Live me in the open sky

Report by Sayantoni Datta of a seminar “Regional Plan 2021, Imagining Goa’s Future’ at India International Centre(IIC), New Delhi on 18^th September 2010, and organized by Goenkarancho Ekvot.

‘Live me in the open sky’ written by Late Dr. Manohar Rai Sardesai captures the essence of what the people of Goa have tried to articulate in their participatory planning process for the Regional Plan 2021. Yet again Goan people have lived up to the reputation of being one of the forerunners informing ecological and environment discourses in the country. But while the Draft Regiosnal Plan 2021 does incorporate within it, flavours of the voices of people in Goa, the question is whether this process will continue in full authenticity, its implementation; and whether the plan will be adopted without changes by the Government of Goa.

Inspired by the Kerala model of development planning initiated by KSSP in Kerala, the Draft Regional Plan 2021 claims to be the outcome of a bottom up process of town planning whereby every single village and ward was engaged in a spatial planning exercise, which was in keeping with the principles of the 73^rd and 74^th Amendments in the Constitution. The planning exercise facilitated by a special Taskforce which include the Chief Minister of Goa, Former Chief Town Planner, Edgar Ribeiro, Architect Dean D’ Cruz, Dr. Oscar Rebello, Shri Blaise Costa Bir among others, has made an interesting departure from most planning exercises in the rest of the country. This is probably the first time the country has seen a state level village wise mapping and planning exercise of such detail; where urban and rural planning have incorporated within its logic and exercise securing of its fragile eco systems of ‘forests, mangroves, paddy fields and beaches which make Goa what it is’; where new ideas and economic models have been offered to investors in a state where land is a scarce resource.

Democratising Planning

The process adopted by the RGP 2021 in Goa has stemmed out of a large number of protests by the Goan people, at the forefront of which has been the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, who have insisted that the previous plan of Goa, RGP-2001, developed in consensus with only a handful of land sharks and the state, must be rejected and reformulated with every Goan citizen’s voice and stake included in it. The RGP-2021 is a fall out of these protests to democratize development planning in the State.

Given the larger issues of land grab, granting land for SEZs and development projects in India today, planning with people, and making these plans available to people, safeguards from the otherwise opaque processes that states have adopted with regard to planning in the rest of the country. Anyone who has attempted to understand how ‘development projects’ unfold in the state would have in their bag, a number of tales and horror stories of how difficult it is to access plan documents and files from the town planning authorities. The preparation of these ‘secret documents’ have invariably been outsourced to private consultant architect companies who draw up plans for the State, probably including several villages into blotches of suggested hubs, riverfronts, parks and industrial estates, without any discussions of its repercussions with local people living there and what it is that they want in terms of their stakes in the development process. Interestingly the RGP 2021 seems to have followed several detailed processes of correcting these blotches in the previous plan, such as redrawing the boundaries of settlements, locating all water bodies and even bird nesting sites and nature trails, which help animals to cross from one forest to another in village maps. Multiple sources such as topographical sheets, google maps, and the previous 2001 plan have been used in this exercise. As pointed out by Madhav Gadgil in a seminar on the presentation of the plan by some members of the Taskforce in New Delhi, ‘it would be useful to make all the village, district and regional maps available on free open source technology which can be made accessible to all people of Goa at a minimum expense’; this would also to retain transparency.

What is left for investors?

At the seminar “Regional Plan 2021, Imagining Goa’s Future’ at India International Centre(IIC) on 18^th September 2010, and organized by Goenkarancho Ekvot, the hall was packed by citizen’s groups belonging to Goa Diaspora, environmental activists, and a large number of planners, and students from the School of Planning and Architecture. In admission one of the senior planning officials stated that probably the biggest conflict in planning today is making a shift from market based planning to plan by the people. Spatial planning must become an exercise which thus shifts merely from the various strategies of using and expropriating land for large development projects to also bring in its purview ecological and environmental issues.

