Why we shouldn't be blaming the Indian tourist alone for Goa's troubles By playing the victim card, Goans abdicate their responsibility for the selfcreated 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.Not only are Goans selling, converting or renting their old houses but land too is being converted for commercial and residential purposes. Credit: Navin Sigamany/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Though Goa was known to the hippies in the 1960s and ‘70s, there was a series of development that brought about the transformation of Goa. The 1983 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting brought Goa centre stage and with it better infrastructure for its people, which included an international airport. Goa’s statehood and then liberalisation provided the fuel for the great leap forward. Statehood was an opportunity for locals to become lawmakers and it gave others ready access to those in power, and liberalisation allowed for easy credit and investments. Tourism-related infrastructure got a boost and the construction of roads brought inaccessible parts of Goa within the clutches of developers. The arrival of Konkan Railways made Goa accessible to a larger geography of people.Regulatory and legal changes helped too. Claude Alvares, an environmentalist based in Goa has written: “So first, the government amended the Industrial Development Act and removed all industrial estates from the jurisdiction of the Panchayats. Next, it announced a Goa Investment Policy (August 2014) and followed this up with the Goa Investment Promotion Act.
ARTICLE SOURCE- BUSINESS STANDARD.