Panjim (Goa): Even as its famed Portuguese-named Mancurad Goan mangoes ripened on trees under the summer sun in every setting from the palatial mansions to the tiny hut owners, the state of Goa limped back slowly to partial normalcy with zero Covid-19 deaths and an upbeat Chief Minister Pramod Sawant urging for maintaining precautions amid excitement of the Goans awaiting removal of the national lockdown on May 3.
The new tension-free, jovial mood was evident in the atmosphere in North Goa – which had been declared a RED Zone due to several Covid-19 cases emerging from that side, while South Goa remained disease-free.
Relieved at being employed instead of returning or being sent back home to Bihar, Orissa and UP, migrant daily wage workers smiled happily in building mud-brick rain-water drains and other government pre-monsoon works, while buffaloes placidly made their way in fields back to their homes by themselves after a day’s grazing elsewhere.
Barely a fortnight earlier, the State had witnessed late-night movement of migrant workers heading for their respective cities and states outside Goa, after they were rendered jobless by the COVID-19 situation. Many of them found themselves on the streets after being kicked out of their dwellings by landlords due to their inability to pay rents. However, good Samaritans in various forms including NGOs, hoteliers and individuals pitched in to help them stay back through food and shelter being provided.
Locals remained assured of their supply of daily greens as agriculturists and others worked their fields, said John Monteiro (52), a landlord who opted for early retirement as a Kuwait-based accountant and tends to his fields at Bastora in North Goa to grow Goan corn, ladyfingers, beans and bananas which he sells to people coming to his farm.
Around 65 desparate Goan seafarers marooned on their cruise liner “Marella” in Mumbai – and caught in a ping-pong situation about Covid-19 — finally boarded a special bus and landed in Goa recently before being sent for 14-day quarantine in the state.
The Goa NRI Commission stated that in view of distress calls during COVID-19 flooding its lines, it is creating a database of such Goan workers stranded globally, jobless or unpaid due to COVID-19. Nodal Officer for NRI Goans Anthony Dsouza said about 50,000 Goans are working in the Gulf countries, besides thousands of others in Europe and elsewhere.
The Goa Chief Minister and Goa governor Satya Pal Malik have both written to the Centre to permit resumption of mining in the State due tourism and mining being the two mainstays of its economy.
Mining halt impacts
The mining halt in Goa has resulted in over Rs 2000 crores loss to Goa’s economy and made 1.5 lakh mine workers jobless, while COVID-19 has severely affected the tourism industry. Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association president Ambar Timblo said mining resumption could bring in Rs 7,000 crores within next nine months if the Central government could work out a “legislative cure” for this last-two-years-stalled mining industry.
Meanwhile, Uday Madkaikar — the Mayor of Goa’s capital Panjim – apologized via media for taking delivery of his official luxury car costing Rs 16 lakhs — at a time when the State’s economy was reeling under effects of Covid-19 – and said he would continue to use his old vehicle.
