"The Battle for Panjim -Begins!!!"

The countdown for Panjim begins courtesy TARGET NEWS 2011-03-01 [ Bevinda Collaco ] The picture is clear now. There are two main groups vying for control of Panjim the capital of the state. The Monserrate Camp is fielding a candidate in every one of the 30 wards of Panjim. The BJP is fielding candidates in 29 wards and will be supporting Oscar da Cunha in the thirtieth, which is Ward 26. My ward. And playing spoilsport is the Nationalist Congress Party or Mickky’s Camp which will split the votes. Residents of Panjim will go to the polls to cast their votes on March 13. As the countdown begins to determining the fate of the fair city of Panjim, activists, heritage activists and residents with no agenda except a deep love and appreciation for their city are a worried lot. HERITAGE IS PANJIM'S USP but this may go if Monserrate gets control of CCP again As cities go, Panjim hardly qualifies as a city. It is a picturesque town. Blessed with water on all sides and joined to the mainland by modern and old bridges and a 400-year-old causeway the town rises gently from the river banks, the beaches and the salt flats to the hillock of Altinho. This was a planned city built when the overcrowded, ill planned Old Goa fell to the plague and the Portuguese colonial rulers decided to build their new plague free capital at Panjim the land that never floods. Today the ills that plague the city are legendary. Illegal constructions on steep slopes have caused havoc with landslides all around. The illegal constructions have over the years been encouraged by local councilors trying to woo their supporters. In Mala area for instance, residents swear by Rudresh Chodankar, since he always “helped” them out to get the necessary permits etc from the CCP for any “additions” they needed. The additions were often entire new annexes to their original houses or another floor. POPULAR NO MATTER WHAT or who Rudresh Chodankar joins Rudresh himself has pulled down his ground floor cottage in the hallowed heritage precinct of Fontainhas-Mala and has built a two-storeyed monster structure in its place. Illegal? Nah, it must be completely legal, with all required permits and licences of the CCP in place. Last year Rudresh was in the Opposition. Today he has joined the Monserrate Camp, the very same policies of which he condemned loudly and continuously at every meeting of the CCP. MASTERLY INACTIVITY Avinash Bhonsle Avinash Bhonsle who is generating the maximum noise in these elections will go down in history as the most useless councilor to ever darken the doors of Ward 26. He made an appearance in the ward on one day and one day only, the day he came around asking for votes. After he was elected, Bhonsle was never to be seen again in the ward. The weeds grew thick, the stepped street was breaking in parts, people were falling in the darkness and injuring themselves. Finally, the locals, including this writer, got the work done by the simple expedient of calling the Comissioner, the Mayor and the engineer allotted to the area. Ward 26 used to be one of the best looking wards in the city. Now it’s a sorry mess. The worry is not who will sweep our streets and collect our carefully segregated waste. The worry is that if the Monserrate Camp is given one more stab at running the CCP, the city of Panjim is doomed. Beautiful old structures will be pulled down to make way for broad roads, for multi-storeyed parking, for new buildings, all good in their own way some would say, but in the process changing not just the face of the city, but also changing a way of life that was the envy of all. HIS WISH IS EVERYONE'S COMMAND Babush Monserrate wants Panaji While the Monserrate Camp may have some fine upright individuals standing in several wards, it will still be Babush Monserrate who will make the major decisions. After the last elections he summoned all his winning candidates to his house in Taleigao and summoned the Commissioner too. He gave them a stern lecture where he laid down the bottom line. The CCP was his and it would be run according to his rules. And that is the way the CCP worked with the few members of the Opposition screaming themselves hoarse at every meeting. The one hope is Ashok Naik who has come back to contest even though he says he is keeping poor health. Ashok Naik was Chairperson and then Mayor before and during the cusp period when Panjim Municipal Corporation turned into the City of the Corporation of Panaji. That was Manohar Parrikar’s brainwave that backfired on the city in a really terrible way. From 12 wards, the city was divided into 30 wards was supposed to extend to Porvorim, Ribandar, Santa Cruz and Taleigao. Taleigao, Porvorim and SantaCruz refused the dubious honour but the 30 wards stayed and 30 completely unnecessary individuals ignored Panjim city and concentrated on “developing” Caranzalem and Taleigao where Monserrate had building interests. We have huge building complexes in this developed area, but no sewerage system. ABLE MAYOR, appreciated by opposition councillors too Ashok Naik was arguably the best Mayor the city has seen. Panjim looked her best during his tenure. His success lay in his ability to hand out funds for development without partiality. Unlike the present dispensation where the Monserrate panel made certain funds were utilized in their wards alone. The city has suffered and only the looming elections and maybe a sense of deep shame got the Panjim city garden completed. Stories of gifts being distributed have already started making the rounds. There is one set of comments on Facebook about a journalist who has received remuneration in six figures to present the candidates of one group in a good light. There are moves to expose him, so the days to come should be interesting with all this drama on the sidelines.