GOA PAVILION AT PRAGATI MAIDAN!
TO DELHI, TO DELHI: Goa Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte visited the Goa Pavillion at India International Trade Fair 2022, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, on November 25, 2022. Accompanying him were Director -Tourism Nikhil Dessai (IAS) and Information Assistant, DIP Siddhesh Samant. Seen here with a troop of Goan performers.
DO WE NEED IFFI IN GOA?
I READ your editorial in your last issue and I am very much satisfied with the description given in it. Well written indeed but you missed important points which we Goans are worried about and the way IFFI propaganda is prospering in Panaji! IFFI is creating a mess and disturbing the peace of our city, especially damaging our green grass and garden plots all over the place.
The number of good and bad tourists pouring in Goa from the neighbouring states is worrying for it ruins the serenity of our life which is being jeopardised. I have seen Goans visiting stalls and attending IFFI functions for a meagre amount but it is not satisfying. The bad tourists are creating havoc with ill-advised drinking of liquor on beaches and leaving broken bottles behind, disturbing family women in the vicinity.
The percentage of local Goans at IFFI function are minuscule, almost negligible. Do we need IFFI in Goa every year? It’s nice to streets lit up at night and all the beautified spots for IFFI functions but all the nice electrification of dazzling lights wrapped around trees and lamp posts and buildings is unwarranted to make up for bad street lighting anyway. Trees and branches are nailed to hang up lighting and promotional material. I’m sure the French people would not tolerate this in Cannes.
At night time we see idle tourists idling away their time on pavements and even falling asleep in public places, drinking, eating and doing other thing like pissing and picking up prostitutes in some areas of Panaji. The footpaths are in an utter state of disrepair. Some tourists roam from place to place seeking accommodation but their aim is to study how to enter windows or doors for planned robbery.
Goans are beginning to feel unsafe with so many of these so called glamorous events, especially in Panaji which is badly in need of some real improvement in development and maintenance of public places. I think our politicians are the main cause for this kind of bad tourism in Goa. We need tourism but not this kind of havoc-causing tourism in an otherwise peaceful small state which was once paradise on earth but no longer.
–Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
WHO BENEFITS FROM IFFI?
THE International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was brought to Goa despite the fact that Goa has no filmi culture like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, by our late Manohar Parrikar in 2004. He brought IFFI in the name of long term development and with the promise of giving guaranteed benefits to young Goans in filmmaking, music and other related professions.
Unfortunately, in all these years of IFFI, very little of this kind of development has happened at ground level and it’s been a long way from first IFFI in 2004. Capital city Panaji has itself become a more chaotic town city, especially in the evenings with traffic congestion – especially during the ten days when IFFI is in town, along with the tons of garbage generated by all the filmi tourism.
IFFI organisers deliberately ignore Goan Konkani film makers or side line them in favour of Bollywood/South Indian film makers and actors during this annual festival. Entertainment is mostly by outstation dance troupes and the musicians from neighbouring states come for the much hyped opening/closing ceremonies – never mind that Goa has some of the best world-class famous musicians! Why?
IFFI only helps a few South Indian/Bollywood actors/directors/producers to come on a holiday annually to enjoy the fruit at public expense. It has helped politicians make quick bucks by contracting their chamcha for the non-Goan events and logistics of setting up IFFI giving contracts for their own close chamchas regarding management companies/painters/electricians, etc, and also so that they may see actors and filmi rich people basking in the limelight during this week-long affair which is a nightmare for the people of Goa!
The Goa government has no business wasting so much money on IFFI when we don’t even have a respectable infrastructure in our towns and villages to be considered on par with the countries of the West. How many Goans are interested in IFFI?
–Jerry Fernandes, SaligaoCONSTITUTION