It was distressing to read Defence Minister Parrikar slamming green activists for approaching the NGT over projects like the third Mandovi bridge and garbage treatment infrastructure, even as he apparently expected them to take up the Mhadei issue with the Karnataka government. Surely the Hon. Defence Minister should be aware that when an elected government refuses to engage with its people by addressing the specific concerns expressed by them and keeps bulldozing contentious projects through, then citizens have no option but to take recourse to bodies like the NGT. Also, one would imagine that it is the task of the elected government to take up cudgels with the government of another state in case of a dispute. Does the Goa government not have the resources to approach the NGT? Mr. Parrikar should also tell the people whether the state government has undertaken the requisite EIA before going ahead with the construction of the 3rd Mandovi Bridge or does this government consider itself above the rules of law? Has the Parrikar and now Parsekar led government ever deigned to answer the specific queries put to them regarding the anomalies in the proposed Mopa Airport project? Was construction of Mopa Airport in their manifesto? Was not getting rid of casinos in the BJP manifesto? What makes this promise '”impossible” now that they have the power to do so? Is the RP 2021 that the BJP government is offering the people not a hoax and going against their manifesto? These are questions that he needs to answer.
The former CM perhaps has not understood how insecure and pressurised the state government’s innumerable U turns have left the people feeling. Most of the projects being imposed upon Goa and Goans were not in the 2012 BJP manifesto based upon which it was voted into power, but part of the erstwhile Congress government’s alleged misdeeds which the people unambiguously rejected in the 2012 elections and which are now being brazenly recycled by this government. With the BJP government’s patent contradictions having created a substantial trust deficit in the minds of the people, surely citizens cannot be expected to welcome garbage treatment plants in their backyards based on the government’s promises and their track record of U turns! Defence Minister Parrikar should look within and sincerely consider whether the people are stalling so called development or whether the truth of the matter is that this government is operating in a disconnect with its people. Perhaps the first step in this exercise would be to check if the government’s “development plan” matches up to its election manifesto promises based upon which the people voted it into power. It appears that we Goans have unwittingly jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Diana PInto