The outcome of the research done for the Plan has clearly showed that land is a scarce resource, and with the current booming population in Goa, the per capita availability of land has only shrunk. There is also a harsh reality that land acquired by corporations has been left vacant or not used. Being a ‘leisure capital’ there are no dearth of individuals who have invested resorts, farmhouses and villas in Goa and Goa has also been witness to ‘speculative housing’ which is criminal, given the housing crunch for migrants and poor. Given the fact that almost 54 percent of land in Goa is of the eco sensitive type, probably a huge challenge for the Task Force has been to offer viable investment opportunities, in the midst of serious issues and impacts on the people of Goa of mining, real estate economy and tourism, all of which have played ruthless extractive roles.

To counter the antithesis of the plan, namely mining, real estate development and commercial tourism by five star hotels and resorts, an urgent request by the Taskforce to investors investing in Goa have been to think outside the paradigms. Can Goa be treated as a model of a sustainable society? Some of these models could mean adopting the concept of ‘slow cities’ for a city like Panjim, replicating projects such as ‘The Eden Project’ for mining wastelands, and adopting ‘village tourism models’ as in Hadi village, South Maharashtra which have helped the local people in benefiting from the tourism industry and also retained the original landscapes and bring a balance in the ‘green’ and ‘grey’ infrastructure. Along with this are some important NO’s which include no construction activity along hill slopes which should be declared as no development zones, no new mines should be leased in forest areas, no coal based transportation for power, usage of raw water by industries instead of treated water, and protection of sand dunes.

Translating the rhetoric to reality

Oscar Rebello, from the taskforce states that three kinds of forces have their interests interlocked in Goa’s plan, the ‘extreme environmentalists’ who don’t want a single tree to be cut, ‘the cowboy capitalists’ the actual strangulating class which is dominating the discourse in Goa, wanting to cut every tree or hill in sight and ‘the reasonable realists’ on whose shoulders rests the concern for the environment with practical concerns on livelihoods of lower and upper middle class and interests of the poor.

Matanhy Saldanha, Ex Member of the Goa Legislative Assembly talking about Goa’s survival interests states that the stability of any society depends upon its land. If land is gone everything is gone and development must be eco friendly, people oriented and sustainable for all improving the quality of life. Goan people, are not being able to afford a patch of land or house for themselves given the escalation of land markets. In the current situation land is being transacted among big hotel chains, those who invest from outside the state, those who are buying holiday homes and villas in the leisure capital, and NRIs with more foreign exchange.

It would be interesting to see how dynamic processes including people’s lives and choices, of the market and governance unfold against the static maps created for the plan and whether the democratic processes will continue and how attempts at subversion will be safeguarded against. Furthermore in the maze of the mapping exercise, a point to watch is how far local village interests are collated into regional maps and what kind of development decisions are made on regional maps. Already some development plans have been inserted such as airports, a sea link, a second Konkan railway line and industrial hubs to contain industrial sprawl in nodes, though these are being refuted by concerned villages.

Furthermore the Plan is also interlocked between governance interests. Will this Draft Regional Plan 2021 be passed by the Government of Goa? How far will the State be able to negotiate its interests with the Centre? Rebello from the Taskforce pushing urgently for the plan to be passed states that it is crucial to restrict the indiscriminate construction and mining activity and escalating land markets in Goa, that the plan be adopted soon. ‘Rahul Gandhi must view Goa as urgently as Niyamgiri, and the Goans with as much endearment as the Dongria Kondhs.’, he added.

Double lining of South Western Railway: for whose benefit?

To:

The Hon’ble Chief Minister,

Government of Goa,

Secretariat, Porvorim,

Bardez, Salcete, Goa.

Sir,

With reference to the reports appearing in the media regarding the Railway Board approving double lining of the South Western Railway from Vasco to Hospet, permit me to point out a few really important matters to you:

1. In the first place, this is an initiative taken by the Mormugao Port Trust which has been consistently bypassing the Government of Goa and in fact behaving like a state within a state. Besides, it is a matter of jurisdiction. Who plans and decides the development of Goa? The duly elected government of Goa or an organization that is carrying out a particular activity in the State? Has the Planning & Development Board of Goa recommended the doubling of the SWR? If not, what authority has the MPT to do so?

