Village Goa v/s Township Goa The Goan, 29 June 2015 http://www.readwhere.com/read/c/5905382
Pamela D'Mello It took an accident of a prominent environmentalist in Delhi some years ago, to bring home to the media, the plight of cyclists in modern Indian cities. Knocked down while cycling on Delhi streets, her organisation was able to articulate the point that bicycle riders were being systematically edged out of Indian cities. As Goa hurtles towards a model of urbanisation and concomitant road expansion/broadening exercises the numbers of two wheeler accidents and fatalities indicate a similar trend. Almost daily, reports of two wheeler and pedestrian fatalities on Goa's roads, accompanied by village protests and tensions, bring home the sad reality of a society in painful transition. Industrial estates, situated often atop village residential areas and plateau land, has brought heavy truck/goods carrier movement right past the doorways of village residences. Road expansion, always contentious, due to loss of property and homes in acquisition, can be justified along major arteries that exhibit high traffic volumes and snarls. High traffic volumes necessitate signaled corridors both somewhat acting as a deterrent to major traffic fatalities, as studies have shown. But this is not the case in nonindustrial rural areas, where road expansion has less to do with traffic volumes, than with the needs of real estate lobbies seeking wider roads to push through building construction plans in villages, and/or gain higher FARs with wider road widths adjoining them. Dressed up as "planning for the future," these developments when first proposed, had drawn protests from village groups during an earlier regime, but are strangely muted now they have become a reality. Indeed the stretches of road recently prioritized for expansion along the north Goa coastal belt, tell their own story. The plans seem more focused on opening up areas to construction possibilities, than they are to the needs of citizens. Sections of the media were quick to photo document some of the land conversions and fencing that immediately followed road expansion. Farm land along the expanded roads, follows the usual trajectory, immediately appreciating in value, changing ownership from farmer to local politician and being prospected for other uses. There's enough reason to believe that the North Goa Planning and Development Authority's recent ploy to include and open up outline development plans in coastal areas is connected to the newly expanded roads. The Congress's Agnelo Fernandes has objected to the move made by NGPDA chairman Michael Lobo, as have the local BJP mandal in the case of Taleigao. The latter have opposed the opening of the ODP to fresh changes as well as new road projects that they say are mere ploys to facilitate planting more high rises in fields. The resultant blockages of natural water flows by road embankments and channeling of sewage waste water from high rises, is designed to choke out all agriculture from the area, they pointed out. There's credence in what they say. Farm land adjoining townships are known to and have visibly become the receptacles of garbage, sewage and plastic generated, speedily morphing into swamps. It epitomizes the story of much of coastal village Goa, where developers apparently attempting to sell their prospective buyers a taste of the rustic Goan idyll, actually accelerate its demise. Rural Goa as it lies on the cusp between township and village presents its old denizens with new hazards. Without the high continuous volume of traffic of congested cities, broad empty roads in village Goa are akin to freeways, encouraging speeding and increasing accident risk -- the cause and effect almost immediately tragically palpable in the villages “blessed” with the expanded carriageways. The increased number of accidents in places like Saligao have followed apace with the shiny new runways. Two wheelers, cyclists and pedestrians are particularly at risk following similar dismal road safety patterns across urban India, where one person dies in a road traffic accident every four minutes. There are other fallouts. Writer Victor Rangel Ribeiro had occasion to rue the dissection of his village Porvorim by the national highway that cuts through it. Not a few senior citizens have perished in pedestrian and two wheeler accidents, sometimes right outside their homes as traffic whiz past, uncaring of the village and its inhabitants. The disconnects between township Goa and village Goa have become acute in other ways. In Caranzalem, sewage and storm water from high-rises allegedly flowing down into the lower lying village fields have reportedly agitated residents of the old village there. The same is the case with the high rises in Porvorim and the inhabitants of the standalone villas that dot that suburb. Gardens and lawns in multi storey high-rises can only utilise limited amounts of treated waste water generated from apartment sewage treatment plants. The rest must find their way into the storm water drains that empty into the low rise areas and fields heightening the conflict between multi storey high-rises and stand alone low rise housing. As township Goa opts for more tarmac, on its roads and in apartment compounds, reducing the surface area of absorbent soil flooding once a phenomenon limited to city areas, is fast becoming the reality in suburban villages. Unless the authorities find solutions to these problems, Goa's transition from village to town will have been from clean to cesspool. Pamela D'Mello Independent Journalist Cell 9850 461649 http://pameladmello.wordpress.com http://goadecode.wordpress.com