By playing the victim card, Goans abdicate their responsibility for the self-created mess that they find themselves mired in.
Tourism
in Goa
has been in the news recently. A piece in a weekly conveyed Goans’
sense of outraged desperation at the behaviour of Indian tourists
visiting Goa. Vijai Sardesai, the minister for town and country
planning, was quoted calling a section of tourists’ ‘scum of the
earth’.
The
annual number of tourists visiting Goa is more than five times its
14.5 lakh population. Reports like the one in Open indicate that Goa
is finding it difficult to keep its head above the surge. At the same
time, a local newspaper has suggested that 35% of the population in
Goa now consists of migrants. Are these the fount of Goa’s
problems?
Goa
is like a veritable pie that everyone wants a piece of. Drawn by its
beauty and, the much spoken of laid-back lifestyle, there is a steady
influx of people making the state their home. These features attract
tourists too. Others come in search of employment. It comes as no
surprise, then, that property is a gold mine and land is coveted. Not
only are Goans selling, converting or renting their old houses, but
land too is being converted for commercial and residential purposes.
With
Goans migrating and families becoming smaller and residing in
different parts of the world, maintaining properties is no longer
easy. Selling it, therefore, becomes the best way to cash in and
divvy-up the proceeds before the land is usurped while renting
properties becomes a source of income and also ensures that they are
maintained.
The
Economic Survey 2017-18 finds double-digit percentage growth in the
construction sector over previous years in most years between 2012-13
and 2016-17. During a low growth year in the construction industry,
electricity/gas/water services – basic requirements for sale of new
construction – have shown double-digit growth. That there has been
no corresponding dip in this sector is intriguing, to say the least.
At the same time, an official from the directorate of census
operations has stated that one out of every five houses remains
unoccupied.
Does
the much vaunted susegado approach of the Goan cloak a desire to make
hay at all times? During colonial and pre-liberalisation times, the
landed were unable to sell or convert their property because of the
poor economy. Pre-liberation Goa ran mostly on remittances from Goans
working outside the state and from agriculture. Others were employed
in the Portuguese bureaucracy or were involved in import/export.
Smuggling from then Bombay also helped.
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