Coutesy: Herald

Panaji, Apr 3: Is there no honour among thieves?

Not satisfied with destroying Goa by letting land sharks come in and destroy the environment, now the government is determined to destroy some of Goa’s precious heritage. And the decision to allow a Delhi-based company to build a mall at the heritage Goa Medical College  is shocking.

Century-old Goa Medical College building

Why is the government allowing this heritage structure to be taken away from Goan hands? Is there nothing left for Goans anymore? First we had to contend with the Regional Plan 2011 which gave large tracts of land away to the land sharks from Delhi and elsewhere? And now we have the government gifting away heritage sites?

Considering that the Old Goa Medical College or the Escola Medico Cirurgica De Nova Goa, was Asia’s oldest medical institution surely there must be some rationale behind this decision.

Could the Chief Minister or  the Chief Secretary J P Singh or  Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Nandini Paliwal explain to the people as to why they have arrived at such a decision. Who are these people trying to fool with such ill conceived and illogical ideas? It does not make any sense at all. 

Has the government done any study or research as to whether Goa requires a mall selling such products? Do we need to destroy a heritage site just to satisfy the shopping urges of a few people? Is this the development we are talking about? And it is very strange the very people who have a degree in medicine and keep proclaiming to the world that they are against the destruction of Goa are silent on the issue.

Yes, where are the doctors who should be protesting against this desecration? What is the president of the Goa chapter of the Indian Medical Association doing about this?Surely the doctors can take out a protest against this horrible decision? Surely the medical fraternity in Goa, including the indomitable ‘apolitical’ Dr Oscar Rebello can come out and ‘thunder’ about what is happening to Goa’s heritage site?  Or for that matter what is Dotor Willy D’Souza doing about this?

For the Regional Plan everyone blamed Babush Monseratte and painted him as the Devil incarnate even though many must have been party to the Regional Plan. Now who will they paint black? Because if all the people who claim they want to save Goa are silent now, then they cannot point fingers at Babush because they are guilty of a greater crime.

Yes, the Goa Medical College has to be saved but will the hypocrites who claim they want to save Goa wake up and save the GMC or was there a personal purpose behind all the agitation last December.

And as someone rightly said “remaining apolitical is the best way to destroy Goa.’’