In the first Panchayat election in Goa immediately following the invasion
of Goa by the Bharat Serkar the
lower grade of Goans – castewise and
financewise – fought that election vigorously against the upper grade Goans –
castewise and financewise. It was like a
war between the bourgeois and proletarians, in this war major victory was
derived by the latter but village administration went into the hands of many of
the rubbish hands that were purely communal in nature. However, those
administrators were sincere to their ethics.
This period lasted till mid eighties at least in my village when
Tomazinho Cardoso ruled Candolim as the Sarpanch. When he was the long time
Sarpanch of Candolim, Tomazinho Cardoso did not indulge in unethical practices
and did not involve in corruption nor
bribe taking, as far as I know.
Then came the second phase which was initiated with the spread of large
scale tourism industry. Because of
this, big moneyed people from other parts of India mainly from Delhi landed in
Goa and started purchasing land from Goa and built Hotels of different
dimensions, the local Panchayats started blindly issuing licences for these
builders from whom lot of bribe was taken by the Panchayat administrative
gangsters. So also other buildings started by the builders many times without
even taking care of the local ecology because these builders already purchased
the local Panchayat leaders by bribing them.
In my village and vaddo Araddy the local authority issued licenses many
of them verbally to construct houses haphazardly creating a fear in the minds
of residents, this was done I think by taking bribe and thru this type of money
the local leaders became crorepotis.
Also in my village licenses are issued to build big hotels in an
unplanned manner that makes the movement of the locals difficult. Those who were responsible in issuing these
licenses were illiterate in this field but act like top architects including
the Marie Antoinette. The rampant
issuing of licenses for the builders to construct big buildings by taking huge
amount of bribe has destroyed the ecology and greenery of the village on which
the elected local leaders are least interested because they are outsiders in
our locality and as such they have no love for the locality. They have love
only for illicit money. They are suffering from superiority complex for this
reason they treat people arrogantly when the locals go to them for any service. They are fit only to take revenge against
those who opposed them in the election and on personal matters. One fellow is now “fugddi ghalta” at home
while earlier he was using Panchayat as if it is his father’s property to
harass the locals in a vindictive manner.
Let us vote out those who are
corrupt and vindictive. These corrupt politicians to millionise themselves have
degoanised Goa.
A.Veronica fernandes.
