[Gulf Goans] Panjim Municipal Garden - Victim of selfish greed - Ethel Da Costa

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:53:26 -0700

HEART 2 HEART - Herald, July 3, 2005
BY ETHEL DA COSTA

Will flowers bloom again at `Garcia de Orta'?

For common folks, you and me, the Municipal Garden at Panjim has sighed its last breath. With a heavy heart, this is a requiem for the good spirits of a once happy garden.
The garden that we helped revive with the city's music and people's participation. Happy memories of happy faces that get you misty-eyed when you see the ruin.
 
The spaces which once sprang to life with the melodies of Hema Sardessai, Remo Fernandes, Lucio Miranda. Where the city's veterans like Percival Noronha and Shrinivas Dempo pledged commitment to revive and make Panjim the best city in the country and they
still do.
Do you remember the laughter of children shrieking with mischief and innocence while Forefront played a tune?
The soothing notes of jazz, the energy of rock, the creative brush strokes of Mario Miranda and the dozens of artists who set camp and painted their tributes to a vibrant Goa.

No longer will fashion hot step to a pathway ramp walk under the mango tree, because rubble and neglect have now eaten into its delicate tapestry.
The odours of dirt, grime and greed hang in the mist, which once lured gourmets to the delicious, finger-licking vindalo of Chef Fernando, while a smiling Linda of `Viva Panjim' stoked the fires of her tandoor. I attempted a walk through the fragments of the Municipal Garden's torn up earth, brutally ravaged and left to bleed, I turned home in despair. Is this what people do to their loved spaces? I understand love is conditional in these times.

The Municipal Garden has fallen victim to the alleged greed of those who claimed to give her a new lease of life (or was it their pockets?).
Consultants (Arch Raya Shankwalker, M/S S N Bhobe and Associates),
contractor (Simplex Piles (I) Pvt Ltd) and GSIDC (appointed as nodal body for implementing and creating necessary infrastructure for IFFI), who have now washed their hands off because their love for the city is conditional.
Only money talks for these guys. Simple. In this column's seven years of bouquets and brickbats, time has taught me lessons in sniffing out a fake.
It is only the faces that keep changing. The Municipal Garden's intention to murder has a well-planned strategy - during the BJP reign in Goa, mind games came packaged with back-buttering sycophancy and pseudo intellectualism in exchange for cuts, commissions, paybacks and contracts.
Files were designed and doctored to contain foolproof paperwork, because the BJP had never reckoned the booting out of power to risk discovery. It was undoubtedly the reign of the blue-eyed boys and girls.

I learn that initial plans which were submitted under the glory days of the 'Together for Panjim' campaign for city beautification, paid local architects (members of the TGF campaign then) a 1% of the cost of the works (Those who believe the architects, assorted engineers and advisors services were free, because TGF was a voluntary outfit, can now do a re-think. It was not. Those who did do work free, became victims of ego battles. So they quit). However, while services of the architects were discontinued at a later period, one blue-eyed boy continued to be the blue-eyed boy as consultant of the garden.

The 'Heritage' Garden restoration cost estimates were presented to GSIDC at Rs 98.44 lakhs (an additional three or four lakhs for the beautification of the area around the Municipal Garden was included on another estimate), with a time limit set for completion of work as eight months from the date of commencement, i.e., February 19, 2004. A tender for the project was issued dated December 29, 2003, while tenders opened on January 15, 2004 and acceptance signed on February 12, 2004. The agreement with the construction contractor, Simplex Piles Ltd was then signed on April 15, 2004, which means according to the project's paperwork, restoration work on the garden should have been completed in December, 2004! I must mention
here that S.N. Bhobe and Associates also charged a 1% of the cost of the project as fees towards consultancy services.

Interestingly, in the mad rush of IFFI, even though the garden belongs to the CCP, restoration plans of 'Garcia de Orta' were not put up to the Corporation. "Plans of eight projects, including the above, found their way directly to the GSIDC office where tenders were floated by the GSIDC on 29.12.2003, opened on 15.1.2004 and subsequently (as a mere formality), the Standing Committee of the CCP decided to forward these plans to the GSIDC for carrying out the works on 5.2.2004," says Corporator Patricia Pinto.

Corporators allege that while the Corporation authorities initially
acknowledged and told them at meetings that plans had been scrutinized, "When the garden was in shambles they claimed no idea whatsoever of having seen the restoration plans of the garden ever. Even functional fountains which were installed only two years back have been torn down to build new ones. Why the unnecessary expenditure?" Corporators question.

Goa has mastered the fine art of passing the buck. But the grapevine is rife with rumours (it is alleged that the Architect dumped the project because he never got his 1%). More allegations, skeletons dug out of cupboards, heroes stripped to size, while a garden that suddenly belongs to no one continues to languish for lack of attention. Is this how committed-to-the-cause professionals work?

Meantime, what fate of the garden? Will music ever touch the leaves of the mango tree standing firm (I'm sure everybody went home with their quota of mangoes from the garden without battling a eyelid to its state of residence). Will the people of Panjim decide that no longer will they allow their city to be used and abused by political sidekicks whose 'I, Me, Myself' agenda has now been stripped naked? If the Govt appointed bodies won't rescue the garden, maybe its time to pass the hat around, pick up the pickaxe and repair together what has been brutally torn apart. I'm on call.
So is Patricia and other like-minded individuals. What about you, dear Panjimite? This would truly be together for Panjim!

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