2. The doubling of the line will cause not only hardships to the people but also for your government. A large number of houses will be adversely affected if the SWR line in Goa is doubled and large tracts of scarce Goan land will once again be in the hands of Central Agency that truly does not give any tangible benefits to Goans in terms of recruitment.

3. There are a good number of heritage houses close to the railway track which will be badly affected if the SWR line is doubled as the vibrations caused by the rail movement will shake their foundations.

4. The increased traffic on the line will also cause noise pollution not to mention dust pollution.

5. After the SWR line in Goa was converted to broad gauge, people began facing a lot of problems as traffic increased and it became more and more difficult to cross the tracks. Long queues at the manned railway crossings are a common feature along the Goans landscape now. Therefore, the Government of Goa should insist that every railway crossing in Goa should have either a rail under bridge or a rail over bridge so that people are not put to hardships and until and unless this is provided for, no Goan land should be handed over to the Railways.

6. Besides, the Railways should also be asked to provide for over or under bridges as and where required in keeping with the needs of the State for the next 35 years as the Golden Jubilee Development Committee is preparing this road map for Goa.

7. Going by the tenor of the discussions in the recent in the State Assembly, it is evident that the Government of Goa is not quite happy with the manner in which MPT is behaving. Hence, before it becomes more authoritarian it would be better for the State Government to put the brakes on MPT’s ambitious expansion plans which are aimed at packing this Goa with more and more people from outside the State rather than helping our own Goans or Goa.

Therefore, I request to immediately write to the Union Railway Minister and the Railways Board bringing to their notice our apprehensions and also listing out these demands in the interest of Goa.

Requesting you to treat this matter as urgent and serious,

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

Matanhy Saldanha

(Former Tourism Minister)

