Land rights, environment top election agenda in India's Goa

GOA, India (AP) — India’s undisputed tourist hot spot, and the tiniest state in the world’s largest democracy, is voting Monday to elect a new government with an eye toward restoring an economy ravaged by the pandemic and saving the environment threatened by an unbridled real estate boom.

More than 1.1 million voters in the western Goa state will decide who among the 301 contestants can help save their ecologically fragile coastal land that is struggling to cope with uncontrolled tourism.

It's one of five Indian states voting in phases in February and March in what is seen as a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party ahead of general elections expected in 2024. Results will be declared on March 10.

“The locals can’t afford an apartment or a house or a plot of land in Goa anymore since the real estate prices have been driven sky high by those who want a slice of this paradise,” said Atish Fernandes, who runs the popular Joseph Bar in capital Panjim.

The state has a population of less than 2 million but hosted more than 8 million tourists in 2019, before the pandemic shuttered restaurants and rendered thousands jobless. Hundreds died last year due to frequent disruptions in oxygen supplies at the Goa Medical College COVID-19 facility.

The travel and tourism industry, the lifeline of Goa’s economy, is slowly recovering but not all jobs have come back.

Goa has also emerged as a preferred second home destination for India’s affluent middle class, fueling frenetic construction activity. Fernandes said land rights are a major issue for every Goan since the new wealth is mostly being generated from the sale of ancestral lands, real estate development or brokerage to feed a growing demand.

At a campaign rally in the heart of Goa on...