a city that has been suffering decades of neglect that for the first time this year realised that that neglect had begun to bite.
Expectedly, the infrastructure mayhem caused an uproar on social media. The developments in Mapusa in particular were singled out for ridicule because it was barely days earlier that the local MLA Joshua D’Souza had exclaimed that he didn’t need advice from ‘outside’ to tell him (and his team) how to run the city.
And all the ridicule didn’t go unnoticed. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who was speaking highly of the work that he said the BJP government did with regards to infrastructure in Goa at the ground breaking ceremony for two viewing towers atop the Zuari bridge admitted that there were potholes here and there but instead asked people to look at the bright side of things. “People should change their attitudes,” he said and instead of nitpicking the deficiencies, should marvel at what has been achieved and what is going to be achieved.
I have just one thing to say to that. For all the money that has been spent on ‘improving’ Goa’s roads and especially highways, why is it that they seem worse off than before? Take the newly built National Highway 66 (NH 17) for example. There’s now flooding at Colvale and Peddem (Mapusa) when there wasn’t any before. There’s now flooding on the flyovers at Carrasco vaddo and Siridao. Several other stretches including Pernem and Cortalim are one heavy shower away from a landslide. Desilting of drains that should have been done weeks in advance is only now being undertaken.
You cut a hill to build a highway and now we have neither the hill, nor the highway and we are supposed to see the bright side? You fill a field to build a road, but now there’s no field left, no road left and no money left and that’s supposed to be a good thing?
A family feud
There’s a story you definitely would have missed this week, because it was only reported by Independent media. But I think it’s important enough to merit being highlighted. The story in question was reported by Kishore Naik Gaonkar’s Gaonkaari news platform.
It goes like this. Over the past week, Goa’s Health, Forests and Town and Country Planning minister announced a few ‘sackings’. A food safety officer at the FDA was suspended for alleged corruption. From the Health Department four sanitary inspector and two health officers were similarly suspended (or terminated if they were on contract basis) on charges of corruption and blackmail.
Details of the charges of corruption are not really revealed at least by Rane, but from his statements it appears that there were complaints against these government servants which merited action against them.
But what’s so unique about these suspensions, you might ask, as suspensions are not all that unusual especially if there is a serious complaint against an individual. But that’s not the whole story. You see what all these people who have been suspended/terminated have in common is that they all have the same surname: Rane.
It’s a rather odd coincidence, don’t you think? According to the report in Gaonkaari, the suspensions came the same week that Rane once again raised the issue of the Vagheri hill that falls in Sattari, just outside the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and within its bufferzone promising (once again) to declare it as an eco-sensitive zone.
This is the same Vagheri Hill that Rane promised to declare as a protected area around three years ago in 2022. And is the same Vagheri hill, where other members of his extended family, including his father or those acting on his behalf have been attempting to build an eco-friendly tourism project.
Is there a connection between the two incidents? Take a guess!
Yet another plea for khazan revival (funds)
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawat was in New Delhi over the weekend to attend the NITI Aayog meeting. Among other things, the Chief Minister pitched for central funds to repair Goa’s khazan lands.
This marked at least the third time that the state is seeking funds from the Centre for revival of khazan lands. Prior to this a pitch was made at a pre budget meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for Rs 500 crore to revive khazan lands in the state.
Prior to that Rajya Sabha MP Sadanand Shet Tanavade had made a similar pitch. All these pitches have fallen on deaf ears so far. Will the latest bid change anything?
Battle lines drawn over aggregator guidelines
The Goa government earlier this week notified a draft policy titled the Goa Transport Aggregator Guidelines keeping it open for 30 days or until June 19 for objections and suggestions from the public.
The policy lists out requirements for aggregator services should they wish to begin operations in Goa. Among the list of conditions is the condition that the aggregator ensures that the driver receives “at least” the full fare as prescribed by the government for each trip he/she completes as well as other mandatory requirements like health insurance, incentives for women drivers, fees to be paid, etc.
Expectedly the taxi drivers and operators have come out against this and are on course for a showdown with the government. This will be one to watch out for not just in the hope that taxis will be more easily available in Goa but also from a political point of view.
Coming as it does at a time when the government has the full majority, has been able to resist demands from cab drivers so far (to a large extent as compared to before), it will be a test of both the political strength of the government and that of the unions.
But keep in mind that whatever the outcome, it’s unlikely that tourism will be the winner.
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
I would also invite you to contribute via sending in your views, especially on a subject you know something about, and I will be happy to include it as part of the newsletter.
You are also welcome to write in with leads and tip-offs or anything that you think might be interesting enough to include here.
As always, please share and help spread the word.
Until next week, then. Tchau!
Well as long as people are brainwashed into all about infra that is being shown as development notwithstanding the quality of it and as long as people's minds are diverted by religious mumbo jumbo, things will be getting from bad to worse, until all hell breaks loose and nature unleashes a fury that the people of our state may never have witnessed in their lifetime! God forbid it to happen!
This Khazan land funds story is very intriguing. :(