It is not enough to be anti-mining

Nature Environment Society and Transformations (NEST) organized its third lecture in the series of Bikram Dasgupta memorial public lecture series on July 29, 2010 at Bal Bharati high School, Ribandar, Goa. The lecture “Goa: from trading port to tourism destination” was delivered by Raghuraman Trichur, Associate Professor & Department Chair in Anthropology at California State University, Sacramento, USA. Here are some notes from his lively lecture.
Discussion is important for knowledge production. Divides between various social sciences are artificial meant only to protect fiefdoms. Classical political economy is an area where all the subjects are rolled in one. It opens up intentions into actions and opens up various ways of opening up.
In Goa there is no connectivity in what historians say. There is no connectivity established to connect past with the present. Now how to see the connection between past and present? Goa history is a collection of evidences in the form of archival documents. It is like a Bollywood movie that has great characters but no story line to it. We all are living in capitalist society that is held together by conflicts. These conflicts unfold in various manners such as tourism, communalism, mining, racism etc.
Why tourism is so prevalent activity in Goa? Why Goa is dominated by tourism and mining? That is because certain forces are prevalent in Goa. They are called merchant capitalism that involves buying at cheaper rate from someone and selling the same at higher rate to someone else earning surplus in this trade. There are other two varieties of capitalism that is not dominant in Goa namely Industrial capitalism and Finance capitalism. Merchant capitalism in Goa developed in historical way. It is a part of colonialism. Portuguese wanted control of the port to source material from Asia to Europe directly. Earlier trade from Asia used to reach Europe via innumerable intermediary traders. The so called discovery of sea route to India by Portuguese sailor done away with need for intermediary traders. Merchant capitalism has its origin here. With direct trade from Asia to Europe (and also from Latin America to Europe with so called discovery by Columbus) merchants were becoming stronger that caused decline in influence of Feudal and Royal families. However merchants were culturally marginalized, example Jews.
Conversion to Christianity in Goa has not always been with the use of force. Lots of people also converted willingly to escape tyranny of prevalent caste system during Portuguese rule.
Portuguese carried on their colonial administration in Goa through auctioning of revenue collection system. Brahmins in Goa has a characteristic that is different to Brahmins in the rest of India. They are both landowning as well as businessmen. In fact they are merchants first before getting involved in mining. In the 19th century Portuguese Colonial power declined but local elites in the colonies became stronger in local economies. Portuguese had to depend upon local merchants to keep its colonial enterprise afloat.
Post colonial period economy and politics was dominated by elites. This was done through continues engagements in reproduction of dominance and eliminate everyone else. One example to this is in 1990s downfall of Du Pont project in Keri, Ponda was influenced by mining lobby that is dominated by merchant capital. If Nylon 6,6 had to come to Goa then power and influence of dominant elite would have eroded.
1960s witnessed rise of tourism in Goa. This is a historical response of marginalized population of Goa with eye for survival. Five star tourism institutions want to get rid of peasant households on coast. Peasant households erode five star type of tourism through their participation a control in the tourism trade on Goa Coast.
In Goa’s mining industry no processing neither value addition taking place. Merchant Capital and it is very exploitative in mining in hinterland and through environmental costs in tourism. Both do transfer of money and not products.
Tourism did not challenge the dominance of elites. Goa has a particular type of development – short circuit!
It is not enough to be anti-mining or anti-something alone. It is a distraction towards strategy to create power of the excluded people. There is a need to strategize to erode the influence of mercantile capital. In this process it is important to go back to the study of classical material and re-read. You may find gems for your strategy. We don’t have to be destructive but creative and consistent to be successful in the struggle.
Elites in the Merchant capital do many things to deep themselves in dominant position. Writing history is one of them. It is an act of power. Philanthropy is another thing that elites resort to keep themselves in power. There is a need to expose the nexus of dominance of merchant capital in Goa. Mahasweta Devi once asked “Why would soldier wield the sword? Obviously a sword is to eliminate the bad guy!” Pen is more powerful than sword. It is used to write, to convey, and to inform. We have the evidence but not able to connect and interconnect.
During Portuguese rule Ganvkaris were brought under the influence of few families. Rights were changed to ownership rights. Process of state formation is selective process involving only those were are politically engaged.
Tourism in Goa has been important process of confidence building for large number of people in Goa. There is a need to recognize history making ability of people. Historian of Goa has written partial history. We need to politicize what we learn.
There is need to capacity to understand diverse types of capitalism in the world simultaneously. In Goa there is primitive accumulation of capital through real estate as well as mining.
There is a need for creating new forms of resistance like environment movement. There must also be coordination between politics of mining protests groups with tourism protest groups. There is also the need protect state services like Health, Education etc. In 1980s 70% of the price was controlled by the State. Private sector had control over only 30% of the global price determination process. Now the private sector seeks to influence remaining 70% of the economy too. This will drastically push large number of people into marginalized position.
Why we need public-private partnership in Hospitals? Why can’t we just improve public hospitals? In fact public hospitals in Goa like GMC are better and affordable. The aim of private elements is just to exploit.
There is need in Goa to form a small voluntary study group dedicated towards study of classical literature such as 3 volumes of 'Capital'.
Raghuraman Trichur has authored an article titled “Politics of Goan Historiography” wherein his arguments are further elucidated. He also has worked on Goa for his doctoral studies in late 1990s.

Sebastian Rodrigues

Goa: from trading post to tourism destination

Nature Environment Society and Transformations (NEST) invites you to public lecture "Goa: From trading post to tourism destination" by Dr. Raghuraman Trichur, Associate Professor and Department Chair, California State University, Sacramento, California, USA on 29 July 2010 at 3.30 pm at Bal Bharati High School, Ribandar, Goa.

Prof. Trichur has completed his doctoral studies on Goa a decade ago and follows developments unfolding in Goa ever since. The lecture is organised as part of ongoing Dr. Bikram Dasgupta memorial public lecture series. This is a third in the series.

Villagers of Goa thanks Jairam Ramesh

Panjim July 15

In a press statement released here today, VILLAGE GROUPS OF GOA thanked Union Minister for Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh for publicly confirming what the people of Goa have been saying for years now - that “development work had inflicted the worst damage to the environment and forests in Goa” (Herald, July 13, 2010). VILLAGE GROUPS OF GOA also congratulates Jairam Ramesh for having the courage to stand up to the “ development at any cost” brigade who have been holding sway over the functioning of the administration in the country in general and Goa in particular for many years now to the detriment of the common citizen.

