Who are they fooling? - March 4, 2008

Eye Spy appears in Gomantak Times every Monday

Windfall
Want to know why so many ministers want to build Ravindra Bhavans in their backyards, the bigger the better? It provides a free flow of money into their pockets. You can hardly get enough potable water, and when you do it is not drinkable as per WHO standards. Owners of individual homes have to incur huge expenditure on wells, pipelines, pumps, towers and storage tanks; plus maintenance costs. What really does government do for you? Yet, the estimated cost of the Ravindra Bhavan being built at Fatorda is Rs131,168,774. The tendered cost/work order value is Rs171,701,321. Here's an example also of how comfy life is made for the ruling class in paradise. The cabin and green house for the director -who will undoubtedly be a political mandarin- will cost Rs 364,245. The greenbacks that are to be made can, well, make you green about the gills. The estimated cost of the stage lighting, drapery, acoustics etc is Rs20,098,042. The tendered cost is Rs23,757,726. The figures for acoustics insulation with water proofing to the roofing are Rs1,614,105 and Rs1,692,900. If that was meant to make you green with envy, this will make you gnash your teeth. The tendered cost for installing a fire hydrant system is Rs3,290,846. If eventually there will be no water to feed the hydrant, surely there must be a huge windfall here. The air conditioning was tendered at Rs10,104,137. Brrr. Finally, the estimated cost of the Ravindra Bhavan (civil works only) is Rs67,542,401. The tendered cost Rs105,649,050. All this to sit 1100 well heeled on 28,454 sq mts land acquired from the aam aadmi for peanuts.

Aid and abet
Why is Bharati Shipyard so keen to push ahead with its expansion plans in Chicalim? There are several factors. It wants to invest Rs1,500 cr in shipbuilding because with an estimated $5 billion worth of export orders currently, the shipbuilding industry in India is on cloud nine. Bharati's shipyards' are located at Ghodbunder, near Mumbai, Ratnagiri and Kolkata. Besides, a Rs600 cr Greenfield project is being set up at the Mangalore SEZ (believe me these fully-exempt-from-tax, for export-only hand-outs come shrouded in many ways) for which it intends to dismantle and transfer the entire machinery from the 130-year old Swan Hunter (Tyneside) Shipyard Ltd it acquired last year. The asset buyout saves costs and time taken to set up a new shipyard. It also tied up with Apeejay Shipping to build a Rs2,000 cr shipyard on the east coast. With these kinds of expansion plans, rumours have it, Bharati is willing to bankroll the political clout needed?

Your enemy's enemy is my friend
The consequence of this is the back-door incorporation of the no objection to Bharati building a supposed shipbuilding institute in the memorandum of understanding, MPT signed with the Mormugao Bachao Abhiyan (MBA) that never for an instant set out to fight this issue in the first place. The MBA that has no jurisdiction over Chicalim was launched only to stop the fishing jetty from being built at Vaddem, in Vasco. The Chicalim Villagers Action Committee formed before the MBA to stop Bharati's expansion plans, claims the company is destroying the breeding ground of several species of shellfish; that the shipbuilding institute is nothing but a deception to further its expansion plans. In the event, Goa's coastline and rivers have been degraded by a succession of shams, before they were exposed, in the past and present. Then suddenly from out of this funded political clout emerges a counter-group claiming the institute will - low and behold - train locals to become welders. It produced this 22-carat nugget: that shipbuilding is eco-friendly. A former electrician of the very same Tyneside shipyard won £1m damages after developing a fatal asbestos-related lung cancer. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma and is only likely to live until early 2009. The judge giving the ruling said he was in close proximity to insulation fitters and others working with asbestos at the yard.

Little knowledge is a dangerous thing
As for the canard about the institute producing local welders, arguably the most health and occupational hazardous job in the industry. Here's news for them. Shipbuilding today is about computer numerical cutting machines, submerged arc welding and auto-cut where drawings are computerized. About, modular style of construction in which entire blocks are prefabricated and jointed into sections. It has moved a long time ago out of welding individual plates together. If you missed the point, it's all about reducing workforce. As for shipbuilding being eco-friendly. Not true either. Workers are exposed to asbestos in eight different ways, exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls in seven ways and also exposed to lead. Here's another thought for them: will a company willing to transship equipment and machinery all the way from England to save costs and time, set up a high-cost training institute, when the Institute of shipbuilding Technology in Vasco can train eight welders simultaneously in eight specially equipped booths? Does it need 44,000 sq mts (it has a total of 1,39,170 sq mts) for this? In fact ISBT has for decades been training welders and other categories of workforce for the industry.

Oil struck in Bogmolo?
A couple of days before someone decided to call in the media, I saw a migrant worker filling, by skimming off residues floating on the water, two bottles of fuel at the ancient spring in Palimand, Bogmolo, that in my opinion looks more combustible than high speed diesel oil or petrol. Media reports varied on which. Obviously that someone knew the cat was out of the bag because the problem is older than what sarpanch Laxman kavlekar claims it was. Perilously, the tanks are at least 1 km or more away and therefore the leaks could spread elsewhere. How far, could not be ascertained because the Navy will not allow anyone inside its base. There is explosive danger here that the Navy and the Cortalim MLA Mauvin Godinho must resolve quickly and go beyond the now almost daily photo-opportunity. The leaking fuel has already contaminated a private well nearby, a fact hidden from journalists. Earlier the well of the St. Cosme and Damian Church a distance away was contaminated. Evidently, some one or some persons in the Bogmolo and Chilcona panchayat are covering up their tracks.

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