Associated Press
Land rights, environment top election agenda in India’s Goa
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.