Now that the Union Enviroment & Forest Minister has confirmed the devastating damage to Goa’s ecology, it is to be hoped that the Government of Goa will understand just how crucial the Regional Plan 2021 is for the preservation of Goa’s environment and natural heritage. Since the state government is taking an unconscionably long time to put in place the Regional Plan 2021, it is inexplicable why Chief Minister Digambar Kamat does not freeze approvals to large scale development projects until the Regional Plan is securely in place, particularly involving forests, hills and eco sensitive zones.

In fact, it is a matter of grave concern that the Jairam Ramesh’s counterpart in Goa State Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira fails to see the shocking and very visible environmental degradation even as he appears not to hear the cries of the distressed people of Goa struggling to save their homeland from the ravages of rampant, mindless development and the negligence of the government authorities. Surely, the state Environment Minister is well aware of the brazen flouting of environmental laws and norms, resulting in massive hill cutting, filling of paddy fields even by his own government, discharge of raw sewage into the sea by hotels, the devastation inflicted by the mining industry on the forests and the lives and health of the unfortunate people of those villages. The state Environment Ministry should be aware that for over twenty years now, industrial estates have been functioning without any data about the kinds and quanity of garbage generated by industrial units leave alone regulation and safe disposal of such kind of garbage, giving rise to misgivings as to the kind of polluted environment we are living in and the effects the people will have to cope with in the not too distant future.

VILLAGE GROUPS OF GOA appeals to Jairam Ramesh to ensure that the Goa Government becomes pro active in sincerely administering the state and does not put the onus of upholding and enforcing the environmental laws solely upon the ordinary citizens of Goa. In fact, VILLAGE GROUPS OF GOA deplores the unhealthy trend in governance, where the administration remains passive onlookers to the flouting of rules and regulations, while the people run from pillar to post desperately seeking to uphold the rule of law, which in fact, is the job of the elected government and the administrative machinery.

VILLAGE GROUPS OF GOA wishes to make it abundantly clear that it is not against development per se. However the alarming lack of governance and absence of the rule of law, the apathy of the administration towards the open flouting of the law and sometimes its alleged connivance with law breakers has resulted in development benefits for a privileged few at the cost of the detriment and distress of the majority of the citizens, their environment, health, culture and quality of life.

Development has damaged Goa environment: Ramesh

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Mr. Jairam Ramesh needs to
be lauded for having taken up the issue of protecting Goa’s
environment and forests. He has clearly hit the nail on the head when
he points out that the so-called development work in Goa has caused
the worst damage to the Goan Environment and our forests.

With our Goan politicians being the most corrupt, denigrated and vile
bunch that we have representing us, all their con-schemes and projects
in the name of “development” are only to push forward their hidden
agenda of filling in their pockets and granting approvals left , right
and centre. This goes for the Mining Industries Projects, Real Estate
Projects, SEZs, Dual Airport Scheme, MPT Expansion Plans, etc – you
name it all our Ministers and politicians today are all hand in glove
with the Government Officials, TCP, Forest Department and Panchayats
working at the behest of these project promoters to push through these
projects, even if it means the destruction of Goa it’s environment and
or delicate Ecology without considering the serious damage it's
causing our Goan environment and without taking the Goan people into
account.

Recently we heard of the Goa Government approaching the Centre and the
World Bank for fighting Coastal Erosion which was unheard of in Goa
before as we respected nature and our Environment. After causing the
problem in the first place they are quick in putting out the begging
bowl which again will be nothing but another way of stealing from the
funds that they receive.

Politicians like the Alemaos, Godinho, Ranes, Monserrate, Azgaonkar
and the rest of the Gang including those from the Opposition are not
worthy of the position they enjoy! Why is the Opposition silent -
don't they have a responsibility too?

