Nita Ambani's dream to see India play
in the world cup has many supporters. I would also like to see India
play at the football world cup, but surely there has to be some
method in this madness. The first match (and rest of them too) of the
Reliance back league in Goa was at the famed Fatorda stadium. We the
citizens are available to be kicked around so that the Indian dream
is realised.
The administration moved heaven and
earth or should I say stopped, to ensure the match was a resounding
success. No they did not play, I assume the top bosses were handed a
few complimentary passes. Fortunately unlike for cricket matches
duplicate tickets were not seen or heard off.
The administration decided that
everyone living around the Stadium had to also stop their business of
living and either sit at home or take a walk and watch the match.
They decided that the players who are either yesteryears stars or
stars in the making need to have a smooth passage to the Stadium.
We should be happy they did not decided
to close the roads from Panaji or Vasco to ensure this. Some
consolation for lack of application of mind or should we say crowd
control techniques. Maybe we should send the traffic police or better
the district administration on a European study tour. Problem is they
will see no road blocks even if Manchester United is playing Arsenal.
The road leading to the stadium from
the Margao- Panaji Highway is blocked at the highway itself. Is this
logical? From Margao no right turn is allowed even if you wish to go
towards ND Naik, one has to go ahead and pass the new presentation
school and then proceed. Are the police applying their mind?
There are more than 10 policemen
zealously guarding the barricades which would give ideas to
protestors in Hong Kong. Would it not be better and less stressful to
move the road block to the start of the Y junction 50 mts inside. ?
Even this is not required. The
advertisement for traffic arrangements states, says 60 VVIP cars and
2 coaches will be parked inside the Stadium. Wonder who paid for this
half page advertisement? After the local MLA has worked to widen the
roads pre Lusofonia, the stretch from the highway to the stadium has
been mostly completed and the road is broad. There is no need to
block the road, and harass residents for a few players and ofcourse
as the advertisements included “MLA/Ministers”, the code word.
Once you use this secret term all roads open, oops close. Why can
they not drive as they have from Panaji on a common road, why is the
need to close the road to vehicular traffic on this stretch and put
every resident which possibly numbers 10000. Is this correct for 60
cars block of 10000 people?
And then where is the equality which is
required or essential for democracy? A few days back a cycle race was
not allowed because the organisers could not get permission from the
district administration to close the roads for a short time. The
reason, and rightly so, it would inconvenience many office goers.
Different rules being applied by different administrators or is it a
case of arbitrary decision making? Or are the residents of Fatorda
liable for inconvenient times just because they probably came to live
in Fatorda after the stadium was built.
We never saw this happen for the other
football matches, can the powers that be ensure a smooth FLOW of
traffic around the stadium without closing roads, they have to think
as these matches are going to be a regular fixture. If they cannot,
they should ask for help from some experts in crowd control. “LETS
FOOTBALL”.
