While global
warming is a threat to coastal areas across the world, Goa’s coastline also seems
to be threatened by ships being stranded due to negligence on the part of the owners,
and especially that of the Goa government. By focusing on the various ways through
which the rules are flouted, not just by the private enterprises, but by the
authorities who are supposed to be protecting the public good, one comes
face-to-face with a clear break down of the rule of law as well as the
administrative setup in Goa. Additionally, the inability to check and control
the whims and fancies of private business and private individuals suggests that
Goa’s ecology is seen as having no value, to be disposed off on the whims of
the rich and powerful.
On 5 June, 2000,
the MV River Princess ran aground
on the Candolim-Sinquerim beach stretch. Due to bad weather the anchor snapped
and the loaded oil tanker drifted to the beach. It took the Goa government 12 years,
and a whopping 120 crores of taxpayer money, to finally move the ship. The
environmental degradation due to this accident has been immense. An estimated
30,000 sq. mts. of public beach area is eroded, along with the livelihood
opportunities of those Goans who live in this area. While the beach was slowly
being eroded with each crashing wave, the government and the ship-owners dilly-dallied
over how it was to be removed. The inability of the government to hold the owners of
the ship, the Anil
Salgaocar group, eventually meant that the people of Goa paid to clear the
mess, and that too only after the beach was seriously degraded.
In 2016, four years
after the River Princess was dismantled, another vessel – though not as large –
washed ashore the Arossim-Cansaulim beach stretch. It turned out that a rich
family from India had hired out a pontoon and a tug boat to host a wedding party.
What followed this fiasco was a blame game on the part of the authorities. As the
Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim panchayat and the Tourism Department had issued
permissions to host the party, in the event of an accident how was no one held
responsible, many asked.
This time, thankfully, it did not take 12 years to remove the vessels, and in 71 days Arihant
Ship Breakers (ASB), which has previously salvaged the MV River Princess,
completed the job. However, no one was held responsible for the accident and
the state, once again, displayed its inability to take strict action. Incidentally,
the pontoon at Arossim was hired by the owner of ASB. The same company is also hired
to salvage the MV Lucky Seven by its owners.
Now ‘another
River Princess’ in the form of a floating casino hotel ran aground on the
Miramar coast. The MV Lucky Seven is said to be owned
by ex-Haryana home minister, Gopal Kanda, and the Golden Globe Hotels, and
would have been the sixth off-shore casino to congest the already crowded
Mandovi. The latest fiasco happened under the rule of the BJP which promised to
remove all casinos more than a decade ago. There was also a clear indication
that the MV Lucky Seven ignored all sorts of warnings pertaining to the danger
of storms from the Captain of Ports and the Coast Guard. Even worse, the MV Lucky Seven was not
properly registered according to the laws of the land, and did not even have
the necessary permissions to sail up the Mandovi. According to the Captain of
Ports, the ship was allowed as a “refuge vessel” to drop anchor at sea. Around
the same time, Golden Globe Hotels petitioned the High Court, which apparently ruled in their favor, to allow it entry into the Mandovi as the ship was
said to be at risk while anchored. The High Court’s order therefore, needs to
be viewed as not a ‘go-ahead’ for another casino – or all casinos in Goa – but as
a permission to move to safety.
Armed with a
High Court order, but ignoring all sorts of environmental warnings and
procedures of the law of the land, the MV Lucky Seven tried to enter the
Mandovi despite protests by the Goan people. While this incident once again
underscores how the Goa government is unable to uphold the law against the whims
of the rich and the mighty, it also brings to light how Goa is exploited as
India’s ‘pleasure periphery’. Both the pontoon in Arossim-Cansaulim then and
the casino in Miramar now are playthings for the enjoyment of the middle and
rich classes from India’s metros. Goa’s coastline and natural beauty are at the
service of these Indians, to be abused as they deem fit. If at all there are
some problems, such as huge ships running aground and posing an environmental
disaster, the people of Goa are expected to foot the bill and clean the mess. Clearly,
such a mismanagement of the taxpayers’ money
is a big reason why the state
requires earnings from such problematic industries like the casinos in the
first place.
This puts the
people of Goa, especially its marginalized people, in an unequal and
exploitative relationship with big business interests. The Goa government equally
contributes to this unfortunate situation. Eventually, one needs a political
establishment that changes policy decisions to be more people- and
environment-friendly and enforces these new policy decisions through the rule
of law.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 2 August, 2017)
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