To Goanet - This entire Mopa kerfuffle can be distilled into the following question:
What kind of Goa do you want for the foreseeable future? To me, it is deeply distressing that Manohar appears to be taking a direction that is harmful to Goa. Let me be clear: I do not question his motives. He wants to do good (I think). I just get the overpowering feeling that he is wrong in the plans he has for the state. What is required right now for Goa is to hit the RESET button, and take stock about where we are and where we want to go. When I read about remarks made by his ministers about wanting to build this and that, about wanting to make everything attractive so that tourists may come in, and so on, it is very troubling. Don't we have enough tourists already? And why is EVERYTHING tailored towards tourists? What about the life locals have to lead? Or is every corner of Goa going to be turned into a tourist playground? Has there been a reckoning of Goa's capacity for tourists and their effects? That would not run afoul of the ordinary citizen's life? That would not put undue pressure on local resources as well as on the environment? Are we forever going to live with Baga and Calangute serving as bathrooms for visiting uncouth Indians? What is the rationale for this unhealthy desire to increase tourism? Aren't we already saturated? My hope was that Manohar would turn a new leaf and that 'devlopment' (deliberately misspelt) would mean something other than land and concrete. I am not so sure given what has been on display thus far. In a recent email correspondence, Professor Nandkumar Kamat informed me that only 42,000 hectares of Goan land remain open now for any kind of spatial planning. That's just 420 sq kms. We are running that low on our most precious resource - land. Shouldn't Goa be hitting the RESET button? Manohar-bab, are you listening? r