Please voice your support in favour of Jairam Ramesh for standing up
against his own colleagues in calling a spade a spade and speaking out
in favour of Goa. It’s up to us Goans to speak out against our own
politicians and expose them as all our Goan villages face these
problems on account of the close nexus between builders, Pancahayats,
corrupt officials in the TCP and of course our greedy and corrupt
politicians.

There is a crying need to consolidate the efforts and expose the rot
that has set in and put a stop to it. The villagers who have lived
here for generations in these villages going back in time should be
the ones to decide what kind of development they want and preserve the
coastal ecology which is so important - Otherwise what we are seeing
in terms of weather changes, soil erosion, tsunamis, floodings in Goa
which were never heard of will be the order of the day.

Consolidated efforts to rally and support the villagers so that no
project is passed through without checking the damages to this
delicate coastal ecology. We should all join hands to support what
essentially is the heart of Goa –it’s villages, it’s people and their
Goan way of life that will be destroyed due to the unending greed of a
few and the open collaboration of our Goan politicians a corrupt,
greedy and hopeless bunch!.

Below is the article with MOEF Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s comments on the
so-called development work in Goa. Our Goan Ministers and politicians
need to read the writing on the wall and heed the warning before it’s
too late! As for Digu-Kaka our CM “the man with the Golden Hand” and
the rest of our Goan MLAs shame on you! Instead of promoting
Agriculture, you'll are bent on destroying it and as such failed to
get the Central Government's grant for last year! All we see are
grandiose schemes

To prevent Goans from expressing their voices and opinions after
imposing Section 144 infront of you and the Assembly we trust that
you'll at least read what's being published in our Goan newspapers and
the media! Or would you impose censorship on that as well?

Shame on you our Goan Politicians!

Roger D’Souza
*************************************************************************************
Development has damaged Goa environment: Ramesh


PTI
BHOPAL, JULY 12

Development work had “inflicted the worst damage” to the environment
and forests in Goa, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam
Ramesh said in Bhopal on Friday. He was speaking to NGOs at the sixth
public consultation organised about the Green Mission at the Indian
Forest Management Institute in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

However, he said, afforestation and re-greening should be taken up on
a war footing to make up the loss. Ramesh lamented that he was facing
criticism from his cabinet colleagues for allegedly blocking
development projects. “I am being considered as ‘Ravana’ for
development projects,” Ramesh lamented.

Without naming anyone, the minister said he was being considered as a
person putting obstacles in the way of development projects. “Our
department is being shown as the enemy of development, which is not
the case,” he said.

In recent months, Ramesh has come under attack from Road Transport and
Highways Minister Kamal Nath over construction of highways through
forests in Madhya Pradesh, as well as Civil Aviation Minister Praful
Patel for “delay” in the environmental clearance of the Navi Mumbai
airport.

“The biggest challenge for us is to strike a balance between
environment and development,” Ramesh said.

The minister said he was winning praises from NGOs and the people with
regard to environment protection, but was at the receiving end from
others, whom he did not name.

Power generation, highways and other development work are bound to
take place, he said, adding the country needs power and infrastructure
to progress.

Jairam Ramesh owes an explanation to People of Goa

Recently Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh succumbed to the public pressure against mining industry and took a laudable step of imposing moratorium on new mining projects. On 22^nd February he wrote a letter to Chief Minister of Goa informing this and also declared “I also feel time has come for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of all the mining activities that has taken place and for which permissions has been given over the past few years. Such a study should also find remedial measures. I am planning to ask NEERI to conduct this study and I am confident that I can count on your support in this regard.”

However between 22 February 2010 and July 2010 there has been interesting change of stance from MOEF. While moratorium has stayed on the study on Goa has been sort to be given to Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Answers are not given. NEERI has proved its scientific credentials while it undertook study on Sirgao village in north Goa and it would have been good if Minister Jairam Ramesh has stuck to his word of 22 February 2010 and awarded the study NEERI. There is every possibility that Jairam Ramesh has been put under pressure by mining industry to take this decision. Or Jairam Ramesh owes an explanation as to why he has changed from NEERI, Nagpur to Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Without this explanation the study will lack legitimacy cooperation from people of Goa.

Sebastian Rodrigues