Panjim weeps as residents sleep

Panjim today is a neglected city. The side opposite the Panjim jetty is full of touts, thugs and thieves who are selling tickets for boat cruises and attracting motorists to casinos. The Dayanand Bandodkar Marg is choked and free movement of pedestrians is a challenge. With Panjim by-election around the corner, it's time the new MLA addresses these grave issues facing Panjimites.
Sadly, nothing has been done to rid the city which is choked with cars round the clock due to casino and cruise boat activities, festivities, events and sewage and garbage dumped all around by visitors for which the poor residents are blamed unnecessarily.
Our MLAs in the bygone decades have not been true residents of Panjim and are totally oblivious of the gruesome and tiring plight of the sleepless, noisy and fearsome daily routine of an ordinary Panjim resident, where crime has grown, rapes staring precariously, with teasing garbage and sewage, spiced with open urination, serving as a standard mark for the CCP. The electorate of Panjim is now at crossroads to choose between Congress and BJP.
Being a resident of Panjim from 1974, I have seen the capital city being transformed from a rich heritage conclave and a serene town, into an ugly Corporation battered, shattered, tattered with garbage, sewage and leaking sewage pipelines. Today, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the politicians, cutting across party lines, have allowed cruise boats, fishing trawlers and the ugly casinos to dock and destroy the River Mandovi. The fallout of this gambling industry and leisure tourism is today directly and adversely affecting the Panjim environment, the health, quality of life and security of the residents.
While in opposition, the BJP kept blaming the Congress for the unwanted evils of gambling thrust upon the people of Panjim, but now in power for the last 6 years, the BJP bosses have done "precious nothing" but kept extending the licenses as well as transferring them, thus royally fooling the Panjimites. I, being a resident of central Panjim, am confronted with cars, buses, tempos from all across India. There is no space at all for an ambulance or a fire brigade vehicle to come to the door in case of an emergency or for the basic needs of Panjim residents. Since free parking is the order of the day, the heart of the city is used by outstation drivers for cooking, easing, littering and choking the roads and blocking free passage of Panjim residents.
Today, if anyone is to be blamed for the silent death of the River Mandovi and the chaos on Panjim roads with outstation vehicles jamming the once peaceful Panjim, it is the Panjim residents who have to accept the blame and the responsibilities of electing politicians doing nothing good for Panjimites.
Like true idiots, we the residents of Panjim have allowed ourselves to be deceived, waylaid by the political class, who when in power, at a "particular time" have deceived us. The recent example is of the new gambling den, the "Lucky Seven", stranded on the Miramar Beach. The tax payers paid over Rs 112 crores to remove River Princess (instead of getting Rs 60 cr as value). Now history seems to repeat. Panjimites would have to pay dearly to take care of the Lucky Seven disaster.
Today, as it stands, politicians still dish out empty promises and make a series of "U turns". Sadly, despite several elections and by-elections, Panjimites are yet to get it straight on whom to elect inorder to safeguard their interests for posterity. Panjim has been governed from Taleigao, Dona Paula, Mapusa or even New Delhi. Do we require a smart city, or do we require a quiet, peaceful and a tranquil environment of a "comfortable city". Today, be it IFFI, the trade fairs, the wine festivals, the film shootings, the open markets on play grounds or the congested cruise boating and casino operations -- it is the life of the residents of Panjim that is brunted, blunted and shunted, with outstation vehicles jamming roads and pedestrian walk ways. The ones who make merry are only the political class whose pockets are always full even as people suffer.
The casinos, cruise boats and the event managers make money and keep the political dispensation in good humour through hefty bribes and favours. When elections are round the corner, we regularly and religiously hear of attempts to make Panjim clean and green, but instead after the votes have been cast, we only get a decaying city and dwindling mangroves and biodiversity.
In yesteryears, the River Mandovi was brimming with fish, shellfish and was rich in marine biodiversity. There were over 45 different species of fish one could find in the river. Today, we witness only fish, which feeds on sewage dominating the river waters. We also witness that the Panjim commerce is dominated by migrants and Panjimites are today like strangers in their own land losing their glorious past.
You cannot fool all the people all the time; except for all those who reside in Panjim, like me, who have remained fools, each time. For Panjimites tom-foolery is the order of the day. Man may come and man may go but Panjim would degrade forever.